Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 00:08:09 -0400 From: Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> To: Cynic <cynic@mail.cz> Cc: rootman <rootman@xmission.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: OT: Ethics and nature (was Re: Justification for using FreeBSD) Message-ID: <3B298A29.D6DF874D@iowna.com> References: <01061417404103.00261@blackmirror.xmission.com> <3B294D78.2F1390E@iowna.com> <01061419302201.00346@blackmirror.xmission.com> <5.1.0.14.2.20010615053335.03f5dba0@mail.cz>
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Cynic wrote: > >Do you remember the JAVA/JScript thing? Sun was going to sue M$ for > >using the JAVA logo when their products weren't really JAVA compliant. > >Instead of fixing the problem, M$ came up with the JScript (or is it > >Visual J++ - can't remember the exact name) thing. It's named that to > > Netscape JavaScript .... Microsoft JScript > Sun Java ............... Microsoft Visual J++ Thanks for straightening me out there ... All the nonsense names that marketing comes up with make me dizzy! > well, Microsoft is a _business_ company. They're not there to make the > best software, they're there to make money. Same with Sun, Oracle, or > anyone else. It's natural they put lots of effort into keeping (and > broadening) their territory, just as it's natural they put only as much > effort into development as is required to keep the territory. > > I mean, it's natural Microsoft abuses its monopoly, and it's natural you > don't like it (nor do I). Here I disagree heavily on principal. Abusing power is not natural ... it's taught over and over by the society. I have NEVER had a natural urge to abuse any power I obtained. It's also not natural to feel like you should bullshit your customers ... or put more effort into convincing people that something is good than you put into making it good. Most of the people I've met over my lifetime (by a large margin, probably 90%) feel good about doing a job right, and prefer to do good work for an honest day's wage. Unfortunatly, most of them will also use the excuse "I've got a wife and kids to feed" when the 10% tell them to shut up and do the dishonest work they were instructed to do. Whether or not this is a valid excuse to drop one's standards, I'll not try to discuss in this forum. An insteresting point, however, is that I feel Open Source is so popular because it allows people to feel good about themselves by really doing the best work they're capable of. For all it's dumbass efforts to discredit and destroy the open-source movement, Microsoft has never had the balls to do the one thing that would make them just as powerful: Give their employees a way to feel REALLY good about themselves by producing an honestly quality product ... and collecting their ample pay as well. M$ has all kinds of theories as to why highly qualified hackers would work on projects and give their code away for free. They speculate that hackers get an ego trip when a piece of their code gets committed. Did it ever occur to Microsoft that sitting back and watching the performance specs on a FreeBSD system makes the hacker proud? That working back and forth with some other hackers on a coding problem is fun? Is it unbelieveable to them that some of these hackers fall asleep at night with big grins on their faces thinking "Boy ... I REALLY got that new VM code optomized!" No. Because the M$ executives were taught in their business classes to worship the almighty dollar. And they think that everyone else worships it as well. It isn't Open Source that Microsoft is afraid of. [Warning ... deeply philosophical statment ahead ...] It's the freedom open source represents that ALL big business fear. Whew ... I must be sleep deprived. I'm going to bed before I solve the rest of the world's problems or something ... help me down off this soapbox ... -- If a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, then what can I get for two hands in the bush? To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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