IBM/RedHat I feel good about this
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| penguinist Oct 28, 2018 3:48 PM EDT |
This sound like a good link-up to me. IBM has been a strong supporter of Linux, and it's acquisition of RedHat will infuse cash and market share. IBM has always been strong in the data center and supercomputer spaces where Linux has been the historic leader. It looks like IBM and MS will be the two big gorillas slugging it out over the future of Linux. |
| jdixon Oct 29, 2018 9:46 AM EDT |
It's been obvious for a year or more now that Red Hat was losing their focus (which is why I sold my 15 shares of Red Hat stock), so the purchase by IBM comes at a good time. Whether IBM will be able to manage them properly or whether they'll become another Lotus Notes is an open question. |
| cjcox Oct 29, 2018 12:51 PM EDT |
Not too many years ago, when my company was acquired by IBM, I had an agentless asset inventory system we used that I wrote. I wanted to open source it, but failed to do so prior to acquisition. It was definitely not a "complete tool" and certainly nothing IBM would be interested in, however, now, as an IBMer I sought to get it into the open source world the "IBM way". And what way is that? Well, effectively, there's "no way". I was told over and over and over and over that "IBM doesn't do that". That is, IBM doesn't create open source software. However, they told me that if I wanted to go through the motions that a team of IBM lawyers would be assigned to me, however they could absolutely guarantee the outcome... that is "no". This wold also cost a ton of money. Undeterred, I decided to pursue this. After filing a lot of paperwork and normal back and forth with the lawyers on the paperwork, into the process it went. I quit before the years required to complete. So, what was this piece of cancer curing rocket science? Mostly a bunch of shell scripts and parsing. I know you WANT to believe that IBM is your FOSS friend... I can assure you they are not. The are definitely not. |
| jdixon Oct 29, 2018 1:12 PM EDT |
> I know you WANT to believe that IBM is your FOSS friend... I can assure you they are not. The are definitely not. How can a government created entity that exists merely as an abstract idea with no heart or soul be your friend? Various employees of the company can be your friends. The CEO can be your friend. The board members can be your friends. But all of them are replaceable, and the company itself never can be. There's an organization here in West Virginia that calls itself "Friends of Coal". My response to them is similar. |
| TxtEdMacs Oct 29, 2018 5:32 PM EDT |
I was extremely skeptical for the chance of success for this acquisition upon reading of it. That is, not due to lack of talent on the Red Hat side only the expectation that IBM's presence will be toxic and lead to failure. That remains my view. However, if you would like to read a more optimistic view then check this out: " [...] here is the key issue with this deal: Will IBM allow Red Hat to mostly operate independently … or will IBM do to them what they’ve done to so many other acquisitions and suck the life out of otherwise good companies? " The entire column can be found here: https://www.cringely.com/2018/10/29/red-hat-takes-over-ibm/ Titled: Red Hat takes over IBM by I, Cringely |
| bob Oct 29, 2018 6:16 PM EDT |
TxtEdMacs: I promoted your link to the LXer newswire where it will get better visibility. |
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