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What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

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Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#111

Post by freditup »

colordrops wrote: post #80
eikenberry wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to elaborate on IBM "Work Life Integration (tm)" and why it caused the mass exodus?

A quick google search seems to indicate that IBM wanted to allow their employees more flexibility with their schedules and ability to take leaves. I don't understand how this is a bad thing.

I worked for IBM for a period and all the teams I was around were very family-friendly when it came to work/life balance. Much more so than other younger/cooler tech companies I've worked for and read about. There were downsides at IBM for sure, but this wasn't one of them.

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#112

Post by bro-stick »

johnward wrote: post #96
funkysquid wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it strange that large companies envy the things smaller shops are able to do, and they'll spend the money to buy them up, but they won't spend the time to understand the culture that let them build what they built. Put employees first and you'll find they can do some pretty amazing things.

No only that. You will see some mega corp acquire some smaller company for their proprietary tech. Then replace that tech with something else, often open source, or just not use the technology they acquired at all. Are they just going for acquihire? Swallowing up competitors? It blows my mind.

It might be jealousy combined with power to destroy something cool and maybe eliminate something a competitor might leverage. If they're fewer cool companies thriving, it makes the sucky behemoths look less terrible by comparables.

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#113

Post by rilut »

rynop wrote: post #29

former IBM dev here (6 years in different areas). I hope they let you work on an island and don't force you to use their tooling/approve listed of open source software. IBM has long embraced the OSS community (I loved LTC), but the process to release/use anything OSS was not good (to put it nicely) and was one of the many reasons I left. I worked on a project that was on an island, and while it was more efficient tha…

Sorry, what is work on an island?

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#114

Post by beginpanic »

johnward wrote: post #97
granos wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We were in their software services vertical (I forget the name)...the one that had never turned a profit and wasn't sexy. I've known one person who had a great experience on the Watson team. So maybe its a different experience?

Were you on a CAMSS team? That seems to be the best area inside of IBM right now as it's a strategic growth area. This includes the Watson PS team I'm on.

As an IBMer, many of the complainers I've heard and much of the heartburn around layoffs come from outside of CAMSS. It's like folks at Apple complaining that the iPod team isn't treated as well as the iPad team. Of course, your group isn't making money.

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#115

Post by beginpanic »

jsalit wrote: post #67
cuongpm wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About your point about Lotus Notes: I interned at IBM 3 times, and was never forced to use Lotus Notes. No one whom I worked with at IBM used Lotus Notes either. We used either Open Office or MS Office. The most popular IBM software we used was SameTime for instance messaging and it was actually not bad at all.

IBM still uses Notes for email, and a lot of legacy database-like applications. There's Notes-based webmail, but it's still Notes.

The new Notes-based webmail is Verse. It's not horrible. It's not great. It's just bad in different ways than Notes was.

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#116

Post by beginpanic »

mbubb wrote: post #109

From the customer side - I dealt with Netezza and Softlayer before and after IBM acquisition. In both cases an almost palpable drain in support and intelligence. I hate to say it like that as i know that there are brilliant folks in IBM (Watson, etc) Softlayer and Netezza in different ways were smart, nimble and fearless companies. You had real relationships with the engineers. I got to know Netezza folks in Massachu…

I hear you on the support side. I used to work for a company that used a product that was bought by IBM. Before that, you could pick up the phone and talk to the lead developer. After, you opened a support ticket online and waited 24-48 hours for a response from someone in Costa Rica or India. Now I work at IBM with this same product, and even I as an employee who supports the product, even I have to go through the same Level 1 tech support crap.

However, the cash injection made the core product worlds better, and it was good to begin with. Support got worse, the product got better. It's almost an even balance.

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#117

Post by jestar_jokin »

darkr wrote: post #86
sk5t wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be thinking about the Office-like companion to Notes, Symphony. AFAIK (going from some Name/Location/BU-looking email addresses) IBM still uses Lotus Notes for email. Lotus Notes is actually quite good when used properly and in moderation, but it really does not set a positive tone culturally.

Notes is _terrible_ from a UI perspective. The server side (domino) though was light-years ahead of anything in terms of ideas at least. Combining a CA, distributed, document-oriented database(think mongodb, couchdb), LDAP server, web server and mail server that supports IMAP, POP, SMTP as well as the proprietary encrypted notes protocol.

Agreed. I worked in Lotus Domino for a short while, and it was absolutely amazing for Rapid Application Development of anything that required e-mail and storing documents (or kinda "schemaless" data). It was even supported multiple languages (a declarative "Formula" language, a Visual Basic derived "LotusScipt", and Java(!)).

You could write a decent Lotus Domino app that served up web pages, so users wouldn't have to use the awful Lotus Notes client.

Amusingly, in I think Lotus Notes 8, they revitalised the GUI by replacing it with... Eclipse RCP. Hrmm.

I did witness some monstrosities, though...

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#118

Post by DannyBee »

granos wrote: post #83
colordrops wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A quick google search seems to indicate that IBM wanted to allow their employees more flexibility with their schedules and ability to take leaves. I don't understand how this is a bad thing.

The problem was their justification. It went something along the lines of "Employees are often thinking about their personal lives while at work, so they should also be thinking about their work life while at home." I'm sure the intentions were good, but the presentation was terrible. Also, it was only one of many factors, but its a catchy line so I chose to call that one out. Other include: * Far worse benefits pack…

" * The IP agreement was Draconian (and we aren't in a state with nice moonlighting laws) "

None of these exist in the US (particularly when you work for someone like IBM). Employees who think otherwise are simply misunderstanding the law :)

Re: What the IBM Acquisition of StrongLoop Means for the Node.js Community

#119

Post by utuxia »

bro-stick wrote: post #112
johnward wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No only that. You will see some mega corp acquire some smaller company for their proprietary tech. Then replace that tech with something else, often open source, or just not use the technology they acquired at all. Are they just going for acquihire? Swallowing up competitors? It blows my mind.

It might be jealousy combined with power to destroy something cool and maybe eliminate something a competitor might leverage. If they're fewer cool companies thriving, it makes the sucky behemoths look less terrible by comparables.

i think its just them putting chips on the table then spinning the wheel.
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