06.06.23
Posted in Free/Libre Software, IBM, Red Hat at 4:50 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link | md5sum 04ba31ee1fe1ad6a6d9dc79ad096b315
What We Know About Red Hat Layoffs
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: By abandoning OpenSource.com and OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice IBM sends out a clear signal that it doesn’t understand or simply does not care about the community of Free software users; its siege against the FSF and other institutions never ended and today we look at who’s being laid off or shown the door (the work environment is intentionally being made worse)
THE way IBM has been treating Red Hat leaves much to be desired, especially in more recent years. The layoffs started 3 years ago, but this year there’s another wave and rants at thelayoff.com suggest that many may resign due to worsening work conditions.
More recently people noticed [1] (see bottom of this post) that LibreOffice had become orphaned in Red Hat land. Red Hat tried to explain this [2] and comments from the community (at LWN at least) weren’t exactly favourable [3]. Later came more coverage [4-7].
“Both staff and volunteers who used to be heavily engaged in the project (and visible in Planet Fedora) are gradually disappearing.”To be clear, this mistreatment by Red Hat executives isn’t starting with IBM and LibreOffice; it’s a years-long trend we’ve been taking note of. We recently received more confirmations about OpenSource.com being killed (but cannot elaborate on that for source protection’s sake) and you won’t hear about it from the site or from its staff. There seems to be some NDA, either informal/verbal or formal/written, somewhere out there…
This is also why people don’t know which Fedora ‘consultation’ and ‘coordination’ (with the community) staff got the chop. Management folks keep their attacks on the community mostly silent. Ben Cotton wrote about it publicly. Reading between the lines, he gives away IBM’s lack of interest in Fedora. Both staff and volunteers who used to be heavily engaged in the project (and visible in Planet Fedora) are gradually disappearing. Some get banished after years of volunteer work [1, 2]. IBM is only interested in submissive slaves, not a real community. Why would anyone still invest time contributing to IBM “projects”? █
References:
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“The tradeoff is that we are pivoting away from work we had been doing on desktop applications and will cease shipping LibreOffice as part of RHEL starting in a future RHEL version,” Clasen adds.
LibreOffice will remain maintained and supported in all supported versions of RHEL (and Fedora) with security updates as and when needed.
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as you’ve probably seen, the LibreOffice RPMS have recently been orphaned, and I thought it would be good to explain the reasons behind this.
The Red Hat Display Systems team (the team behind most of Red Hat’s desktop efforts) has maintained the LibreOffice packages in Fedora for years as part of our work to support LibreOffice for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We are adjusting our engineering priorities for RHEL for Workstations and focusing on gaps in Wayland, building out HDR support, building out what’s needed for color-sensitive work, and a host of other refinements required by Workstation users. This is work that will improve the workstation experience for Fedora as well as RHEL users, and which, we hope, will be positively received by the entire Linux community.
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Red Hat’s Matthias Clasan has let it be known that LibreOffice will be dropped from a future Red Hat Enterprise Linux release, and the future of its support in Fedora is unclear as well.
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Red Hat’s discontinuation of maintenance for LibreOffice will also affect Fedora, with the office suite expected to ship as a Flatpak.
LibreOffice, born out of the OpenOffice.org project, has gained immense popularity over the years as a free alternative to proprietary office suites.
Its compatibility with various document formats, robust features, and extensive community support has made it a favored choice for individuals, businesses, and educational institutions.
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The Red Hat Package Managers for LibreOffice “have recently been orphaned,” according to a post by Red Hat manager Matthias Clasen on the “LibreOffice packages” mailing list, “and I thought it would be good to explain the reasons behind this.”
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IBM’s continued war on Desktop Linux has new casualties
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He said the Red Hat Display System team, which looked after most of the company’s desktop efforts, had been maintaining LibreOffice packages for Fedora, as part of its work to support the office suite in RHEL.
“We are adjusting our engineering priorities for RHEL for Workstations and focusing on gaps in Wayland, building out HDR support, building out what’s needed for colour-sensitive work, and a host of other refinements required by Workstation users,” Clasen added.
{loadposition sam08}”This is work that will improve the workstation experience for Fedora as well as RHEL users, and which, we hope, will be positively received by the entire Linux community.”
