"Microsoft Skull-fucks Iceland’s Economy, Contracts Syphilis"

[unixronin]

I honestly wasn't sure whether to tag this under technology or humor.  I ended up settling for both.  This is Icelandic blogger Smári McCarthy talking about the implosion of Microsoft's business (and Microsoft Certified partners) in Iceland.  There's some great quotables, like this one:

The only important difference is that OpenOffice.org doesn’t support all of Microsoft Office’s weird macros, and it doesn’t come with a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Access, the only database software on the planet that’s better at printing mail-merged stickers than it is at storing data.

Or this one:

[...]  And the MCP’s, struggling to stay topside, they go to extreme lengths to stay afloat.  One Icelandic company, already embroiled in a massive antitrust scandal by way of their owners, just laid off their entire staff and offered to rehire them at deducted pay.  The networking department, they said no.  They weren’t going to take a pay cut.

So the management types, with Microsoft breathing down their neck on one side, and the Icelandic Competition Agency (samkeppnisráð) on the other, they think, oh shit.  Oh shit.  Our data hosting services department, these geeks, they’re the guys who are hauling in the real moolah.  They’re selling the services, not just reselling dud licenses to software that could be free, and that at a loss.  So let’s do anything we can to rehire them, let’s give them a raise.

And the hosting guys, true to their egelitarian [sic] hacker nature, they said no.

“We appreciate that you’re being skull-fucked, but we aren’t going to screw over our colleagues, our friends, by accepting your raise when they’re taking a cut.  No sir, can’t do it.”

The following afternoon they were escorted out of the building by the police.

Go read.  It's interesting and enlightening.

Comments

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

What, they couldn't just ask them to leave?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure they COULD have. But if you're the kind of weasels they clearly are, you don't trust your employees even when they still work for you.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the M$ tactics will really backfire. The demand for the products is clearly a pull from the customer. The MCP's (I always think Master Control Program) are clearly not adding significant value to the customer, so can be replaced with great ease. (The technical talent is interchangeable, and the basic sale of M$ licenses is still a loss leader.) If one MCP goes under, a new one can be formed, hiring the free talent from the failed businesses. As long as there are entrenched customers demanding below cost products from a business, there will be fools willing to provide for the customer demand. If the customer is unwilling to change, no amount of expertise will alter the demand curve to a new product.

It is a thorny problem. The ultimate issue is that M$ needs to maintain a monopoly position in the market in order to control standards. Once they lose control of standards, they need to compete on value. I am not sure that they are nimble enough to adjust to competing products. The sad part is that I think they would be tremendously freed from legacy product philosophy in the process of competing. That would allow them to meaningfully address issues like security, and performance. Backwards compatibility would only be for applications that followed viable programming standards. (Published for the last decade or more, but still not followed by major ISV's) I think M$ could have a significant place in a new market, but they would need to lose much of their present management to do it.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Interesting point of view — Microsoft as its own worst enemy...