Irving Wladawsky-Berger
blog.irvingwb.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2010
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a former IBM executive, writes about technology, the economy, AI, and public policy.
What HN saysHN commenters cite it for data on corporate creative destruction and IBM's Linux bet, without giving an opinion of the blog itself.
17HN people shared it
3linked it in comments
17stories submitted
125story points
4 months agolast shared
2010people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Extreme Scale Computing2 people · 17 points · first shared 2010 · 3 comments on HN
- 2Language Is a Tool for Communication, Not for Thinking2 people · 4 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 3Where Is Technology Taking the Economy?1 people · 45 points · first shared 2017 · 56 comments on HN
- 4The Rise of the T-Shaped Organization (2015)1 people · 19 points · first shared 2022 · 6 comments on HN
- 5The Co-Evolution of Humans and Our Tools (2011)1 people · 17 points · first shared 2024 · 2 comments on HN
- 6The Impact of Open Source on the EU Economy1 people · 11 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 7Human-AI Decision Systems1 people · 3 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 8Irving Wladawsky-Berger: AI and Public Policy1 people · 2 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 9The Simple, Economic Value of Artificial Intelligence1 people · 1 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 10Artificial Intelligence: Realistic Expectations vs. Irrational Exuberance1 people · 1 points · first shared 2024 · 1 comments on HN
- 11Human-Machine Work Teams1 people · 1 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 12Big Data and the 21st Century Information-based Society1 people · 1 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 13The Future of Self-Driving Cars and Robotaxis1 people · 1 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 14The Impact of Open Source on the Future of AI1 people · 1 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 15Does Automation Replace or Augment Expertise?1 people · 1 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
ghaff · 2023-03-03
At the time of the SCO lawsuit, IBM had already made a huge bet on Linux. [1] Basically, that's why SCO sued them. And they had their own Unix (AIX) which they could have ported to x86 if they had wanted to--but they didn't.
Here's what the person who headed IBM's Linux initiative told me a couple of years back:
And I still remember very well in December of ‘99, I called Sam Palmisano, the head of IBM Systems Group. And I said, Sam, the task force recommends that we should embrace Linux. And Sam said, okay, Irving, we will do that. But you have to now come over and run an IBM Linux initiative. And I said to Sam, okay, we were pretty much done with our internet strategy. So I was no longer needed to run the Internet division And I said to Sam, when do you want to announce it? And Sam said, how about now? And I said Sam. It's the Christmas holidays. Maybe we should wait until the new year. And in the second week of January of 2000, we made a major announcement saying that IBM would embrace Linux across all of these offerings. And in fact, later that month in January of 2000, I gave a keynote at LinuxWorld, which was taking place in the Javits Center in New York City, about IBM’s Linux initiative.
[1] https://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2006/01/ibms_linux_init.html
socalgal2 · 2026-07-05
4.4% turn over per year, 22% in 5 years
https://www.exchangecapital.com/blog/why-the-sp-500-isnt-what-you-thin…
and accelerating
https://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2020/01/the-pace-of-creative-destructio…
ctoth · 2026-01-27
> But anyway, it already costs half compared to last year
You could not have bought Claude Opus 4.5 at any price one year ago I'm quite certain. The things that were available cost half of what they did then, and there are new things available. These are both true.
I'm agreeing with you, to be clear.
There are two pieces I expect to continue: inference for existing models will continue to get cheaper. Models will continue to get better.
Three things, actually.
The "hitting a wall" / "plateau" people will continue to be loud and wrong. Just as they have been since 2018[0].
[0]: https://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2018/09/a-critical-appraisal-of-deep-le…