It's kinda painful and annoying to read about all the negativity and tinfoil hat theories but that's the price to pay (I guess) and we'll see what happens. Microsoft has every interest in playing nice with the community and everything to lose from trying to do anything hostile to it.
That's the price for being a deeply un-ethical company for many decades.
I can imagine. You may wish to switch employers.
> and tinfoil hat theories
Are you saying that all complaints about MS conduct are delusional?
> Microsoft has every interest in playing nice with the community and everything to lose from trying to do anything hostile to it.
So let's have a candid discussion about telemetry. Or sneaky Windows 10 upgrades. Or vague patent threats.
I'm sorry, but few software developers who follow Microsoft's actions will accept you crying martyr.
So yeah, let's talk about telemetry, or Windows updates, or patent threats. Every business makes decisions, some good, some bad. We might not agree 100% on which ones are which.
We're in the business of creating software and not running charities, we all do what's in our best interest trying not to be too evil, there's plenty of good folks and also plenty of assholes in every big co out there and all the negativity doesn't help the good ones pushing for the right outcomes.
I'm sympathetic to your point about large organizations having a mix of employees with different ethical standards.
In this particular case, as CEO Nadella is fully responsible for allowing the various nasty practices I enumerated above. (I tried to only list those which happened under his leadership.)
This is why I'm not persuaded about Microsoft's general trustworthiness by either of the following:
(a) Outsiders referring to Nadella's leadership of MS, or
(b) Nadella himself suggesting that people judge MS by its recent behavior.