Comments on: How Microsoft (and Apple) Wants to Own GNU/Linux, in the ‘Intellectual’ Sense

By: Roy Schestowitz

Roy Schestowitz — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:56:32 +0000

When I write “shareholders” I generally refer to the goal of meeting or exceeding expectations in each quarterly report (thus pleasing investors).

By: Needs Sunlight

Needs Sunlight — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:41:46 +0000

Agreed, “the shareholders” are used as a vague scapegoat for unethical, unsound and unscrupulous management initiatives. Most shareholder meetings have low attendance and even then the agenda items are set long in advance by management and the decisions are largely rubberstamps.

By: aeshna23

aeshna23 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:26:41 +0000

“First and foremost, they are motivated by greed of their shareholders and this denies the entry of GNU/Linux (as a Free platform) into parts of the network.”

The way large companies actually work is that the management makes decisions. The shareholders have almost nothing to do with it. Like a large percentage of Americans, I’m a shareholder in both Apple and Microsoft, because I hold stock in index mutual funds. I certainly don’t agree with what Apple and Microsoft are doing, and probably a huge majority of the individual holders have no clue at all about this battle over IP. In fact, a large majority of the individuals shareholders would benefit from Apple and Microsoft losing value, since the value of the other stocks in their mutual fund would increase.