However, the downside is that “we are pivoting away from work we had been doing on desktop applications and will cease shipping LibreOffice as part of RHEL starting in a future RHEL version. This also limits our ability to maintain it in future versions of Fedora”.
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05.24.23
Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat at 10:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Related: SiliconANGLE is Selling Coverage (Fake ‘Journalism’)
Earlier this week: IBM Loves Microsoft*
Yesterday: The transformational journey of Microsoft and Red Hat: A commitment to open source and cloud technologies (openwashing and “clown”-washing of mass surveillance or imperialism through systemic outsourcing)
A huge proportion of articles and videos in that site are sponsored by the company/ies this coverage is about and sometimes they even disclose this, albeit only at the very bottom (in small fonts). This is no exception:
Summary: SiliconANGLE insists that paying SiliconANGLE money for coverage does not lead to bias, but every sane person who keeps abreast of SiliconANGLE — and I read their entire feed every day — knows that it’s a ludicrous lie (Red Hat/IBM and the Linux Foundation also buy puff pieces and “event coverage” from SiliconANGLE, so it’s marketing disguised as “journalism”
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* As a GNU developer put it in a message to me, “IBM not only loves Microsoft, they might secretly be married! 
Since 2019, I surmised that the Microsoft-led plan is to squash the Free Software Movement and the FSF in order to make the Linux Foundation the centre of FLOSS. That way, Bill [Gates] and company will have complete control. I also believe that the 2019 attacks to remove RMS from the FSF were already in tow when they found opportunity in RMS’ email concerning Epstein and Minsky. What RMS needs is a board that understands the dynamics of management and marketing as well as being strategically savvy in the game of mega corporate power play. People who can’t be bought.”
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05.22.23
Posted in GNU/Linux, IBM, Red Hat at 12:59 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: This recent video covers Fedora and how IBM sabotages the community
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05.18.23
Posted in IBM, Red Hat at 6:05 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link | md5sum fbe64d6ddc2a72ccf4301192fbe00152
Web Demise and Effect on People
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: With sites shutting down, media companies going bankrupt, and more sites dabbling in webspam/chatbots we cannot be optimistic about the future of the Web
THE World Wide Web (WWW) is rotting; in 3 posts yesterday [1, 2, 3] we provided examples of the Web turning into trash. In two of these we focused on “Linux” sites. It’s not easy to find legitimate articles anymore. The problem of re-posted (under a current date) old posts aside, we see lots of fake ‘articles’ and sometimes barely articles at all. Some sites became webspam and others went offline, creating another issue (link rot and Web rot). The Web is actually shrinking over time and the golden era of the Web is well past us.
Recently we focused a bit on IBM, the subject which is discussed in the video above. After kicking out Fedora volunteers (slaves) IBM now fires Fedora staff from Red Hat. This is sabotage. We saw several names of people who lost their job at Red Hat, but one name that got more exposure was Ben Cotton, who incidentally decided that signing a defamatory attack letter (calling on the FSF to oust its founder, RMS) would be a good idea. Seems like joining the anti-RMS brigade did not safeguard his job at IBM, but that’s another story.
“Some sites became webspam and others went offline, creating another issue (link rot and Web rot).”A few days ago we got confirmation that IBM had laid off people whose job was to run some Red Hat sites.
“So IBM is doing to Fedora etc what Oracle tried to do to MySQL and OpenOffice.org,” an associate of ours remarked. “The latter split off a fork and continued as LibreOffice The site / domains under control of IBM are a problem though, they are very valuable and used at this point only to degrade the community.” (This alludes to domains such as OpenSource.com)
“Oracle could have taken on and damaged if not beaten Microsoft in the server space with what it bought from Sun,” the associate continued. “Instead, it allowed Microsoft to hang on by its fingernails in the server space by killing Sparc and MySQL etc. Now IBM seems to be mopping up part of the FOSS space on behalf of Microsoft.”
“Recently we focused a bit on IBM, the subject which is discussed in the video above.”So news sites are being shut down, including sites we routinely linked to.
