Is Microsoft Really A Communist Agency?

[Calum]

http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/District/5301/commie.html" target="_blank">  

quote:Well all joking aside, I intend to explain why Microsoft is at least slightly communist.
First, Lets define what a communist government is.
I define a communist government as a government that
A. Determines what you buy, and how much it costs.
B. Determines how much you make, and what job you do.
C. Limits your freedom of speech.
D. Makes the economy very inefficient.
E.  Has a few high ranking government officals that live quite well while the rest of us slave for them.
True, Bill Gates is the richest man alive, and probably considers himself very capitalist, but lets put him to the test.

This is an article that i found online and i thought it was so amusing that i decided to post it here. If i see any more good articles, where better for me to feature them than here in the feature articles section? So watch out for the occasional new topic in here by me, it probably means i've found some other ludicrous article to post a topic about!
Incidentally, you may want to see the other articles on that site too:
Why Microsoft Must Die
and
Why Microsoft Will Die.
Actually, they are saying things i mostly agree with, but we tread a fine line between sensible rational discussion, and rampant mouth frothing!!

[ April 25, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

[gnomez]

Bill Gates and M$ embody everything that's bad about capitalism.  I can't see them being called communist in any way.  Sure some communist countries have limited freedom of speech before but that's not what communism is supposed to be about.  If you want to call something in computing communist that would be Linux.  Think about it.. people helping the community, sharing all the code, starting a revolution, and it's full of people who don't believe in ownership of software.  Also the most prominent Linux company is named Red Hat for crying out loud.  It doesn't take a genius to figure the whole thing out     So all you who develop for Linux are stinkin' commie rats!    

[Master of Reality]

quote:Originally posted by Garden GNOME:
Bill Gates and M$ embody everything that's bad about capitalism.  I can't see them being called communist in any way.  Sure some communist countries have limited freedom of speech before but that's not what communism is supposed to be about.  If you want to call something in computing communist that would be Linux.  Think about it.. people helping the community, sharing all the code, starting a revolution, and it's full of people who don't believe in ownership of software.  Also the most prominent Linux company is named Red Hat for crying out loud.  It doesn't take a genius to figure the whole thing out      So all you who develop for Linux are stinkin' commie rats!      

i agree, communism is about everyone being equal, and everyone sharing everything in a utopian community. The US has made the idea of communism into a bad thing because they hated the communist USSR and hate the communist Cuba.
In theory communism should be a shared society of people who are individually equal and have equal opportunity to do whatever they want.
In theory communism should work, its humans that make it corrupt.

[Kintaro]

I sort of am a democommunist, I think everyone should haelp everyone and things that are required should not be free but not costed, thats just valueing life. Weshould earn, but unlike in communism... I think we should still vote for our leaders.
But M$ are more like Nazi's

[Calum]

i agree totally! except i think the US has only tried to make communism into a bad thing. Actually the US made capitalism into a bad thing without even trying.

I was astounded at some of the wrong assumtions running through that communism piece! see what i mean obout mouth frothing?

[Kintaro]

Microsoft made people think computers are a bad thing.

[Nobber]

Thought-provoking stuff! A bit like Dr Richard Paley's analysis of Apple's promotion of Godless Darwinism and Communism. He also says that BSD is obsolete. Wonders will never cease...

[Kintaro]

Some of that makes me think that Dr richard paley needs to see a doctor.

[Calum]

these old topics are often much more entertaining than the new ones...

[worker201]

Kintaro was a sweet little boy at 15.

[Aloone_Jonez]

I always see Linux as more communist than Microsoft which is purely capitalist.

That reminds me.
http://www.shelleytherepublican.com/2007/02/28/linux-the-official-os-of-the-axis-of-evil.aspx
http://www.kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2002/09/18/free-software-socialism-death/

[dirtrider702]

I see it completely different in that Linux is in no way communist quite the opposite actually. Communism means centralized control of all means of production and goods and services. It centrally manages the economy through deliberate social control and all goods and services are owned publicly. Now FOSS is completely different consider reading the "Cathedral and the Bazaar" for a good example Free Software is the bazaar , Open Source has NO centralized control and is completely free and decentralized much like a free market economy where the market freely decides supply and demand. If you actually read the GNU GPL Open Source software is actually NOT public domain and it is copyrighted with what is called copyleft. Basically it guarantees four thing's :
the freedom to use the software for any purpose,
the freedom to change the software to suit your needs,
the freedom to share the software with your friends and neighbors, and
the freedom to share the changes you make.
But this does not mean the Software is publicly owned and there are restrictions on what you can do with the source code which is owned by the source code creator under the GPL.
Communism is not freedom like Free and Open source software plain and simple. 

[Aloone_Jonez]

What happened in the communist states is not what most communists wanted to happen, quite the opposite in fact. Most communists don't want a large oppressive state, they want socialism, they don't want anyone owning anything, they want freedom. It's not possible in reality because of human nature.

FOSS is  more similar to what most communists want which is a lot of what you've described above: the freedom for something to be owned by the community, used and improved by everyone. Of course, it's senseless to apply concepts such as socialism to software which doesn't exist in the physical sense.