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Comment by hsuduebc2 | Hacker News Reader

Just out of curiosity. Are there any companies today that are seen the way Google used to be seen, as a generally “good” corporation/companies that are also a important player? Maybe Mozilla Foundation?

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There are no good mega-corporations, only a honeymoon period where they haven't grown large enough to start horse-trading for favorable treatment from the state.

By the way, perhaps your point of view on Google has evolved but on the question of the way Google is seen today by American consumers it is still right up there with Kleenex and Jesus. Furthermore, pretty much everyone, in America and abroad, views business as both more ethical and more effective than governments and non-governmental organizations.

> Furthermore, pretty much everyone, in America and abroad, views business as both more ethical and more effective than governments and non-governmental organizations.

"Transnational oligarchic mega-corporations" !== "business".

People don't like the former. They like businesses that operate at closer to human and community scale.

Anthropic seems to be chasing that angle (c.f. their run of "AI that doesn't advertise to you" commercials).

They have contracts with Palantir.

GP's question was about perception, not reality.

Come back in 2-3 years. I bet will be one of the worst if still around

Maybe Valve?

Degenerate gambling company.

Agreed. Nvidia too maybe? That said, Nvidia is highly competitive and has built a walled garden via their software so I have mixed feelings.

There are exactly zero organizations that will refuse to comply with subpoenas and warrants. It isn't up to business to fix the national government.

Blizzard, Microsoft come to mind

Blizzard is a bunch of sex pests and Microsoft is the guys with the AI upsells on every inch of their OS...

Wasn't Blizzard pretty alright back when Diablo 2 was released? and then LoD?

All that was Blizzard North honestly. So it depended on locality.

How far back do you have to go for Microsoft to be seen as "good" the way Google was?

Windows XP for me

.NET and VS Code gave some people the impression that MICROS~1 had become good and nice.

Blizzard ~10 years ago, maybe. Microslop has always been one of the worst. I don't understand why anyone would have a positive disposition towards Microslop.

yep re blizzard. they've gotten lots better since the msft acquisition, based on my (limited) experiences with the newer employees there.

Maybe proton, but even that… is not great.

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