[johnnyAghands]

> Whitehurst, on the other hand, has a history of strong execution across multiple industries, and built a reputation as someone who protected Red Hat's culture against attempts from within IBM to "Big Blueify" it (possibly to the detriment of his own role within IBM). Even as an interim, having him onboard is a good sign for how Unity is looking to repair its relationships with developers.

100%

I was at IBM at the time. We really hoped he would eventually take over from Ginni once she left... nope. We really could have used someone who wasn't drinking the blue koolaid. Well.. the rest is history.

All this other crap about Silver Lake being a giant POS is concerning though.

[bonzini]

Arvind Krishna seems like a pretty cool guy though, and definitely has engineering background.

It's interesting that everybody focuses on Red Hat after acquisition but no one ever asks how IBM is doing now. Maybe it's delusional to think that Red Hat could change something of its new overlord, but perhaps the acquisition was already showing the desire to change IBM from within?

[viridian]

IBM is doing okay, but not great. Their fiscal peak was a decade ago, and in terms of real dollars they aren't even at pre covid numbers yet. And on what little I know of the mainframe side, IBM is still very IBM-like, except they will now occasionally concur with consultants who point out places mainframe consumers are needlessly spending money.

[johnnyAghands]

It just felt like more of the same. I left soon after (2020) so perhaps things are changing. Was gutted to leave, IBM was always one of those mythical places to work for me, but in the end I made the right choice. Perhaps one day I'll go back, ha who knows!