Quote of the Day: Michael Tiemann on Microsoft
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2009-03-09 22:50:44 UTC
- Modified: 2009-03-09 22:50:44 UTC
Large
portion from LinuxToday:
There's a reason why Bernie Madoff managed to deflect more than 10 years of suspicion and whistle-blowing before the authorities took the complaints seriously. (In that case it was not until Madoff himself confessed that his business was a fraud that authorities took any of the complaints seriously.) There's a reason why IndyMac was able to falsify the statements of their deposits for months before they ultimately collapsed (it appears because bank regulators told them how they could do it). There's a reason why athletes like Mark McGuire and Alex Rodriguez were able to juice on steroids for so long before any investigations were performed. All of the reasons have to do with how much America loves their heros.
As a company, Microsoft is an American hero, landing at #10 on the the 2009 list of "America's Most Admired Companies". But why? XBox has lost a collective $5B in its history, and Microsoft won't tell the truth about the "red ring of death". In terms of their OS products, what does Microsoft have to show for their $6B/year R&D investment? Vista's "improvement" on the Blue Screen of Death is to also offer a Black Screen of Death (for supposedly unauthorized users). How on earth is it possible that Microsoft can be admired when their flagship product is so poor that it is now a question for the courts to determine just how bad it is and how bad it should be allowed to be?
The bottom line is that our politicians, who control how our prosecutors spend their time, are scrambling to adjust to the reality that our financial service sector, manufacturing, construction, and retail are all in trouble. Are they going to take the long view and stop giving Microsoft a free pass? Or are they going to take the short view and continue supporting [1], [2] a powerful and influential monopoly? That all depends on what position We The People take. If Microsoft can make it to #10 on the list of America's most admired companies, it shows what a long way we have to go. Then again, they are talking about restoring to Hank Aaron the all-time home-run record, so perhaps we will see Truth Happen in this arena, too.
____
[1] Tacitly by condoning their behavior.
[2] Financially buy continuing to procure and promote their products.
Related posts:
Recent Techrights' Posts
- [Video] LinuxFest Northwest is Letting GAFAM Take Over (and Why It's Hard to Resist)
- Microsoft and LinuxFest Northwest
- EPO: Language of Conflict
- A letter about this has already been sent
- Windows in Chad: Going Extinct
- From 100% to 1%?
-
- Today's Talk by Richard Stallman Going Ahead as Planned
- That talk will be in French
- At This Pace (and Rate) It Won't Take Long for Android to Unseat Windows in Russia
- Operating System Market Share Russian Federation
- [Video] The High Cost of High-Level Tools and High-Level Programming Languages
- Windows and Microsoft-style teaching remain a barrier to simple programming
- Linux and Linux Foundation Leftovers
- Some more Linux news
- Africa is Still Android
- Operating System Market Share Africa: May 2024
- Windows Falls to 10% in Uganda, It Was 94% in 2010
- Microsoft fell from market dominance to (soon) single digit (percent-wise).
- Grouping Our Archives by Week
- No more 'numbers lottery', the clustering is based on dates
- Links 14/05/2024: Bounties on Terrible Patents, China Censors Dissidents Internationally via Attack Dogs
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 14/05/2024: Server Failure Swallows rawtext.club
- Links for the day
- Links 14/05/2024: SoftBank and ARM Chasing Hype, "Why Are You Working?"
- Links for the day
- Links 14/05/2024: Microsoft Edelman Works for Climate Change Deniers, NATO Draws a Cyber Red Line in Tensions With Russia
- Links for the day
- Feasibility of Self-Hosting is About More Than Speeds
- Speed helps, but the Internet (Net) is a global, interconnected system that no single person or company or government fully controls
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 13, 2024
- IRC logs for Monday, May 13, 2024
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- Watching Our Videos Before We Write Articles for Them
- It has long been possible
- Microsoft is Measured at Lower Than Apple in Niger (Of Course Android Dominates)
- Niger's OS share (as measured by Web sites) is subjected to significant fluctuations because it's not highly connected
- Refuting the Ludicrous, Laughable Idea I Don't (or Cannot) Code
- I've written code for 30 years
- [Meme] "Talk is Cheap. Show Me the Code." - Linus Torvalds
- be like Chad
- Doing the Site From Home (What I Always Wanted to Do)
- Even some of the hosting was done from home (since 2020)
- [Video] Systemd Helps Microsoft Break Apart Linux and Hijack the Vocabulary
- Systemd and Halloween Documents
- Links 13/05/2024: Melinda French Gates Quits Gates Foundation After Leaving Husband Over Strong Jeffrey Epstein Ties
- Links for the day
- Slashdot Parrots Microsoft/Red Hat PR, Sponsored by Microsoft/Red Hat
- The editorial work by "EditorDavid" leaves much to be desired
- Links 13/05/2024: Clown Computing Failing Again, Navalny Posthumously Awarded Prize
- Links for the day
- FSF-EEE (FSFE) and Microsoft, or How Microsoft Keeps Paying the Fake 'FSF Europe'
- The FSF-EEE is not even authorised to use the name FSFE
- [Meme] Unconstitutional Proceedings in Foreign Languages for the Benefit of Corporations Outside Europe
- Why does the UPC even exist?
- Android Rises to 59% Market Share in Hungary, Windows Falls to All-Time Low
- GNU/Linux in Hungary Reaches 3.5%
- Approaching Our 3,000th Post (After Moving to a Static Site Generator Back in September)
- the main purpose is to enable people to catch up
- [Video] The Microsoft Crisis Isn't Over (More Mass Layoffs Planned)
- We saw many attempts at suppressing information lately
- Don’t Use Disney Minus. (Disney “Plus”)
- Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
- Links 13/05/2024: Wikimedia Rides Hype Wave, XBox Expected to Go Through More Layoffs This Summer (July)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 13/05/2024: Kingdom of the Dead and Narrative Adventure Game Gem
- Links for the day
- When Lunatics Attack Your Family (Especially Women)
- The attacks on my wife and my mom are rather revealing. These are acts of extreme misogyny.
- Visually Enhanced Interviews With ESR and RMS on Free Software (With French)
- Nom de code - Linux
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 12, 2024
- IRC logs for Sunday, May 12, 2024
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- GNU/Linux Rises to Record High in Macao
- iOS and Android are very big there
- Debian: Let's Pretend We Never Knew Daniel Pocock
- Ad hominem is what happens when the message is hard to dispute
Comments
David Gerard
2009-03-10 01:15:45