undefined | Better HN

0 pointscookiecaper15y ago0 comments

The problem with "Don't be evil" is that it's subjective. Google isn't a hardcore idealist because people that refuse to cooperate unless all of their demands are met never really get anywhere (see RMS). Compromise is a fact of life for everyone. Principles shouldn't be compromised, and you have to draw the line, but you also have to cooperate with people who have a different perspective than yourself.

I don't see either censorship in China or the net neutrality proposal (which I don't know much about) as bonafide "evil". You may disagree, but it's hard to say that they are evil or done with evil intent.

Oracle, on the other hand, is pretty easy to call evil because they act out of cruel self-interest practically exclusively. Oracle is always taking cheap shots.

0 comments

8 comments · 3 top-level

bokchoi15y ago· 3 in thread

Being evil is also subjective. For Oracle stockholders and quarterly statements, acting out of self-interest is a good thing.

nailer15y ago

Most of Oracle's moves are short term plays. Growing the Java and Unix industries would allow them to sell boxes. These do the opposite, in favor of making cash now.

bokchoi15y ago

Sure. Individual investors might care, but Wall St. is incentivized to only care about quarterly profits.

jimbokun15y ago

"Growing the Java and Unix industries would allow them to sell boxes."

I am highly skeptical of this. I believe this was the stated strategy of many of Sun's decisions, and it did not work out well for them.

1 more reply

sprout15y ago· 2 in thread

>because people that refuse to cooperate unless all of their demands are met never really get anywhere (see RMS).

RMS would be a clear counterexample. (See Linux, GNU utils, the recent GPLv3 release of Castle Wolfenstein, and many many other victories.) It's a curious sort of logic that says a hardline stance is ineffective because 100% of his goals aren't meant.

Not that moderates don't also serve a purpose, but the radicals are an absolute necessity.

cookiecaperOP15y ago

I agree that radicals are important and that RMS particularly is useful because he pushes the dialogue forward and keeps new ideas on the table. It's a good goalpost.

But nobody takes RMS's advice as practical. It's just too extreme. Most people don't believe as RMS stated in his recent Reddit interview that the only way to ethically use a pacemaker or other life-saving device that relies on proprietary software would be to start developing an open-source replacement.

RMS has been somewhat successful, but I think much less than he would have been if he hadn't poured so many resources into the silly points that should have easily been let go, like "GNU/Linux".

sprout15y ago

I don't see how "go ahead and use the pacemaker but try and create an alternative solution" is an unrealistic or impractical stance.

wazoox15y ago

> Compromise is a fact of life for everyone.

I'll just make a quote here :

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. George Bernard Shaw

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse