Clarification on a few points

Posted Feb 1, 2012 14:41 UTC (Wed) by leoc (guest, #39773)
In reply to: Clarification on a few points by anselm
Parent article: Garrett: The ongoing fight against GPL enforcement

Please correct me if I am wrong but it is your Sony that made the PS3, widely advertising its support for running Linux and then retroactively removed the function after many people bought it just for that purpose?

to post comments

Clarification on a few points

Posted Feb 1, 2012 15:54 UTC (Wed) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] (1 responses)

This is something the original poster might justifiably have criticised but didn't.

One thing to take away from this is that huge companies like Sony (or for that matter Microsoft) may employ people who are reasonable if not downright nice, and whose actions have no bearing on the actions of their colleagues in other parts of the company (or related companies). Refusing to talk to these people, or calling them names, on the grounds that they have sleazy colleagues who ultimately answer to the same CEO (probably with seven tiers of different intermediate managers in-between) doesn't lead us anywhere.

Nothing personal, just business ?

Posted Feb 1, 2012 21:41 UTC (Wed) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

Sorry, but this is exactly how we've ended in this mess: reasonable if not downright nice people work for nasty companies with justification that it's Ok because it's big company and they can not do anything means that companies feel free to continue to harass customers, lobby for draconian laws, etc.

Sorry, but no. Justification that you just have sleazy colleagues who ultimately answer to the same CEO does not make it Ok even you personally have done nothing atrocious. Now, I'm not saying everyone should forget about their life, family and declare jihad against nasty companies despite onerous personal costs. If you have no reasonable choice and are forced to work for the nasty company then noone will condemn you. And if you were just offered 50% bigger compensation - then that's fine, too (if companies will know that their nastiness can cost them real money they will adjust, they are not stupid). But in all cases you should be slightly ashamed and look for the other opportunities if possible, not try to explain that "this SONY is not like that other SONY, no, they are totally different". This is your SONY and your actions will be viewed in light of "that our SONY" decisions.