Red Hat is Ignoring the Free Software Community, It's a "Fortune 1000" Vendor
A VP at Red Hat (IBM) left some days ago. He was brought onboard - to Red Hat (IBM) - after over 26 years at Microsoft:
Two weeks ago we published "More Microsoft-Red Hat Cross-Pollination as the Company Loses a Managing Director" and we keep seeing Microsoft executives being hired by IBM Red Hat for leading roles. This is troubling for a whole bunch of reasons and we typically talk about it openly.
An hour ago somebody also explained what IBM is doing to Red Hat (IBM, there's enhanced bluewashing in full swing already), in effect choosing "Big Business" at the expense of anybody else or anything else. To quote:
You are mostly correct in that IBM conceded their relationships with customers except the fortune 1000 to partners. Just look at the purchase of Redhat. IBM mapped Redhat 1100 biggest customers on day 1 and ignored everyone else. Using partners kept the direct sales costs down, BUT at an expense. The expense was Partners only acted in their own self interest, and as time moved on IBM had less and less influence over them. Currently the partner channel has zero allegiance to IBM, and instead goes to where the margins are best. (why fight the tape) YEP that is usually a Linux on Intel solution that the ISV’s are pushing. The fortune 1000 and IBM still have a very good working relationship and that shows up in the revenue profile. 85% of IBM’s revenue comes from the fortune 1000. Again IBM is not going to fight the tape, but rather will cover those fortune 1000 customers worldwide up with consultants and modernization recommendations. There is a reason IBM during their quarterly calls says 80% of the revenue is baked into their results on the first day of the quarter (eg fortune 1000 relationships and legacy spend). You can conclude two things from this1. If you are a fortune 1000 worldwide customer, you can get IBM to focus on your needs and bend IBM to your will as you pay the bills
2. If you are a non-fortune 1000 worldwide customer IBM has divorced you to the channel, and could care less about your success because you don’t pay the bills
Red Hat used to present itself as working for a community. It ran sites to that effect. As an integral part of IBM, Red Hat works for the likes of Microsoft. This has become increasingly visible. Red Hat's blog also participates a lot in promoting of Wall Street's latest pump-and-dump "AI" scheme. █