You should never name a tech product Bob in the UK, because the moment it isn't perfect, it'll just get called "Bobbins" [0], especially where I'm from.
I wish IBM got better at product again, and took themselves off the services and consulting morphine they've been on for ~35 years now since OS/2 Warp flopped. Their 1980s/1990s hardware was great. Their software actually was great until Win95 took their lunch money. They've just slunk off into a corner hugging their old architectures they have a moat around, and thrown out some audacious nonsense like Watson now and again, but nothing has stuck. When is somebody in that organisation going to try and innovate properly again?
I'm not sure this is the answer I'd be rooting for.
Also in the UK and never heard of this in my life. Guessing this is very regional?
amelius 2 minutes ago [-]
Companies trying to make AI less of a commodity that you can just swap out for another ...
No thanks, that's what I like about AI so I'll just stay with the raw tokens.
Ciantic 57 minutes ago [-]
This sounds a lot like Spotify's XIRP. They managed to vibe something useful for their own engineers, were super hyped, and decided to release it in public. However what are the odds this harness will stand the test of time against actual harness makers like OpenAI or Anthropic? Neither Spotify or IBM are focused on making models or harnesses, these are just side-products.
qsort 34 minutes ago [-]
To be fair Codex and Claude Code don't have a lot of secret sauce either. This is not to say that the harness doesn't matter at all or that you can't do any better, but whenever they benchmark it always turns out that you don't lose that much with even a very minimal agent. If a different harness makes better sense for your workflow I don't see why you wouldn't switch (or make your own if you have the resources to do so).
I'm also sticking to first-party agents, but that's more because I feel no compelling reason to switch and CLI agents fit well with my spartan technology choices. YMMV.
abtinf 17 minutes ago [-]
> actual harness makers
I agree IBM Bob is not the revolution, but…
We are still in the punch card era of LLMs. Maybe even the Altair era.
None of this stuff has really been figured out yet.
natsucks 15 minutes ago [-]
Yes my first instinct is to roll my eyes at these efforts but we'll probably all get something better in the end from all the competition.
amelius 3 minutes ago [-]
Looks like LEGO's lawyers will knock on their door soon.
meerita 10 minutes ago [-]
Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Meta, all the giants are always coming late to the party.
absoluteunit1 10 minutes ago [-]
The landing/marketing page for this looks like something someone promoted/vibe coded including the Bob mascot.
Looks awful from a design perspective. Had to double check that this was the actual IBM domain
Stevvo 56 minutes ago [-]
Interesting they are renting out agent skills. You can pick up "Java Modernization" at $20 a month for "Specialist workflows to help with modernizing Java applications", or "IBM i" for "Specialist modes, workflows, and skills to work with IBM i applications".
qsort 42 minutes ago [-]
markdown as a service is crazy
closetheloopdev 35 minutes ago [-]
I lol'd so hard at this comment that it hurt.
getatme32 38 minutes ago [-]
IBM hasn't made a product that works since Db2 so I am fairly confident this is a flaming pile of garbage.
exakoustos 11 minutes ago [-]
The "What developers say" carousel has a single Java dev and dev advocate. They got lots of quotes from managers, directors, CEOs, and an "AI strategist".
PaulRobinson 9 minutes ago [-]
It's IBM. They leveraged synergies with the thought leaders they could reach out and touch base with.
a012 1 hours ago [-]
Nobody got fired for using IBM Bob
someguyiguess 44 minutes ago [-]
Pretty sure a lot of people got fired over Microsoft Bob though
hn_throw2025 38 minutes ago [-]
Well, you could say Melinda got a big promotion for a while.
glitchc 25 minutes ago [-]
Can we say it's Bob's fault, though? Bob did it, not me.
a012 9 minutes ago [-]
You can
pestatije 32 minutes ago [-]
Nobody who got fired uses IBM Bob
mvk666 11 minutes ago [-]
I was at an IBM Bob party, behind the scenes it's basically other frontier models with an IBM-specific context.
Working with any AI tool means you trust the vendor, sometimes you don't have a choice because the best models/tools are from specific providers. IBM isn't a company I would ever trust.
herodoturtle 15 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
cisrockandroll 35 minutes ago [-]
Is this just a harness or using a proprietary model in the background? Anthropic and OpenAI are already very well trained in IBM system i and z knowledge. Unless Bob is somehow improving the integration to these midrange and mainframe systems I literally dont see any benefit to using Bob. IBM will just kill this proprietary tech in 5 years as they are currently doing with RDi or forget about updating it like SEU.
sajithdilshan 51 minutes ago [-]
I'm really confused what this is, is it a harness or a new model by IBM? Some reviews on that page suggests that it's a new model
NikolaNovak 5 minutes ago [-]
I believe it sends to various models in the background, So largely a harness / framework. Ibm does have its own model which is one of the options for Bob to use.
