Although you tacitly admit to all my other points, you seem stuck on this one.
No, we have totally different philosophy regarding this issue. You think/believe that you are doing some holy things and act as some kind of savior trying to save the world. You treat this like a holy war against "evil empire" and you are trying to stir up other people so they could forget about themselves and follow you or someone to fight this religious war. You are trying to paint "good" and "bad", "white" and "black" in this industry. For me, this is just plain ridiculous and stupid.
Business is just business. People start the business for one purpose, make profit. There maybe some "good will" exceptions but none of them would last longer. Every company wants to win and hurt its competitors as badly as it can, no more no less. There is no "good" or "bad" in this sense, company's interest is the highest priority of all. There is no "friends" or "enemies". There are only "partners" or "competitors" or both. They do everything to maximize their profit. Of course, all those should be bounded by law. So to argue whether one particular practice is legal or illegal has the merit, but to argue whether one company is "good" or "bad", that is bogus. If I was NSCP or SUNW or ORCL, I probably would do the same things what they are doing now, use whatever means to defeat my competitor, MSFT. Be it political influence, nasty shot or what. If I was MSFT, I would do the same things what they do to beat its competitors. The argument for this anti-trust case is whether or not what MSFT had been done is legal. Everyone could have his opinion and the ultimate decision is in the hand of justice system. From all evidence, those companies suing MSFT are as nasty and dirty as they can be. But they also want to paint themselves as a saint. I would rather deal with a real villain to a hypocrite.
As a person, I don't treat writing codes like artist pursuing perfection. This is just one type of job like all others, nothing special. My major is Math, if I want art, I would go Math. Software is just like all other consumer products, it serves its needs, it has its usefulness and its limitations. I write code to earn my salary to support my family. I do my best to get the job done but I won't devote my life or even my spirit in it. This is just one way of making living. If it can't anymore, I will move on to find other job. No big deal. You leveraged this as high as some holy war weapon, you think everyone should work against evil empire to save this software world or the real world, enjoy yourself. Save your high talk of saving world for someone else. I don't have this fever, I also believe most SEs (not "Real programmers") don't have this fever either. |
