From my experience, 6 years is about right, maybe a slighty longer than normal.
When IBM purchased Lotus, they pretty left it alone left it alone for 5 years. In 2000 changes started to be forced on Lotus and in a year or two, it was gone.
So, IBM bought RH in 2019, it is now 2025, that seems to have followed their play book almost exactly. I also think other large acquisition proceeded the same way.
Well, luckily there are other distros out there should IBM/RHEL stumble during this "assimilation".
FWIW, IBM knows they are a dinosaur and are trying to rectify that. They are hiring competent execs from outside and putting them in very high positions in the org in an attempt to remake IBM to be a more nimble tech company.
I'm not sure that'll be enough to save them. I've known various people who've worked there in different departments - dev, accounting, UX - and none of them had anything good to say about the company or its culture. My impression of IBM is that it's completely rotten.
Yet they keep leading in patents per year, being the only major alternative to Oracle in Java, one of the major contributors to key Linux subsystems (kernel and everything else mostly done by Red-Hat like GNOME and GCC),....
> According to a communication sent to employees, those in General & Administrative areas will join IBM, including the lion's share of the people working in the HR, finance, accounting, and legal units at Red Hat.
Retired Red Hatter here. I hope IBM learns a few things from the Red Hatters they onboard. HR especially had some neat ideas, like ‘Recharge Week’, nearly universal shutdown of the company over Christmas.
I'm surprised it took this long. It is/was inevitable.
From my experience, 6 years is about right, maybe a slighty longer than normal.
When IBM purchased Lotus, they pretty left it alone left it alone for 5 years. In 2000 changes started to be forced on Lotus and in a year or two, it was gone.
So, IBM bought RH in 2019, it is now 2025, that seems to have followed their play book almost exactly. I also think other large acquisition proceeded the same way.
Well, luckily there are other distros out there should IBM/RHEL stumble during this "assimilation".
There are not many distros investing so much in the ecosystem - really, there is none. This would be a big, big loss.
I can only assume you are correct since my experience with RHEL is limited.
But I believe SUSE should be an OK alternative for some companies.
FWIW, IBM knows they are a dinosaur and are trying to rectify that. They are hiring competent execs from outside and putting them in very high positions in the org in an attempt to remake IBM to be a more nimble tech company.
I'm not sure that'll be enough to save them. I've known various people who've worked there in different departments - dev, accounting, UX - and none of them had anything good to say about the company or its culture. My impression of IBM is that it's completely rotten.
Yet they keep leading in patents per year, being the only major alternative to Oracle in Java, one of the major contributors to key Linux subsystems (kernel and everything else mostly done by Red-Hat like GNOME and GCC),....
I see this happening live- very senior folks are "retiring" in a volume I've never seen before. Will hopefully be good for the company.
Unfortunately, we are not seeing much in the way of a flattened org chart, which is another thing that I believe is holding the company back.
> According to a communication sent to employees, those in General & Administrative areas will join IBM, including the lion's share of the people working in the HR, finance, accounting, and legal units at Red Hat.
So it seems like engineering is still separate?
Yes
And, if you're in the engineering team, then the writing is on the wall in big bold blue letters.
Retired Red Hatter here. I hope IBM learns a few things from the Red Hatters they onboard. HR especially had some neat ideas, like ‘Recharge Week’, nearly universal shutdown of the company over Christmas.
There’s a lot to gain, if it’s allowed.
RIP Ansible, et al.