Linux is Most Used OS in Microsoft Azure – over 50 percent of VM cores

are you referring to azure AD? thats basically what i said originally - on-prem deployments are being replaced by cloud infrastructure. the point is that its a windows architecture, which is what the person i was replying to didnt understand/know.

Hiding behind a blanket of being "for human dignity" is no defense when your actions don't actually help that cause in any way. In fact, I think the original comment you've belittles so much does more for actually helping human dignity than anything you've said, as it outlines a real consequence to real people for others not taking into account what happens when they shirk their duties. The lip service you provide to that ideal doesn't come close to doing as much, but given your lack of evidence for your behavior, I think you know that deep down, and that's why you're attacking everyone's motivations and character (without cause).

In any case, I think you'll find that attempting to win an argument through stoking people's indignity when there wasn't anything to indignant about is a losing argument here. You could try actually explaining why you think the original comment deserves your ire (that is, in more detail than something along the lines of "that's mean to people in a way that is so self-evident I refuse to explain it") rather than attacking everyone that asks you to explain it as too coldly analytical. Just because something's a feeling doesn't mean there shouldn't be a reason behind that feeling, at least if you plan to impose that behavior upon other people.

> At a meta level, if our conversation doesn’t make clear the very problem I’m trying to communicate to you in regard to engineering’s relationship with humanity

If by communicate you mean vilify without explanation...

Put simply, the engineering discussion needs to be had. Just because you wrongly assume it means people don't have feelings on the subject doesn't mean there isn't a need for the discussion, whether you find it hard to stomach or not. People are hurt by systems all the time, and discussing how and why this happens helps those systems hurt less people. Stopping those conversations because you think it causes indignity so someone who was defined with all manner of anonymity doesn't help anyone. Not the people in question (which nobody here knows who they are), nor other people in similar situations, nor the engineers who might have ways of preventing some occurrences of the problem in the future.

1) Unfortunately, someone took a conversation about a purchase request as a chance to speak to [me] in a personal capacity. He’s a genuinely nice guy though and [I] like him. Just didn’t know what his role was in [my] workplace, and it wasn’t putting that story in [my] ear at that time, but I suffered through it.

2) Now that [I] live with the story, [I’ve] been waiting for a chance to share it so [I] don’t have to live with it any more.

3) What’s this? A thread about Azure? Someone finally mentioned crematoria! Yes! Gather around, fellow engineers, to dissect a Therac type of thing none of you will ever interact with, but will nonetheless defend on the grounds of “yeah, airplanes crash too” or free speech or mumble mumble. By the way, the person was half burned and fat. Sucks, right?

That’s a really insidious poison to accept, understand, and rationalize for your work, in ways that are not immediately obvious (clearly), and I lobby for ethics and licensing in our discipline for exactly the reasons on evident display this thread. This industry keeps turning out large-scale systems that are harmful to humanity. Do you think that came from postgraduate studies in evil, or a detached, clinical callousness and disregard for fellow people like the one you’re trying so hard to justify?

That person had a family. THEY WERE THERE. Maybe even kids. Dreams. Hopes. Aspirations. You’ve reduced them to a fat, half-burned corpse in the name of ginning up useful engineering disaster warnings or something. No, the discussion doesn’t NEED to be had. I reject your premise outright.

If it’s a problem that I care about those things, then, well, we are going to disagree. There is absolutely no small measure of irony in the numerous attempts across this entire thread to put my humanity into question for challenging yours. You’re only reinforcing for me that I’m absolutely right, and had underestimated the acceptability of the problem.