FUD
from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
FUD
/fuhd/, n.
Defined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own company:
"FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill
in the minds of potential customers who might be considering [Amdahl]
products." The idea, of course, was to persuade them to go with safe
IBM gear rather than with competitors' equipment. This implicit
coercion was traditionally accomplished by promising that Good Things
would happen to people who stuck with IBM, but Dark Shadows loomed
over the future of competitors' equipment or software. See {IBM}.
After 1990 the term FUD was associated increasingly frequently with
{Microsoft}, and has become generalized to refer to any kind of
disinformation used as a competitive weapon.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
FUD
<jargon> /fuhd/ An acronym invented by {Gene Amdahl}
after he left {IBM} to found his own company: "FUD is the
fear, uncertainty, and doubt that {IBM} sales people instill
in the minds of potential customers who might be considering
[Amdahl] products." The idea, of course, was to persuade them
to go with safe IBM gear rather than with competitors'
equipment. This implicit coercion was traditionally
accomplished by promising that Good Things would happen to
people who stuck with IBM, but Dark Shadows loomed over the
future of competitors' equipment or software.
[{Jargon File}]
(1995-05-23)
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
35 Moby Thesaurus words for "fud":
Methuselah, antediluvian, antique, back number, conservative, dad,
dodo, elder, fogy, fossil, fuddy-duddy, granny, has-been, longhair,
matriarch, mid-Victorian, mossback, old believer, old crock,
old dodo, old fogy, old liner, old man, old poop, old woman,
old-timer, patriarch, pop, pops, reactionary, regular old fogy,
relic, square, starets, traditionalist
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