It has meanwhile been noted that CNET staff fights back because CNET is making computer-generated pages. To quote the now-bankrupt VICE: “Around 100 workers have organized in response to the company’s restructuring plans, massive layoffs, and plans for AI content.”
That’s discussed towards the end of the video above. “Another topic,” the associate said, is why “Wikipedia should either allow LLMs to produce articles or to train on articles, or forbid both, but allowing both creates a nasty feedback loop which realizes all kinds of problems.”
“The future of the Web isn’t bright at all.”“Glyn Moody just wrote about that but missed the above concern,” the associate added, citing Techdirt.
Wikipedia is fast becoming GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) because of Microsoft, which got caught bribing people to lie in Wikipedia. Well, it’s no secret that Wikipedia was already having severe issues with AstroTurfers; expect that to get worse in years to come as human moderators lose patience and throw in the towel. The future of the Web isn’t bright at all. It has been getting worse every year for the past decade or so. █
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05.17.23
Posted in IBM, Red Hat at 1:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: It is now confirmed that IBM (Red Hat) is shutting down long-running sites that focus on community, GNU/Linux, and so on; but OpenSource.com is still silent on the matter
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05.15.23
Posted in IBM, Red Hat at 7:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video download link | md5sum 7fb515e7322d72b20a16ed1370af628f
Not the Open Source Way
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0
Summary: The most disturbing aspect of what IBM does to the community (users of CentOS, volunteers in Fedora, readers of OpenSource.com etc.) is the lack of media coverage; IBM has captured a number of ‘news’ sites that mindlessly promote IBM (barely disclosing the sponsorship) and almost nobody questions IBM’s motives
THIS year we did not write much about IBM, but over a week ago we noticed that last month’s layoffs had an effect on OpenSource.com (Open Source Way) and other sites of Red Hat.
Knowing that the media barely covers or doesn't cover IBM layoffs (the layoffs are not reported until/unless they are very, very considerable), we decided to write about it and today we publish a video. That’s not unlike Microsoft by the way. Microsoft must have fired 20,000-30,000 people this year alone (4.5 months) if one counts temps and contractors. Microsoft is collapsing but it is rigging/cheating the market, bribing the media, defrauding shareholders, and worse. Where’s the media?
“Microsoft is collapsing but it is rigging/cheating the market, bribing the media, defrauding shareholders, and worse. Where’s the media?”Generally speaking, the only community IBM understands is the “shareholders community”.
Earlier today we wrote about Ben Cotton and his important role in Fedora, not just his past role in OpenSource.com. Why did IBM let him go? Why is OpenSource.com, among other sites, inactive? By now, we think, dozens of blogs or news site should have written something about this. The same is true for Linux.com, which back in 2019 became inactive. Where was the media back then? That just comes to show what sort of “media” is left… a lot of defectors (journalists-turned-marketers). SJVN too has become a stenographer of the Linux Foundation because that’s where the money is.
“The video above speaks about the track record of IBM before ranting about the lack of media scrutiny.”So we’ve ended up with ‘news’ sites that fail to investigate/report Microsoft layoffs, fail to condemn massive bank bailouts, and while Microsoft keeps attacking Linux nobody says a thing, except lies (“Microsoft loves Linux”). 20+ years ago when SCO filed the infamous lawsuit there was still media online. The same was true when Iraq was invaded. When important news goes under the radar society is worse off. When it comes to the EPO, we’ve become almost a sole voice. Why don’t news sites explain what’s going on there? A decade ago they used to actually cover scandals, but they suddenly stopped mentioning the EPO except when EPO management paid them to produce/reprint some piece.
When sites like OpenSource.com and Linux.com just die so quietly (no pushback) one has to wonder to what degree corporations’ sheer power squashed the press and the Web. The video above speaks about the track record of IBM before ranting about the lack of media scrutiny. █
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Posted in IBM, Red Hat at 7:28 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: IBM seems to have shut down OpenSource.com (it’s online but inactive; nobody works on it anymore). The Linux Foundation did the same to Linux.com in 2019 and then trashed it (because it doesn’t care about Linux, except as a brand to milk).
THIS does not shock us, but it certainly saddens us. IBM doesn’t seem to mind the fact that Red Hat revenue is growing, according to IBM. Red Hat is suffering layoffs and too little information is provided about what or who is impacted.
