[ale] Canonical makes Apple look so good...

Chuck Payne terrorpup at gmail.com
Tue Mar 8 22:01:22 EST 2011


On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 6:42 PM, Michael B. Trausch <mike at trausch.us> wrote:
> On Tue, 2011-03-08 at 19:14 -0500, Dan Lambert wrote:
>> I am amazed at this group sometimes.
>>
>> Virtually every commercial entity that is mentioned on here is
>> vilified and criticized to the extreme. If any of them don't meet the
>> expectations of this group in every regard, they are instantly put on
>> par with the most despised corporations on the planet.
>
> I can't speak for others, but that is hardly my position; I'm just of
> the position that for-profits need not take money out of the pockets of
> non-profits.  Just because an entity is a non-profit does not mean that
> it is fit to have money pulled from its pockets by some for-profit
> somewhere.
>
>> I understand and appreciate the superior efforts of FOSS devotees, and
>> am particularly impressed by the Debian team of developers, and their
>> contributions to the open source community.
>>
>> I want to remind everyone of the fact that BUSINESSES are in BUSINESS
>> to make a PROFIT. They are not charities, and some (most) of them use
>> any opportunity possible to extract a small percentage of profit from
>> every aspect they can.
>
> And that they should, so long as it's not stepping on the toes (or
> indeed, plainly kicking to the curb) some other entity, for-profit,
> non-profit, individual, or otherwise.  Even in business, there are
> ethical considerations.  Being a for-profit does not exempt an entity
> from those ethical considerations.
>
>> If any of you are in the management of, or own a corporation, you are
>> fully aware of the need to make a profit, or you go out of business.
>
> Indeed.
>
>> If any of you want to blast me for my position, go ahead. I work for
>> one of those evil FOR PROFIT businesses. It's kept my family fed, and
>> put my children through school. I used to own my own business, and I
>> can tell you for a fact that working in the corporate world is a hell
>> of a lot easier, because I don't have to worry about how to meet
>> payroll, or how to eke enough profit out to pay my own bills.
>
> To each their own.  I'd rather not deal with the drama or the politics
> if at all I can avoid it.  That said, if it came down to working a W-2
> position again or not eating, I'd obviously take the W-2 over not
> eating.
>
> Do I think that there are nasty corporations out there?  You bet'cha.  I
> don't subscribe to the view that corporations have to acquire their
> revenue by taking it from others.  Quite the contrary, I think that
> corporations should get their revenue by providing the best service they
> can and making the customer as happy as reasonable without sacrificing
> itself.  Happy customers come back; forced customers also come back, but
> only grudgingly, and only until there are other viable options.  It is
> better to build a business on happy customers than it is to build a
> business on the notion that you're the only game in town.
>
> It's also better to build a business through honest work, and not by
> turning the revenue stream for non-profits down.
>
> Or said another say, just because one *can* do something, does not mean
> that one *should* or *ought to*.  Canonical certainly *can* take money
> away from the GNOME Foundation; Banshee is licensed under the terms of
> the MIT license.  That neither means that it is a morally (or ethically)
> proper action, nor that they should or ought to.  If they are
> struggling, there are other ways to survive (and truly, if Canonical
> cannot survive by honorable means, it should survive by no means at
> all).

Is it me or does no one see how Canonical is in away acting like SCO?
Or am I away off?


> Integrity and honor are arguably as important in the world of business
> as outside of it.  Should we disagree on that, however, then we've
> nothing further to converse about.
>
>        --- Mike
>
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