4 ms·

>I'm sure the much lower salaries in Prague allowed them to be more competitive with a lower burn rate It's a russian company with the most people (especially

by Zetoke 7y ago

>I'm sure the much lower salaries in Prague allowed them to be more competitive with a lower burn rate It's a russian company with the most people (especially engineers) in St. Petersburg. It's only technically registered in Prague. They have only 50 people there. And around a thousand people distributed across Russia (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirsk), Munich, Boston and brand new office in Amsterdam.

SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
I never knew they were a Russian company. That kind of makes me rethink my support, this day and age. Trusting a Russian company for such fundamental tooling seems really unwise.
- lghh 7y ago
  Why is that? And, alternatively, who would you trust?
  - SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
    Russia is a malevolent authoritarian regime. Russian companies (like Chinese companies) have no power to resist the dictates of their authoritarian governments. I don't trust anyone completely, but democratic countries where government authority is checked/constrained by the people and competing forces are far more trustworthy.
    - grzm 7y ago
      At least some of Jetbrains' offerings are open source. If you have security concerns, you may be able to alleviate some of them by your own examination. I'd also encourage you to consider separating your concerns about the Russian government and individuals living in Russia, just as you might other governments and their citizenry.
      - SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
        > At least some of Jetbrains' offerings are open source. If you have security concerns, you may be able to alleviate some of them by your own examination. Good points > I'd also encourage you to consider separating your concerns about the Russian government and individuals living in Russia, just as you might other governments and their citizenry. I do separate them, in a moral sense. But in a practical sense, Russian companies can't really be separated from their authoritarian government. What can they do to resist? There are no checks and balances. To be fair, Jetbrains was probably even around before Russia even started to settle definitively into its current authoritarian predicament. But thanks to the Putin regime, how on earth can they be trusted?
        tunesmith 7y ago
        In a practical sense, how could JetBrains' software compromise security? People don't generally deploy build artifacts built from IDEs. And I suppose you could turn on a network monitoring tool to see if JetBrains software is broadcasting anything.
        SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
        Access to developer workstations (and all their permissions) is desirable on its own, even if you aren't modifying the specific projects they are working on. Telemetry features (on by default) can/could be used to obfuscate nefarious network chatter.
      - asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
        > I'd also encourage you to consider separating your concerns about the Russian government and individuals living in Russia, just as you might other governments and their citizenry. That's a big ask, because the Russian government's relationship with its citizenry is very different from the relationship of a free country's government with its citizens. Namely, I am confident that there is substantially zero risk that my country might compel me through extra-legal channels to modify my work product to target a foreign adversary. If they did, I would have many avenues to resist them, including the courts and the free press. But we know that this is not the case in Russia, being that they have neither rule of law nor a truly independent media. And we know that the head of that country is at best a violent and evil man, and so is an entity to be feared by those whose interests are misaligned with his. So, as much as we might want to, it's not quite possible to separate the risks imposed by the Russian government from individual Russian people.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - pnako 7y ago
      Right. I refuse to use Russian software on my computer made in China!
- aclsid 7y ago
  That Cold War mentality is getting old already. The world has a lot more to gain if we drop the "my approach is superior" in the process. Russia and China is not filled with demons, and much of the same things they are being acused of can be said of the US, from severe human rights violations in Guantanamo, migrant populations and pretty much being involved in almost every war out there while destabilizing countries that do not follow Washington's views in the process. But there is no way I'll let all of those issues start affecting me with an anti-American attitude, and all the same I won't be having an anti-Russian or anti-Chinese attitude. First, I don't have anything to gain. I think China is making the best price/value phones out there at the moment, Russia has JetBrains and some good tools like Yandex for Domains which is free, and the US, well Google/Android/Apple you name it. In a way it is like the console wars. Instead of going with Nintendo against Sega, just get both consoles and be happy.
  - SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
    > Russia and China is not filled with demons Russia and China's citizens are not demons or angels, their moral character, I'm sure, is comparable to anywhere else. But... the governments of those countries wield absolute power over those people. The moral character of the people is irrelevant.
  - gurumeditations 7y ago
    Convenient whataboutism to cover up cowardice. Must be nice not having to care whether or not you’re supporting regimes that criminalize and murder gay people like myself and many others around you.
    - throwlaplace 7y ago
      Which products do you buy that come from a country that doesn't marginalize some group?
- FpUser 7y ago
  McCarthy must be smiling reading this.
- tim333 7y ago
  While they may employ engineers mostly in Russia I think the company is incorporated in Prague (EU) and the CEO and head office are there which limits the ability of the Russian government to tell them what to do.
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't take HN threads into nationalistic flamewar. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
gritzko 7y ago
Prague is mostly sales. Although, some engineers wanted to live there so they do. SPb is the main engineering office. Munich is somewhat smaller, but has more high profile employees. Moscow is like 20 people who need to live in Moscow.