It has been sad to see this as we’ve noted both the layoffs and the fate of opensource.com. Now it is becoming increasingly confirmed that IBM does to “Open Source” what it did to CentOS a couple of years ago.
“Wikipedia says that in December last year IBM had 288,300 employees.”To explain our allegation quite succinctly, bear in mind opensource.com (where Ben Cotton played a prominent role) has not been active for quite some time, which is extremely unusual. The timing gave a clue because of the announcement of layoffs. Days ago Ben Cotton wrote a blog post saying he was among those who had been deemed “redundant” (that’s absurd as he’s a very essential worker).
“No activity since April 23, i.e. the layoffs.”My wife has been reading opensource.com every day for nearly a decade and Cotton is one of the first people who came to her mind in relation to this site because he used to be very active there (a lot less in recent years). She says she loved his articles, so it’s a tragic loss for IBM. Could they find nothing else at their oversized company to ‘cut’? Wikipedia says that in December last year IBM had 288,300 employees. So why give Ben Cotton the pink slip? He too is baffled by this.
Yesterday Phoronix also mentions Ben Cotton being laid off (50 or more comments there, but we’d rather not link to Phoronix).
He’s the only one (so far) that we saw speaking about this in public. Did IBM offer them some severance package that mandates silence (other opensource.com people probably also lost their job)?
Seeing that the opensource.com Web site has not been active for quite some time, we’re taken a look at the Twitter account, which is stale.
And they only link to old articles, nothing new. Even a bot could do this. They post only about one “tweet” per day and the stuff isn’t new. Notice that the profile links to a Mastodon instance.
Mind the dates. Yes, that’s right. No activity since April 23, i.e. the layoffs. So we’ve checked if they reply to someone, e.g. question/s about site stoppage, but no replies can be found in either Twitter or the Fediverse. No response to anybody. That does not look too good. █
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05.08.23
Posted in Free/Libre Software, IBM, Red Hat at 9:33 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Revisiting what we wrote last week, we find no activity since then (in sites that typically publish several times per day)
AMERICANS do not celebrate any holiday today. So what’s going on? Did OpenSource.com get killed by ICBM (IBM has been somewhat of a destructive missile/rocket in recent years*)? Just like Linux.com was killed by Sheela Microsoft and James Zemlin from the anti-Linux Foundation in 2019? Not a single article this Monday. Highly unusual. Let’s wait and see though. Time will tell. Notice last month’s frequency (2 posts per day):
That was pre-layoffs levels, unlike now:
Other Red Hat sites also seem to have been quiet/inactive since the layoffs. Before the layoffs:
After (today):
My wife wondered aloud today, what happened to Don Watkins, David Both, Phil Shapiro, Rikki Endsley, and Ben Cotton? Some seem to have done relocations (moving to another part of the company to survive in it). Can someone enlighten us about internal affairs? █
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* ICBM cannot be genuinely trusted with Free software and barely with “Open Source” either. ICBM never profited from offering freedom to people, to companies and so on. Sadly, we’re seeing the same across the board. The OSI, for instance, takes bribes from companies like Salesforce and Microsoft, proprietary giants that also work for ICE, then engages in openwashing PR. Today’s OSI (not the same as before!) exists to harm the brand Open Source, showering the worst offenders with all the “open” badges. OSI is obsolete. It needs to dissolve. It sold out when Patrick left. Its co-founder Bruce Perens explained what had happened [1, 2, 3]. As for the so-called ‘Linux’ Foundation, it has basically been milking the “Linux” brand into oblivion (their biggest conference is not Linux-related). OSI does the same with “Open Source”. When the milking is done nothing will be left. Some people, like James (Jim Zemlin) and Stefano, will have a higher bank balance. Stefano has failed to justify this to me when I had lengthy correspondences with him. We might as well refer to today’s OSI as the “Microsoft lobbying group called OSI”. It is still trying to legitimise Microsoft’s attack on the GPL, helping Microsoft in a class action lawsuit that helps GitHub’s proprietary entrapment agenda. OSI is the enemy of its own (original) mission.
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