Montag: Kurzschlaf in autonomen Fahrzeugen, Datenhoheit bei Googles reCAPTCHA
Fahrtüchtigkeit nach Kurzschlaf + Google wird DSGVO-konformer + Renault-Verkaufsverbot im Patentstreit + Rückblick auf Oculus VR + Kryptobörse mit Bitcoin-Panne
The flood of #enshittification that #Broadcom unleashed upon #VMware and its customers after acquiring it, and its seismic waves in the whole IT supply chain, are a testament of how bad managers who seek for short-term revenue hikes without thinking of the long-term are walking ticking bombs for the tech industry.
We all know what Broadcom did to VMware after acquiring it. VMware was turned overnight into Broadcom's cash cow, they hiked prices by 3x in some cases, scrapped perpetual licenses, forced all customers into more expensive subscriptions, said that they only wanted to focus on the most profitable customers and fuck everyone else, all while worsening customer support and providing literally zero added value and features to the product.
Basically a parasitic acquisition solely focused on sucking all the vital lymph out of another product - pure Oracle textbook.
When you play such stunts with individual customers, unfortunately, it works most of the times. Individuals don't have much leverage, nor choice if there is too much concentration in a certain market. They may complain, but often they swallow the bitter bite.
Things are different when you play them in huge corporate products that are an integral part of the IT infrastructure we all use.
It turns out that among the businesses who were disgruntled when Broadcom suddenly cancelled their VMware perpetual licenses there was Tesco.
But Tesco didn't acquire VMware licenses directly from Broadcom, of course. They acquired them through a reseller of hardware and software licenses - Computacenter. So Tesco sued them instead for failing to provide them the licenses that they were contractually bound to provide.
Computacenter, on its hand, didn't acquire VMware licenses directly either. They were provided with the Dell servers they sold, as Dell was an authorized VMware reseller. So Computacenter sued Dell.
Dell, on its hand, says that it has no fault if Broadcom has suddenly changed VMware's pricing model, and that they are the ones who broke contracts with the whole downstream supply chain. So Dell sued Broadcom.
And there we go. A chain of 3 lawsuits between 4 giants across the whole IT supply chain in order to call a parasitic company accountable.
What a mess. But I guess that the manager who proposed to squeeze annual recurring revenue got his/her fat quarterly bonus home after things seemed to work for the first year.
This is also your daily reminder that as a sysadmin you must use only FOSS products supported by the community and by strong foundations - and contribute back to them once their success becomes your success too.
Enough with the "but stability - but support - but licenses - but my manager" corporate bullshit.
The cost of writing your own little qemu CI/CD pipeline to spin up your virtual machines is much lower than the risk of your corporate subscription getting suddenly enshittified by chains of wrong financial incentives at any place in your upstream supply chain, and having to spend years of tears on expensive long-chain lawsuits.
And, even if things go bad, the cost of migrating out of proprietary and non-standard implementations is usually much higher than the cost of migrating to a compatible fork.
Freitag: Kritik an eID-Karte wegen Geldwäsche, neues OpenAI-Modell als Bürohilfe
eID-Karte zu einfach zu ergaunern + GPT-5.2 für Profi-Nutzer + Disney gegen Google-KI wegen Copyright + Kritik an EU wegen VMware + Roboter-Bewegungen erklärt
Broadcoms VMware-Übernahme: EU-Kommission soll Warnsignale ignoriert haben
Der Cloud-Verband CISPE greift die EU-Kommission vor Gericht scharf an: Bei der Genehmigung der VMware-Akquisition durch Broadcom habe die Aufsicht versagt.
Mittwoch: Robotaxi-Kooperation für Uber, Nvidia-KI für Nokias Netzwerke
Uber-Hilfe für Robotaxis + Nvidia-Milliarde für Nokia + Jugendschutz sozialer Netze + Probleme mit Softwarelizenzen + Karte der Funklöcher + Bomben gegen Scam
Softwarelizenzen: Bei Microsoft wechselt die Ampel auf Grün, Broadcom bleibt Rot
Das 3. europäische Wettbewerbsbarometer von Cloud-Anbietern unterstreicht verschärfte Probleme bei Broadcom. Lizenzbedingungen von SAP geben Anlass zur Sorge.
Dienstag: OpenAI und Broadcom tun sich zusammen, Anleger verlieren Geld
KI-Chip von OpenAI und Broadcom + Kurseinbruch bei Kryptogeld + Kolumbien mit Drohnenbataillon + Apple-Produkte vor Release + Online-Kriminelle ermittelt
Dienstag: iPhones wohl bald nur mit eSIM, El Salvador sichert Bitcoin-Reserve
SIM-Slot-lose iPhones in der EU + El Salvador schützt seine Bitcoins + London will Vollzugriff auf iCloud + Chippreise steigen wohl + Absturz der VMware Explore
Microsofts Volumenlizenzen für Online-Dienste vor dem Aus
Microsoft glättet die Preisstrukturen und schafft Volumenlizenzen im November ab. Betroffen sind Enterprise Agreement und Microsoft Products Services Agreement.
"Von Bitnami müssen wir uns allerdings verabschieden"
Broadcom vermarktet Bitnami künftig kommerziell und Anwender suchen Alternativen. Die Community muss gemeinsam eine Lösung finden, meint Johannes Kleinlercher.
Broadcoms VMware-Übernahme: EU-Cloudanbieter verklagen die Kommission
Der CISPE-Verband europäischer Cloudanbieter zieht vors EU-Gericht, weil die Kommission den milliardenschweren Kauf von VMware durch Broadcom genehmigt hat.
Broadcom: Ethernet-Chip mit ultra niedriger Latenz für riesige KI-Cluster
Broadcom stellt einen Ethernet-Switch-Chip mit niedriger Latenz und 51,2 Tbit/s Transferrate vor: ein Angriff auf Nvidias proprietäre KI-Cluster-Technik.