The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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]
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
V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (February 2016):
FUD
Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt (slang, IBM)
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 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.
[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]
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
FUD
/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)