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Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

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Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#251

Post by nivenkos »

pid-1 wrote: post #203
mupuff1234 wrote: post #193

If a government organization would want to use a Linux, how hard would it actually be? Is it a viable alternative?

I don't think govs are different from your average company. Having a Linux based business is hard, for a few reasons: - Destkop Linux sucks - You need experienced sysadmins. There is no Linux equivalent to AD / Azure AD in terms of simplicity, as far as I know. Also true for other stuff like app management. - User resistance, as few people use Linux as their daily OSes

But on the other hand they have a much bigger incentive than a company to be able to have a system they control and can use throughout different public administrations.

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#252

Post by worik »

mschuster91 wrote: post #224
rapsey wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MS is insanely powerful pretty much in every country in the world. They know damn well how to get into the power structures.

They just had the advantage of having the only viable GUI-based OS on mass market computers. Linux has only begun to be usable on the desktop around 2005-ish, Mac always was expensive because you had to buy Macs.

That is untrue.

In 1995 the Windows GUI was complete trash The Linux GUI much better.

I was the sole Linux guy (Microsoft Windows 95 mostly plus a HP Unix workstation the boss controlled fromOS/2 desktop). The windows machine constantly crashed and ran like a steam roller in two feet of mud. Lots of mess, not much speed.

It was not the quality of the operating system that made Microsoft successful. They were successful despite having the worst operating system in that room. Significantly worse.

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#253

Post by wolverine876 »

gentleman11 wrote: post #241
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #3

Former Microsoftie here. After all the business ethics training videos I had to sit through, I am infuriated by this.

It’s frustrating that law only applies to the lower classes, and not to the upper corporate classes

Who are the "lower classes" that do business internationally and are prosecuted by the US Departmet of Justice?

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#254

Post by wolverine876 »

asd88 wrote: post #17
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #3

Former Microsoftie here. After all the business ethics training videos I had to sit through, I am infuriated by this.

My thoughts exactly. Every year, the Standards of Business Conduct training talks about not bribing foreign officials and devs are like “who the hell is ever in that position anyway?”.

> "who the hell is ever in that position anyway?"

Microsoft does business worldwide, of course. Wouldn't that imply that many are in that position?

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#255

Post by wolverine876 »

hef19898 wrote: post #24
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #3

Former Microsoftie here. After all the business ethics training videos I had to sit through, I am infuriated by this.

Those annual trainings are there to show compliance. This prevents pro active investigations by authorities into business conduct. Without those corporations are free to engage in all kinda of shady business behaviour. And when something turns sideways, the offending employees passed the training, so the company is shielded, to an extend.

People downplay such training, but imagine the environment without it. Imagine if nobody officially talked about corrupt practices: it would create a very dark place for such things to occur, nobody would know what the rules are or what to do, and especially the silence would speak very loudly.

Edit: By training everyone, not just the people directly involved with such situations, anyone considering corrupt acts will know that everyone - from the tech support person who helps them send the corrupt message to the receptionist who takes the corrupt call to the finance underling who mails the check - everyone will recognize it. There is no talking the rube into helping them; there are eyes everywhere, all the time.

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#256

Post by wolverine876 »

robertlagrant wrote: post #166
hef19898 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those annual trainings are there to show compliance. This prevents pro active investigations by authorities into business conduct. Without those corporations are free to engage in all kinda of shady business behaviour. And when something turns sideways, the offending employees passed the training, so the company is shielded, to an extend.

> the offending employees passed the training This is the definition of ineffective training :)

If they are aware of what is right and wrong, it is effective.

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#257

Post by worik »

mupuff1234 wrote: post #208
EnKopVand wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent 7 years working with digitalisation in the Danish public sector and it depends on what you mean, and what you want to pay for it. Basically the short answer is that it is impossible. What is often forgotten about non-tech enterprise here on HN is that a typical public sector organisation has a ratio of 20-50 IT people (this is everyone, from the network and operations people to developers and project managers…

How many native windows apps are being used? It sounds like it's always gonna be a messy migration, but I wonder if you can somewhat simplify it by moving all users to web apps? Basically as an intermediate transition step to first decouple usage from the underlying OS.

In the end this is what will kill Microsoft Windows.

It will not die because it a scary ball of buggy spaghetti, a security risk and an energy hog.

It will die because people use cloud software in their browsers. Thank you Google (That hurt)

Windows will continue, I fear, to power MRI machines, bank's server rooms, and (shudder) jet aeroplane cockpits and control software.

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#258

Post by stickfigure »

sha256sum wrote: post #238
DoneWithAllThat wrote: post #124

I’m disappointed but not surprised that the title is editorialized. It specifically leaves off “whistleblower alleges”. It’s literally one disgruntled former employee claiming this. But as usual for HN these days a tiny populations claim - in this case a population of one - is stated as fact.

What’s your point? One whistleblower alleged the NSA of the US was illegally conducting bulk surveillance across the entire world, including its own citizens. A court later ruled this program was illegal and unconstitutional. Are you saying we should discount all whistleblowers because it doesn’t fit some preset narrative?

Not the parent, but I'm saying we shouldn't rush to judgement based on an accusation. Not everyone is Edward Snowden.

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#259

Post by a4isms »

gentleman11 wrote: post #241
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #3

Former Microsoftie here. After all the business ethics training videos I had to sit through, I am infuriated by this.

It’s frustrating that law only applies to the lower classes, and not to the upper corporate classes

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

—Composer and Software Architect Frank Wilhoit

https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progre...

Re: Microsoft is tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bribes

#260

Post by worik »

pid-1 wrote: post #203
mupuff1234 wrote: post #193

If a government organization would want to use a Linux, how hard would it actually be? Is it a viable alternative?

I don't think govs are different from your average company. Having a Linux based business is hard, for a few reasons: - Destkop Linux sucks - You need experienced sysadmins. There is no Linux equivalent to AD / Azure AD in terms of simplicity, as far as I know. Also true for other stuff like app management. - User resistance, as few people use Linux as their daily OSes

Desktop Linux does not suck.

It has not sucked since about 1993

If you compare Linux 1993 to Mac SO 2022 it still stacks up, almost.

Comparing Linux 1993 to MS Dos of the time is unfair.

It took MS till about 2000 to be able to compete with Linux on quality

MS Windows was successful for other reasons than the operating system.

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