Comments

• Sabayon User (Sabayon == Gentoo, kthx)

  2009-06-16 17:06:06

  Anyone else beyond Roy's close circle of friends find this terribly convenient? The same talking points, the same type of writing style, the oblique references to the "situation" at Canonical? The classic "oh help me, my manager is an evil man and wants me to do bad M$ things to hurt freedom". The easy way IsBob quickly convinced Roy that he was for real and paved the way to the usual additional talking points... and of course a spot on the front page.
  
  And why remove the IP address from the IRC login message?
  
  What a coincidence. What a wonderful piece of "evidence" that people out there are being "hurt" by the evil Mono. Waaay too convenient, especially coming in the heels of this just yesterday.

• Jose_X

  2009-06-16 16:36:09

  Let's turn this spotlight into a bit of a positive.
  
  Here is "my" advice this morning.
  
  I think oiaohm gave the best practical advice. It might be illegal or be bad for the reputation of the company to ask someone to say things that are significantly untruthful. I think, unless you want to risk losing your job (and in some countries you might be able to sue with a good chance of winning.. if you want to take that route), or outright quit, or ask to be moved around (risk job or bonus or something else), then you just need to try to keep to the truth and your conscience by being tactful over what you do say or not. oiaohm mentioned focusing on positives in areas where you can speak. Of course, if you do anything but kiss management's hiney, you might be risking job, bonus, etc.
  
  Companies flirt with lawsuits all the time I suppose.
  
  I also wonder how many of Microsoft's NDAs would be illegal because they involve illegal actions?
  
  And the deeper you get into something, the more things you put in play (to risk losing).
  
  Going along with dirtiness might be (a short-term) positive for your career. I wonder what fraction of management has sold out to even have had a chance to reach a certain position? At Microsoft, it's tough for me to imagine that Ballmer (Gates, etc) works (worked) with any but those that had proven themselves to get dirty for the sake of the company (actually that would be different than here where perhaps a small number of management might have sold the company short).
  
  IsBob should also consider going to authorities for advice... or to a lawyer. He might be able to work from the inside, but staying with the law and with law enforcement authorities aware.
  
  In fact, anyone in a similar position should probably visit the local law enforcement agency. I don't think they charge money for advice. I don't deal with these issues, but, then again, I have taken myself out of certain markets.
  
  You might find a way to communicate the opposite message through some other means (unofficially).
  
  It's a shame.
  
  And why do I get the feeling so repeatedly that Microsoft ...hmmm... I wonder how many vendors win major accounts by winning the bribing game? Forget about what is good for your company or for your constituents, users, employees, co-workers, stockholders, etc. Just sign us up and enjoy a much easier path than you might otherwise if you deal with an (more) honest company.
  
  Glad IsBob spoke up about the issue. And, yes, IsBob might be pulling our legs, absolutely. I assume IsBob is representative of some that might be in such a position.

• twitter

  2009-06-18 03:15:59

  IsBob needs to do as he is told just long enough to find another job. He has realized his employers are unethical, so finding another job is the best thing to do. People who tell you to lie to others are also lying to you. As the Slog Doc puts it, developers are "pawns" and "one night stands." Mono is a dead end, so every day he stays there harms others and himself.
  
  Collect evidence and publish once you are out isBob. Nothing revealed so far is an NDA violation but publication should be anonymous to protect against retaliation. M$ has ruined people for less and they will target you in the future regardless of what you do. Truth is the best weapon against evil and lies. Good luck and good cheer to you, Microsoft is a dying company and won't be around too much longer.

• ddt

  2009-06-16 15:32:07

  So I am reading the log and I could not understand what this is a case study of?
  
  So IsBob's company is migrating their code from Linux to Windows, how is that Mono's problem?
  
  And how does any other system (Java, PHP, Python) would have prevented this?
  
  It seems like Mr IsBob is a troll.

• Jose_X

  2009-06-18 03:20:08

  The connection is that, of the platforms you mentioned, mono/dotnet is where the better platform and greater hooks exist with the Windows version. That is because of the huge investment and control Microsoft has over that platform but not over Java, php, etc.

• eet

  2009-06-16 13:51:06

  Whoever is stupid enough to ask Roy for advice doesn't deserve any better.

• twitter

  2009-06-18 03:03:45

  So why are you here all the time? Oh yeah, to harass, threaten and intimidate. What a wasted life you lead.

• the11thplague

  2009-06-16 13:28:23

  That man was looking for an advice... Are you sure it's right to publish this sort of things ?

• Roy Schestowitz

  2009-06-16 14:01:21

  It's a publicly-logged channel and it states this upfront. So either way, the logs appear the following day.

• David Gerard

  2009-06-16 12:51:37

  Minor offtopic detail: it wasn't Ubuntu or Canonical DMCAing the MPAA, it was Matthew Garrett personally as a kernel developer. See: http://mjg59.livejournal.com/78590.html http://mjg59.livejournal.com/78698.html