Comments

• Michael Glasser

  2011-08-31 21:51:53

  It is not selling out for someone to work for a company you, Roy, do not like. Now if these people claim to share your biases and hatred and then later work for Microsoft you might have a point. You never show they share these things with you though.
  
  You pretend it is wrong for companies to hire talented people, or people they see as being talented. Why?

• twitter

  2011-08-31 22:29:19

  As it is with prostitution, the greater crime is the demand. It is foolish to take an offer from Microsoft but not criminal. Given Microsoft's coercive monopoly conviction, the offers may be criminal. As Roy clearly pointed out, these hires are designed more to weaken competition than they are to develop anything Microsoft might use. Once the project is disrupted, Microsoft fires their sucker. We can only hope that an outraged public will wake a sleeping US Department of Justice.
  
  Thanks, Michael Glasser, for twisting Roy's article around into an attack on developers. I've got an article coming about persistent hecklers like you.

• Michael Glasser

  2011-08-31 22:33:53

  There are times when going after a person to employ them is wrong - but Roy does nothing to show this is the case here. As far as your claim of the person being fired, there is nothing said about that, either.
  
  I did nothing to twist his article. The question is a legitimate one: why is it wrong for a company to seek to hire people?

• twitter

  2011-09-01 00:10:41

  The answer to your question is in the article and you seem to understand it well enough.
  
  The person who was fired is another programmer I read about a couple of years ago. He was hired at a supposedly chance meeting and let go a couple of years later.

• Michael Glasser

  2011-09-01 00:15:24

  The answer to my question is in the article - but you cannot find it to quote it. Interesting.
  
  As far as this "other programmer"... maybe...maybe not. And nothing in the article shows it is related to this current situation.
  
  There is *nothing* wrong with a company asking someone to work for them. And there is *nothing* wrong with that person deciding they should or should not. People have no obligation to limit their choices based on Roy's biases.
  
  Would you be against a Linux distro manager asking someone to help them or come work for them?

• twitter

  2011-09-01 18:00:24

  twice in the past Microsoft tried to recruit the community manager of a GNU/Linux distribution (it’s in our IRC logs). This reminds us of the tactics Microsoft used against Borland, namely destroy the competition by buying it away or removing the key people

  
  
  You knew that but are trying to twist the article into something it's not.

• Michael

  2011-09-01 18:14:30

  See how you make accusations you cannot support.
  
  I am twisting nothing. Roy is whining about something that is *not* a problem: companies looking to hire people and people accepting jobs from companies.
  
  The idea that *someone* on his IRC channel made some vague accusation is irrelevant. Curious, "twitter" if you are really Roy. After all, he said he would gladly respond to my posts - and then you started doing so.
  
  Not saying that is proof... just an odd coincidence.

• Michael Glasser

  2011-08-31 22:28:37

  A company actually had the audacity to offer a job to a person who they admire.
  
  Why is that wrong? And unless the person shares your hatred of the company, why shouldn't they consider the offer? It is not selling out simply to work for a company you (and not they) loath.

• Jose_X

  2011-09-02 12:48:29

  >> A company actually had the audacity to offer a job to a person who they admire.
  
  Do you have evidence the company admires the person?
  
  I know that is a silly question (since you can simply assume they do or don't based on your view of the company and be done with it), but if you are going to criticize Roy's interpretation as that not being evidence, then perhaps you should be more careful as well about what statements you make.
  
  IMO, Microsoft is the antithesis of fair competition and open collaboration.

• Jose_X

  2011-09-02 12:53:17

  Roy, when you say "they sold out", is that your way of saying that the person appears to have made a switch from helping to promote and support fair competition to fighting that in favor of very lopsided playing fields?

• Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  2011-09-02 13:15:58

  Yes, for self benefit (usually money).

• Michael

  2011-09-02 13:40:26

  So taking a job with having *a* goal of making money is what you mean by "selling out".
  
  That is kinda funny. That means almost everyone who takes a job is "selling out".

• Michael

  2011-09-02 13:42:35

  Jose_X: Unless there is reason to *doubt*, when a company offers a person a job it makes sense to assume they think they will benefit from that person's work.
  
  Roy, however, does not think companies should seek people to employ and that if they do it is "selling out" for the person to accept a job. Well, he does when it comes to companies he loathes.