(Note, I'm an IBMer but nowhere near this so my comment is strictly from my public knowledge/awareness:).
garciasn 37 minutes ago [-]
[flagged]
brk 1 hours ago [-]
This can only mean that IBM Clippy is next.
basisword 5 minutes ago [-]
Thought this was going to be about Microsoft Bob.[0]
The review that "IBM Bob isn't just another autocomplete tool" tells you everything you need to know about this product. lol.
woggy 29 minutes ago [-]
Bobcoins. Hehe.
skhameneh 45 minutes ago [-]
I’m quite certain it’s a fork of Roo Code which is a fork of Cline.
When I saw earlier reviews and videos of it, I couldn’t shake the ick of IBM shamelessly forking a startup’s code. There was even some UI slop where they had some big green pulsing button.
That combined with knowing full well how inefficient the default Roo Code base prompts were, I would not be surprised if there’s some massive token churn.
quietsegfault 1 hours ago [-]
I used Bob extensively at an IBM acquisition, it was absolutely dreadful. Bobcoins.
xyst 29 minutes ago [-]
ibm desperately clinging to relevancy by hopping on the LLM bandwagon.
1 hours ago [-]
saberience 1 hours ago [-]
This is embarrassing. It would have been better to release nothing than this.
40 minutes ago [-]
antonvs 1 hours ago [-]
Should have been IBM Tom, after legendary IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson. But perhaps they didn't want to sully his name.
vablings 11 minutes ago [-]
IBM already have IBM Watson which is probably named after the CEO
I bet this will be as successful as Microsoft Bob.
dmd 1 hours ago [-]
My guess is absolutely nobody on the team that made this is even old enough to remember Microsoft Bob.
40 minutes ago [-]
self_awareness 44 minutes ago [-]
Oh, so we are yet again in the 'Bob' phase?
Maybe this time it'll work.
yapyap 25 minutes ago [-]
ibm bob, will help you make slop
varispeed 51 minutes ago [-]
The companies who are hoarding RAM to produce pointless products should be called out. Deprive working class from computing resources to sell some corporate crap. Get fucked.
51 minutes ago [-]
rdtsc 22 minutes ago [-]
[flagged]
jrflo 35 minutes ago [-]
[flagged]
gilliethefoil 22 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
colesantiago 1 hours ago [-]
I never thought the day that IBM would make complete slop.
But it is IBM after all.
lirolero 1 hours ago [-]
> But it is IBM after all.
Then how did you not see that coming?
zenethian 1 hours ago [-]
“I would expect something like this from IBM, but I never expected it from IBM!”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9ntPxdWAWq8
I wish IBM got better at product again, and took themselves off the services and consulting morphine they've been on for ~35 years now since OS/2 Warp flopped. Their 1980s/1990s hardware was great. Their software actually was great until Win95 took their lunch money. They've just slunk off into a corner hugging their old architectures they have a moat around, and thrown out some audacious nonsense like Watson now and again, but nothing has stuck. When is somebody in that organisation going to try and innovate properly again?
I'm not sure this is the answer I'd be rooting for.
[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bobbins
No thanks, that's what I like about AI so I'll just stay with the raw tokens.
I'm also sticking to first-party agents, but that's more because I feel no compelling reason to switch and CLI agents fit well with my spartan technology choices. YMMV.
I agree IBM Bob is not the revolution, but…
We are still in the punch card era of LLMs. Maybe even the Altair era.
None of this stuff has really been figured out yet.
Looks awful from a design perspective. Had to double check that this was the actual IBM domain
https://imgur.com/a/3PQXIsQ
(Note, I'm an IBMer but nowhere near this so my comment is strictly from my public knowledge/awareness:).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob
https://bob.ibm.com/pricing
When I saw earlier reviews and videos of it, I couldn’t shake the ick of IBM shamelessly forking a startup’s code. There was even some UI slop where they had some big green pulsing button.
That combined with knowing full well how inefficient the default Roo Code base prompts were, I would not be surprised if there’s some massive token churn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob
Maybe this time it'll work.
But it is IBM after all.
Then how did you not see that coming?