VMware has been one of the few companies to be bought by an old dinosaur of tech (Dell) and so far, managed to survive. It helps that they're much closer to equal with Dell than RedHat and IBM, but I'm pretty sure RedHat knew exactly what they were doing when they decided to let IBM in the door.
IBM Is Already Gutting Red Hat and Firing Employees Without Warning
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Re: IBM Is Already Gutting Red Hat and Firing Employees Without Warning
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, we don't think the linux community and companies are much different from century-old business-process company with 1/3 million employees? Is this really a question, or just pedantry?
Yeah, but 'Silicon Valley' isn't the term to use for that. I don't know why you think it would be? Silicon Valley is also huge old companies built with massive defence contracts. If you think Silicon Valley is mostly small startups you're mistaken.
So, just pedantry. Thanks for clarifying!
Re: IBM Is Already Gutting Red Hat and Firing Employees Without Warning
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think they're referring to "Silicon Valley" in the cultural sense, not the geographic one.
That's an interesting thing to think about. Are they really like silicon valley companies? I wonder if north carolina culture is actually the same. and IBM... hmmm...
The only IBM people that I have worked with had their office in North Carolina.
Re: IBM Is Already Gutting Red Hat and Firing Employees Without Warning
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
What pension? I don’t think that’s a common US benefit. https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/usbenefits
It says in your own link - 401k, which is a type of pension.
401ks don't have vesting though. At worst the match might be in December so people who are laid off mid-year lose half a year of matching.
Re: IBM Is Already Gutting Red Hat and Firing Employees Without Warning
#45A giant corporation buys a Silicon Valley company, the result is generally carnage. The old-boy marketing-driven process-heavy big company will roll out decisions like a bowling ball careening across a cafeteria, knocking over tables and chairs and sending people running for cover. Since big companies are driven by managers not engineers, and the managers are always, always from the bigger company, the decisions are…
I have yet to be in a buyout where I didn't end up feeling like livestock. The sale is good for people owning enough stock so that the only reason they show up tomorrow is because the new owners put conditions on the sale.
For everyone else it's not good news. Even the hope that they will fix things that have been bothering you? Those will all be open for debate. As will all of the things you've already gotten resolved. You'll be lucky if they fix as many things as they break.
Re: IBM Is Already Gutting Red Hat and Firing Employees Without Warning
#46not just IBM, but the link to the microsoft layoffs is kind of mind blowing: http://techrights.org/2020/08/02/microsoft-layoffs-secrecy/ >“Microsoft rarely, if ever, allows anyone working there to reach 55 and have their pension become vested.” >“Microsoft was twice as likely to lay you off if you were over 40.” >“Cortana is an analytics and telemetry app that data mines people while pretending to be a digital assist…
"Cortana is an analytics and telemetry app that data mines people while pretending to be a digital assistant" I am stunned that anyone here believes that any of the digital assistants are anything other than data ingestion and analysis vehicles.
Owning a web search box is valuable because you have customers coming to you making some request that can often be satisfied by the sale of a product or service. It’s the perfect advertising opportunity - much more effective than throwing ads at customers that aren’t actively looking for your product. That’s why Google makes the big bucks. It’s also why Goggle pays Apple billions for the privilege of answering queries in the iOS search box - so it can sell ads on that traffic. And this is why Google had to make Android, so they don’t have to pay for all mobile search usage. Also, Amazon is now making billions selling ads on the Amazon product search traffic. There are other uses for the data from search intent, but none of it generates cash like directly selling ads on those searches.
Now apply this context to the voice assistant market. If computer interactions shift from the web to voice, the digital assistant is the new search box. Being the company who creates the leading digital assistant means you’re in the position of getting paid billions for that traffic, rather than paying billions to get it.
In short, I think the idea that voice assistants must exist to obtain new kinds of data misses the point. The creators of these services are going to want to collect data to train models, to debug, etc. but it’s all a means to an end. The end is to put a troll toll in place to extract a chunk of the value of any economic activity organized through the voice assistant. Imagine if AT&T could collect a tax on the value of any service sold over the phone - that’s the kind of economic opportunity we are talking about here. There’s no need to search for other hidden motivations.
Of course, other entities like governments would actually like the ability to listen to all your conversations, so they are going to try to get ahold of this data too.
Re: IBM Is Already Gutting Red Hat and Firing Employees Without Warning
#47A giant corporation buys a Silicon Valley company, the result is generally carnage. The old-boy marketing-driven process-heavy big company will roll out decisions like a bowling ball careening across a cafeteria, knocking over tables and chairs and sending people running for cover. Since big companies are driven by managers not engineers, and the managers are always, always from the bigger company, the decisions are…
>Since big companies are driven by managers not engineers, and the managers are always, always from the bigger company, the decisions are perceived as clueless.
Not only that. If they had a clue they wouldn't have needed to acquire the company in the first place.
Re: IBM Is Already Gutting Red Hat and Firing Employees Without Warning
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
It says in your own link - 401k, which is a type of pension.
401ks don't have vesting though. At worst the match might be in December so people who are laid off mid-year lose half a year of matching.
Some do (employer contributions).
Re: IBM Is Already Gutting Red Hat and Firing Employees Without Warning
#49people are talking about pensions and what not. honestly, if you want a pension, go work for your local city or county government. in florida, frs is probably the best pension system out there. there are a ton of government position available right now that fall under frs benefits.
Re: IBM Is Already Gutting Red Hat and Firing Employees Without Warning
#50How do the pensions work at Microsoft or IBM? I was under the impression once you vest into a pension you get it come retirement age regardless if at the time you are still working at the company. Otherwise that seems ridiculous, couldn't they just fire you at 54 and you get nothing?
I don't know about MS or IBM specifically, but often pension payouts will increase over time, e.g. when you hit a certain age (or years of service) your pension increases from 50% to 60% of your salary. So laying someone off at 54 wouldn't cause them to lose money per se but they wouldn't get that 10% bump (which is a lot of money multiplied by 20-30 years).