4 ms·

Microsoft is not a person, but it is an organization, and like every organization has a corporate culture. For me, it's absolutely like having a character, exac

Microsoft is not a person, but it is an organization, and like every organization has a corporate culture. For me, it's absolutely like having a character, exactly like a person has. It certainly starts with the founders, but grows with the company through years of hiring decisions, personal example, and internal communication. A company, as an organization, can be intelligent or stupid, creative or conservative; it can have social intelligence (Facebook), or it can never get it right with people, but be an excellent engineer (Google). So I don't see why we shouldn't treat an organization as being moral, or immoral, humane or inhumane. By these lines, it's certainly a valid question whether Microsoft is showing character, and high moral standards, or is it simply doing it for personal gain.

AndyNemmity 12y ago
I'm really shocked so many people see this as even a question. I work for a company very similar to Microsoft. If this happened to us, we would do the same thing, for the very same reason. We would lose every Cloud customer from another country immediately if this was followed. All our work investing and building data centers in the world would be wasted. Companies would pull away all contracts for Cloud work, and we would gain no new ones. It would be the end of the Enterprise Cloud.
gtirloni 12y ago
Treating Microsoft like "a" person, hmm. I think that works, but we have to consider that persons are rarely 'plain', exhibiting simplistic behavior. If we are to consider Microsoft as person, like we are, we ought to consider it can exhibit truly good and truly bad behaviors sometimes. That being said, have Microsoft's past mistakes been too big that (what some consider) the good behavior exhibited lately regarding privacy issues is a drop of pure water in an ocean of oil? I'm not implying anything, just asking to provoke thinking. Can people change? Can large companies change their character? Is Microsoft changing or we are seeing some schizophrenic good actions lately? Food for thought :)

AndyNemmity 12y ago

I'm really shocked so many people see this as even a question. I work for a company very similar to Microsoft. If this happened to us, we would do the same thing, for the very same reason. We would lose every Cloud customer from another country immediately if this was followed. All our work investing and building data centers in the world would be wasted. Companies would pull away all contracts for Cloud work, and we would gain no new ones. It would be the end of the Enterprise Cloud.

gtirloni 12y ago

Treating Microsoft like "a" person, hmm. I think that works, but we have to consider that persons are rarely 'plain', exhibiting simplistic behavior. If we are to consider Microsoft as person, like we are, we ought to consider it can exhibit truly good and truly bad behaviors sometimes. That being said, have Microsoft's past mistakes been too big that (what some consider) the good behavior exhibited lately regarding privacy issues is a drop of pure water in an ocean of oil? I'm not implying anything, just asking to provoke thinking. Can people change? Can large companies change their character? Is Microsoft changing or we are seeing some schizophrenic good actions lately? Food for thought :)