[Cialug] Mandriva - open letter to Steve Ballmer

[Stuart Thiessen]

However, I am always fascinated to see that those on the "winning"  
side (who might excuse an activity as ethical) will often voice a  
similar objection about an activity being unethical or wrong when it  
is their turn on the "losing" side. Perhaps things are not always as  
"relative" as we might think. :-) I see this all the time with the  
whole campaign contribution issue. The discussion changes depending on  
who it benefits. I have always believed that we are diminished as a  
people when our ethics are governed solely by whether or not I or my  
"side" benefits.

This does make it difficult when trying to make cross-cultural sales  
and their sense of ethics is different from our own. I sympathize with  
the feelings of the Mandriva folks. It does seem fishy. But we can be  
confident in the fact that "what we sow is what we reap." So if  
Nigeria picks Windows, they get all that comes with a Windows  
installation. Over time, they may end up feeling differently,  
especially when the true TCO arrives. Until then, the community needs  
to keep making the case and being truly innovative. I seriously doubt  
that Microsoft can beat that in the long run.

Stuart

On 2 Nov 2007, at 11:20 , Morris Dovey wrote:

> Todd Walton wrote:
> | On 11/2/07, Dave J. Hala Jr. <dave at 58ghz.net> wrote:
> || Ethics is a fairly subjective thing and my experience is that the
> || higher the stakes the less ethics is an issue.
> |
> | I must seriously take exception to this.  Ethics is *not*
> | subjective. And you contradict yourself when you say it's
> | subjective, but then say that some people dispense with it.  How do
> | you know they don't have an ethics that just doesn't match yours?
> |
> | Perhaps it's the idea that anything-goes in the realm of ethical
> | conduct that causes these problems in the first place.  Ethics is
> | *not* subjective.
>
> Right - but a particular ethic is specific to a specific culture.
>
> Beware ethnocentrism! The ethic developed within one culture may bear
> scant resemblance to the ethic developed within another.
>
> Morris Dovey
> DeSoto Solar
> DeSoto, Iowa USA
> http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/
>
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