From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Fud \Fud\, n. [Of uncertain origin.]
1. The tail of a hare, coney, etc. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]
--Burns.
[1913 Webster]
2. Woolen waste, for mixing with mungo and shoddy.
[1913 Webster]
From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [jargon]:
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.
[In 2003, SCO sued IBM in an action which, among other things, alleged
SCO's proprietary control of {Linux}. The SCO suit rapidly became infamous
for the number and magnitude of falsehoods alleged in SCO's filings. In
October 2003, SCO's lawyers filed a memorandum in which they actually had
the temerity to link to the web version of this entry in furtherance of
their claims. Whilst we appreciate the compliment of being treated as an
authority, we can return it only by observing that SCO has become a nest of
liars and thieves compared to which IBM at its historic worst looked
positively angelic. Any judge or law clerk reading this should surf through
to my collected resources on this topic for the appalling details.?ESR]
From V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (June 2013) [vera]:
FUD
Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt (slang, IBM)
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