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Re: [News] [Rival] Another Microsoft Senior Vice President (Windows Executive) Jumps Ship!

Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ____/ Homer on Wednesday 16 April 2008 21:47 : \____
> 
>> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>>> ____/ Homer on Wednesday 16 April 2008 17:43 : \____
>>>> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>> 
>>>>> Does anyone /still/ think that Windows is *NOT* doomed (long
>>>>> term)?
>>>> 
>>>> When your product development shifts from seasoned professionals to
>>>> outsourced sweat-shop workers in a third-world country, you know
>>>> it's time to pack your bags and go home.
>>> 
>>> It's the same with Novell now. Just published:
>>> 
>>> Novell to invest $100 mln in India over 3 yrs
>> 
>> In all fairness to the Indians, they'll probably do a better job than
>> Microsoft. They certainly can't do much /worse/.
> 
> They are very good programmer. What pisses me off is not the offshoring, but
> the lies (excuses and truth-bending) you constantly hear from the CEOs. Just
> watch Gates as he mocks the intelligence of Americans in order to justify cost
> savings. It's appalling, coming from the same man who says that an average
> computer user has the brain of a spidermonkey. You can probably still remember
> the things he said in that page about his attitude towards software bugs.

There is something of an issue here, though.  Consider that in the UK,
something heading for 50% of people are getting a degree now, whereas it
used to be about 5%.  Basically, some degrees are now so easy, they really
are completely worthless.  So whilst it might appear that there are a
lot of graduates around, once you sift out the ones with degrees in
hairdressing and car polishing and hotel management and so on, what's
left is a pretty small pool.

Speaking to colleagues from my own and other companies, the situation in
the US is very similar, so they might have a point.

> 
>> As for Microvell ... 
>> they're a spent force, destined for oblivion, just like Linspite.  Of
>> course that was Microsoft's plan all along, so in that sense they won
>> and ironically we (the detractors) helped them.  Not that we had much
>> choice ... help Microsoft poison Free Software,  or help them destroy
>> sellout Linux vendors. Some choice.
>> 
>> With that much money they have an almost invincible power to corrupt,
>> and oh how they love to wield that power. May they burn in Hell.
> 
> Let's watch what they do. On the Internet, crimes can be made shallow,
> particularly owing to bloggers who are close to the incidents (the
> OpenMalaysia Blog for example).
> 

Those companies which "sell-out" are taking a very interesting position.
Free software, like it or not, is a political position (not a party, but
a position).  It's a position with respect to freedom to use equipment
which you have purchased, and the freedom to change equipment in order
to suit your own requirements.  It doesn't sit particularly closely to
any existing party political position we'd see here in the UK, as each of
the parties could readily cuddle up to these ideas without compromising
their other political territory.

The consequence of this is that those companies which seek to gain the
benefits of this political position in one hand, and attempt to compromise
that position in the other hand, like Novell, Linspire and surely many
others, really end up getting what they deserve.  GPLed software, by its
nature, was born free and will remain free, irrespective of the actions
of those companies.  If a scared CEO, or a greedy CEO, likes the appeal
of £millions this year for pre-payed vouchers or something like that,
and fail to weigh such a decision against the political position of
foss, then they can hardly complain if the foss community expresses very
strongly indeed its concerns, and equally, if that community effectively
reduces its support for the products of that company.

The huge take-up of SuSE, for example, was in part due to the excellent
support from the community of experts.  Once Novell had made it clear that
it saw its interests as sitting in a direction which would compromise the
interests of that army of free supporters, it started a clock ticking;
a count-down clock, just like Mr Carmony did with Linspire.  I've no
idea when the clock with strike One, but it will.  Then, the [News] in
cola will surely be about the Novell penny stock, with perhaps a little
reminiscing about how SCO went the same way, for very similar reasons,
and a few younger folk asking "Who were SCO?  Who was Darl McBride?".

-- 
| mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk                           |
| Cola faq:  http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/   |
| Cola trolls:  http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/                        |
| Open platforms prevent vendor lock-in.  Own your Own services!       |


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