Red Hat Back-Office Team to Be Big and Blue Whether They Like It or Not

Posted4 months agoActive4 months ago

Bender

38 points

13 comments

theregister.comOtherstory

calmmixed

Debate

40/100

IbmRed HatAcquisition

Key topics

Ibm

Red Hat

Acquisition

Red Hat's back-office team is being integrated into IBM, sparking discussion about the implications for Red Hat's engineering team and company culture.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Moderate engagement

First comment

39m

Peak period

0-2h

Avg / period

2.2

Comment distribution13 data points

Loading chart...

Based on 13 loaded comments

Key moments

01Story posted
Sep 8, 2025 at 7:07 PM EDT
4 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Sep 8, 2025 at 7:47 PM EDT
39m after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
7 comments in 0-2h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
Sep 9, 2025 at 1:53 PM EDT
4 months ago
Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (13 comments)

Showing 13 comments

sparrish

4 months ago

1 reply

I'm surprised it took this long. It is/was inevitable.

jmclnx

4 months ago

1 reply

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".

bestouff

4 months ago

1 reply

There are not many distros investing so much in the ecosystem - really, there is none. This would be a big, big loss.

jmclnx

4 months ago

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.

jedberg

4 months ago

2 replies

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.

speff

4 months ago

1 reply

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.

pjmlp

4 months ago

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),....

jonfw

4 months ago

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.

saagarjha

4 months ago

1 reply

> 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?

mattdm

4 months ago

Yes

givemeethekeys

4 months ago

And, if you're in the engineering team, then the writing is on the wall in big bold blue letters.

RickJWagner

4 months ago

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.

lloydatkinson

4 months ago

RIP Ansible, et al.

View full discussion on Hacker News

ID: 45175312Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 4:50:34 PM

Want the full context?

Jump to the original sources

Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.

Open link View on HN