by Zetoke 7y ago

SmirkingRevenge 7y ago

I never knew they were a Russian company. That kind of makes me rethink my support, this day and age. Trusting a Russian company for such fundamental tooling seems really unwise.

lghh 7y ago
Why is that? And, alternatively, who would you trust?
- SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
  Russia is a malevolent authoritarian regime. Russian companies (like Chinese companies) have no power to resist the dictates of their authoritarian governments. I don't trust anyone completely, but democratic countries where government authority is checked/constrained by the people and competing forces are far more trustworthy.
  - grzm 7y ago
    At least some of Jetbrains' offerings are open source. If you have security concerns, you may be able to alleviate some of them by your own examination. I'd also encourage you to consider separating your concerns about the Russian government and individuals living in Russia, just as you might other governments and their citizenry.
    - SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
      > At least some of Jetbrains' offerings are open source. If you have security concerns, you may be able to alleviate some of them by your own examination. Good points > I'd also encourage you to consider separating your concerns about the Russian government and individuals living in Russia, just as you might other governments and their citizenry. I do separate them, in a moral sense. But in a practical sense, Russian companies can't really be separated from their authoritarian government. What can they do to resist? There are no checks and balances. To be fair, Jetbrains was probably even around before Russia even started to settle definitively into its current authoritarian predicament. But thanks to the Putin regime, how on earth can they be trusted?
      - tunesmith 7y ago
        In a practical sense, how could JetBrains' software compromise security? People don't generally deploy build artifacts built from IDEs. And I suppose you could turn on a network monitoring tool to see if JetBrains software is broadcasting anything.
        SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
        Access to developer workstations (and all their permissions) is desirable on its own, even if you aren't modifying the specific projects they are working on. Telemetry features (on by default) can/could be used to obfuscate nefarious network chatter.
    - asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
      > I'd also encourage you to consider separating your concerns about the Russian government and individuals living in Russia, just as you might other governments and their citizenry. That's a big ask, because the Russian government's relationship with its citizenry is very different from the relationship of a free country's government with its citizens. Namely, I am confident that there is substantially zero risk that my country might compel me through extra-legal channels to modify my work product to target a foreign adversary. If they did, I would have many avenues to resist them, including the courts and the free press. But we know that this is not the case in Russia, being that they have neither rule of law nor a truly independent media. And we know that the head of that country is at best a violent and evil man, and so is an entity to be feared by those whose interests are misaligned with his. So, as much as we might want to, it's not quite possible to separate the risks imposed by the Russian government from individual Russian people.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - pnako 7y ago
    Right. I refuse to use Russian software on my computer made in China!
aclsid 7y ago
That Cold War mentality is getting old already. The world has a lot more to gain if we drop the "my approach is superior" in the process. Russia and China is not filled with demons, and much of the same things they are being acused of can be said of the US, from severe human rights violations in Guantanamo, migrant populations and pretty much being involved in almost every war out there while destabilizing countries that do not follow Washington's views in the process. But there is no way I'll let all of those issues start affecting me with an anti-American attitude, and all the same I won't be having an anti-Russian or anti-Chinese attitude. First, I don't have anything to gain. I think China is making the best price/value phones out there at the moment, Russia has JetBrains and some good tools like Yandex for Domains which is free, and the US, well Google/Android/Apple you name it. In a way it is like the console wars. Instead of going with Nintendo against Sega, just get both consoles and be happy.
- SmirkingRevenge 7y ago
  > Russia and China is not filled with demons Russia and China's citizens are not demons or angels, their moral character, I'm sure, is comparable to anywhere else. But... the governments of those countries wield absolute power over those people. The moral character of the people is irrelevant.
- gurumeditations 7y ago
  Convenient whataboutism to cover up cowardice. Must be nice not having to care whether or not you’re supporting regimes that criminalize and murder gay people like myself and many others around you.
  - throwlaplace 7y ago
    Which products do you buy that come from a country that doesn't marginalize some group?
FpUser 7y ago
McCarthy must be smiling reading this.
tim333 7y ago
While they may employ engineers mostly in Russia I think the company is incorporated in Prague (EU) and the CEO and head office are there which limits the ability of the Russian government to tell them what to do.
dang 7y ago
Please don't take HN threads into nationalistic flamewar. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

gritzko 7y ago

Prague is mostly sales. Although, some engineers wanted to live there so they do. SPb is the main engineering office. Munich is somewhat smaller, but has more high profile employees. Moscow is like 20 people who need to live in Moscow.