[Infinitesimus]

Out of curiosity, is it fair to assume you use hardware and software by a source you consider more ethical then? (your classification above rules out Apple and Google as well since they've both done less-than-stellar things )

[harkyns_castle]

I basically do my best yes, whilst having to earn a living in my chosen field. FreeBSD and Linux where I can advocate them.

Part of my current contract is migrating a customer away from SQL Server to Postgres, and it feels good. Automating powershell on aws instances doesn't feel so good, but it's temporary pain.

[WorldWideWayne]

Do you speak badly of Apple and Google whenever possible though? Forget about tech corporations - do you speak out against other non-tech corporations as much as Microsoft or is your hatred especially reserved for them? What kind of computer hardware do you run?

Typically, if someone hates Microsoft, they love either Apple or Google. That's been my experience at least.

[baldfat]

This is my ehtical chart

Apple (Worst Offender but also helped Open Source at times)

Microsoft M$ (Middle of the road with it always depending on who you spoke with at the company)

Google (Most powerful of the three in terms of control over people's lives if they wanted it, but I seriously think they stumble ethically not on purpose. I believe they try to follow, "Don't be evil" as a whole)

[throwawaykf05]

Why is Apple the worst offender? Many would put them above the rest because of their stance on privacy.

> Google... stumble ethically not on purpose.

Stumbling? When they ripped off Sun, they did so with deliberately and with awareness at the highest levels. There are emails revealed during the trial that leave no doubt.

Also, of all the companies engaged in all the smartphone patents wars (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone_patent_wars), Google (via Motorola) was the only company that was actually found guilty of abusing patents: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/09/4-billion-motorol...

Pretty rich coming from a company that accused everyone else of abusing patents.

[baldfat]

> Why is Apple the worst offender? (Top of my head) Lies and more lies (Power PC more Powerful than Intel X86, No malware, no virus, we are the definition of Innovation), Closed Wall Garden, Over Promising and Under Delivering, Patents, The eBook Price Fixing, the Approval Process on iOS, No Competition Hiring Agreement, Amiga Computer was 7 years ahead of the time and Apple lied about it for YEARS, Promising a Color Mac and it would be a simple card upgrade TOOK YEARS, and perhaps the worst of the lot iTunes GUI!!!!.

> When they ripped off Sun

Than why did Sun's CEO congratulate them? Sun also loves to rip off people look at Oracles' Unbreakable Linux AKA Redhat Linux.

I seriously have 30+ years of Apple hatred from before my Amiga days. Amiga community HATED Apple for their business practices and clear lack of innovation. I went to buy a Mac with my dad when released and my dad say the writing on the wall. Lies and more lies and Lisa wasn't more powerful just more expensive and you still sell those?

[DrShephard]

> Google (Most powerful of the three in terms of control over people's lives if they wanted it, but I seriously think they stumble ethically not on purpose. I believe they try to follow, "Don't be evil" as a whole)

How do you explain things like this then?

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-skyhook-emails-2011-5?...

That's exactly what Microsoft is accused of doing.

[baldfat]

Um I read every word. I fail to see the Lighting Bolt ah ha. Yes Google is in the data collection business. They have stated it since day one and in every product they produce. GMail was a GB of space if we get to send you ads.

That they were HUGELY upset that they would lose a data collection stream? Or that they were trying to figure out what to do? Android as a service has requirements or you can make a Fire Phone like Amazon did with the Open Source code of the product doesn't seem like M$.

You can explain what I am missing but the fact that we have Amazon Fire Phone and Fire Tablets all based on a fork of Android seems to kill the implications of these emails.

[_dominic]

Google is way beyond "Don't be evil", just look at the google+ forced integration.

[Karunamon]

Are we really back to calling UI design decisions "evil"? That word used to mean something, and slightly inconveniencing people who use YouTube wasn't covered.

[hga]

On the other hand, Google+ as a project was an aberration, and the guy mostly responsible for it has left the company. My question is, have Vic Gundotra's superiors learned the proper lessons?

That said, the Google+ real names insanity removed all my trust in the company's products at that level, and I'm only now considering doing business with them due to their low cost of cloud storage and trusting them at the technical and operational levels more than Amazon.