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> Can we buy reputation from money? Yes, apparently they can. There used to be huge threads here on HN on how today's MS has nothing to do with its past, that

> Can we buy reputation from money? Yes, apparently they can. There used to be huge threads here on HN on how today's MS has nothing to do with its past, that it's ridiculous to believe that the company will always stay the same, that the Ballmer epoch is all over. I mean yes, these people are right, MS is a different company - but will still do grayish stuff on the verge of legality, as long as they can go unpunished. And because corporations are not people, apparently we can only speak about the legal aspect, not the moral one (as if nobody was personally responsible for these decisions).

pmontra 5y ago
Corporations are made by people and are led by people. I wish we get rid of the limited responsibility stuff. You're the CEO, you go to jail. This would probably break large companies in a multitude of much smaller ones to manage risks. How many people can you manage and be reasonably sure don't do something that sends you to jail? Not many. We would still have software, FOSS demonstrate it, and entrepreneurs would still find a way to create new things.
- aspaceman 5y ago
  The point is that Microsoft effectively "bought" that good will with developers and now they've cashed it out. I have no plan to trust them, and if I hear the "actually Microsoft has been good for open source" argument, I can finally counter it with reality.
  - pmontra 5y ago
    I never trusted them and I'm not using their products unless I really must (a customer's Windows server, their Android PDF reader or Google's one, maybe that's it.) But yes, when one is young and exposed to Microsoft for the first time and see them behave it's easy to dismiss the tales of old bad behavior. If one is 40 or 50, it takes a lot of naivety to trust them or any similar corporation. If anybody did, they are hopefully changing their mind because of the facts of the last few years.
  - jrootabega 5y ago
    As long as they have a younger generation that they can market to, and paint the older generation as grumpy graybeards, this will endure.

pmontra 5y ago

Corporations are made by people and are led by people. I wish we get rid of the limited responsibility stuff. You're the CEO, you go to jail. This would probably break large companies in a multitude of much smaller ones to manage risks. How many people can you manage and be reasonably sure don't do something that sends you to jail? Not many. We would still have software, FOSS demonstrate it, and entrepreneurs would still find a way to create new things.

aspaceman 5y ago
The point is that Microsoft effectively "bought" that good will with developers and now they've cashed it out. I have no plan to trust them, and if I hear the "actually Microsoft has been good for open source" argument, I can finally counter it with reality.
- pmontra 5y ago
  I never trusted them and I'm not using their products unless I really must (a customer's Windows server, their Android PDF reader or Google's one, maybe that's it.) But yes, when one is young and exposed to Microsoft for the first time and see them behave it's easy to dismiss the tales of old bad behavior. If one is 40 or 50, it takes a lot of naivety to trust them or any similar corporation. If anybody did, they are hopefully changing their mind because of the facts of the last few years.
- jrootabega 5y ago
  As long as they have a younger generation that they can market to, and paint the older generation as grumpy graybeards, this will endure.