[GLLUG] Novell -- open source Judas goat?

[Ross Smith]

On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 1:11 PM, Michael Rudas <audiotech50 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Stories like this make me pretty sure that Novell is nothing more than
> a pawn in Microsoft's overall game.  The terms "cat's paw" and "Judas
> goat" both seem appropriate...
>
> >From Groklaw's "News Picks"
> "SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell Meets U.S. DOD Internet
> Protocol Standards"
> <http://www.techweb.com/showPressRelease.jhtml?articleID=X702614>
>
> ~~ Mikey
> _______________________________________________
> linux-user mailing list
> linux-user at egr.msu.edu
> http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user
>

IMHO, a corporation's only goal is this: to categorically make money,
specifically take your money, at any cost within the laws of the governing
land or what they can get away with, and nothing else (which is not
something I see as a good thing, just to clarify).

Even though that does not make all the people who work at a corporation
evil, it does, it should not be that much of a surprise that a company like
Novell is doing whatever it can to make money - regardless of it's mission
statement.  Just another company who makes themselves out to look like
something they are not - a non/not for-profit organization.

This reminds me of how people used to love AMD over Intel, claiming that
somehow they where a more ethical company and treated their employees with
the greatest of respect and dignity.  Unforunately, when it came down to it,
they cut a huge percentage of their work force and hired them back as
outsourced contract workers - making $10/less an hour and with no benefits.
The cost, of course, was double for AMD to pay contract companies for this.
However, the benefit was huge in the pockets of the people at the top.
Operational flexibility, the art of making your head count appear to shrink
while increasing productivity and output to your share holders (because you
don't have to report the contracted), which thus improves your look to
shareholders and forecasters.

Of course, I don't blame people who work for these companies to make a
living.  I think I heard it best when I heard something like, "...the number
one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient
role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you've lost all
control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in
the end, the product doesn't belong to you. The only way you can avoid
bosses and jobs is if you don't care about making a living. Which leads to
the second freedom: the freedom to starve."  A bit extreme to be true across
the board, certainly that doesn't hold water to small business owners and
such, but with respect to workers you get the idea.

Alright.. I'll stop writing a book now :P
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