Why am I so anti-corporation?
When I saw that Macromedia was being bought by Adobe I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. When Microsoft invested in Facebook, I didnt wait to see the ramifications, I closed my account. Now I see that MySql has been bought by Sun, and my first thought was “Time to learn Postgres”.
But here is the thing, Adobe has done great things with Macromedia’s products. They added money and reach to some tools I thought were the best of breed. I still feel fine not being involved with Micro-Book (Face-Soft?). And I really like Sun, I always have. So I decided I had better put some more time and thought into the MySql deal rather than just write them off.
Sun is a company that is working hard to support Open Source software. They have partnerships with most of the Open Source OS vendors, and have always put time and money into OSS projects. So why do I worry about mysql? Or any of my favorite projects being bought up?
I think it all comes down to one thing. I dont believe in corporations. I feel that they are bureaucratic, wasteful, and unresponsive to users. I feel like once a company goes public their responsibility is to their investors and not to the end user, and I can’t support that. I feel like corporations and the “must protect ourselves” attitude they employ are one of the biggest reasons our country is falling apart (stupid lawyers suing everybody).
Most of all in these things I feel that I am a hypocrite. Because in most of the things I do in my day I support these big companies. So I am as much a part of the problem as they are. I shop big chain grocery stores, I use my expensive apple products, I drink my $5 cup of coffee. But here is the crux of my argument. I do attempt to support the little guys in the things I feel I really have a choice in. I support Open Source software. I am a member of the EFF. I use products from small privately held companies as often as I can, as long as they support my open attitude. I feel like these companies have a much greater responsibility to they users of their products, and as such I expect more from them.
My problem with Sun buying MySql is that I am afraid they will become part of the big corporate mess that is America. Its not really about me not liking Sun. Its about me being afraid they will break MySql. Two years later i am very happy with the Macromedia and Adobe “merger”. I hope that I will be able to say the same things about Sun and MySql.
But my closing thought for this post is this. Support the small business, and do what you can to help others around you. Everybody has to make a buck, be aware of where you spend yours.
17 Jan 2008 Simeon
Corporate-ness isn’t just a corporate features. MySQL has reeked of corporate-ness for years, even though they provide GPL software. Relative to size, Sun reeks far less than MySQL does (or did?), so I’d wager we see less corporate-ness around MySQL with Sun at the helm.
Great post! MySQL has always had this oddness about it with the big divide between the pay and free versions. Hopefully Sun can sort that out (hopefully on the free side) and simplify things a bit.
All corporations were once small businesses that grew at some point. Yes, I think you’re being a bit unreasonable about this.
Lola, which part am I being unreasonable about? Hoping Sun doesnt mess up MySql? Or that I feel it better to support companies whose first responsibility is the customer and not the share holder?
Either way is fine, I just thought I would check
Sim, one of the great things about OSS products is that if Sun does end up ruining it, developers will emerge, fork it and steer it back the direction it should go.
I agree with you though that history shows that shareholder returns typically trump the spirit of the acquired company in the decisions going forward after an acquisition.
sean
The point about public companies becoming beholden to their shareholders instead of their customers is true and not necessarily bad. In a perfect system if they ignore the customers too much they won’t be around. Somehow it magically works out. Sometimes it doesn’t but there’s really no point in considering some alternative because you can’t exactly change it. Plus, there are tons of benefits to having public companies.
While I can see many examples sited where Microsoft did something lame, there’s also no shortage of such cases for other companies–Adobe and others. I don’t believe Facebook is public right? Good luck applying some rule that doesn’t make you a hypocrite. I’m as bad as any–but personally, I just avoid companies that I feel have wronged me somehow–like not let me make a legit return. I have nothing personally against Microsoft and, really, I think the way to think of companies is that they’re made up of people. Microsoft, Adobe, and even Starbucks have some great people working there. (Personally, I’d avoid Starbucks simply because the coffee is so bad so often.)
Finally, I totally agree you should feel good about where you’re spending your money. Sometimes I spend a dollar and feel dirty… say, Costco. But, man, I can save so much that I have more left over to spend at the small store. Here’s a great tidbit advice for everyone: find a small hardware store near them. Even a chain like Ace or True Value… they’re WAY more personal and effective than (my experience with) the big box home improvement places. No offense to the earnest workers at Home Depot or Lowe’s… but the prices aren’t that much different, if at all, and you can save a bunch of time.
Here are my feelings: Large public corporations are very similar to small governments. They are beholden to their share holders and so a mini government is formed. But the citizens - share holders - of that mini-gov want what is best for their bottom line. And in, hopefully, most cases that’s doing right by the consumer.
It’s when these mini-govs start colluding with each other to hurt the customers that we suffer.
I think that true governments are far to unresponsive to their citizens. And democracy is no where near the best form of government. Hopefully some evolution will occur between these two entities. And evolution is almost always for the better. Lets hope we get something better than what we have today.
That being said I’m a big supporter of small and local businesses. I’ll shop and eat at locally owned places most of the time but I’m not an absolutist about it.
Where I really get on my soapbox is companies that create proprietary products. No company on earth is as bad about that as Sony. I don’t own anything from them and don’t ever plan to. Apple is nearly as bad but I do plan on switching over to Macs soon. Microsoft is by comparison the leader of the free world.
I avoid Wal-mart primarily because of their middle American censorship ways. Forcing artists to re-record songs to meet their standards. Not carrying Maxum and their ilk magazines.
Oh, and Starbucks coffee is cack. I avoid them like the plague.
So, Sim, lets meet down at the locally owned coffee shop. We can use our Ubuntu powered laptops to work on our open source projects together.
I can sympathize with your sentiments, but (at least i my experience) corporate drudgery is usually less impactful to companies that write software, since the software has to be good if they want to sell it.
I think all major software vendors are having to seriously rethink their responsibility to the end user these days. Look at what Oracle is doing with Fusion Middleware and rewriting a ton of front end tools to be usable (in Flex) to try to keep customers engaged.
As for Sun, they have done a bang-up job on JRuby. I would fear not for MySQL if they can keep the same ethos going.
- max
Thanks for the comments gang. I really am hoping for the best with mysql. But as I am committed to learning new programming languages I think its time I pick up another dbms anyway.
I wont abandon MySql, but I think it time to learn what the postgres zealots know that I am missing.
Maybe in the 80’s this attitude was true, but today with the pervasive Internet any lone individual can become as powerful and influential as any old-school corporation.
Heck even “community” organizations can be extremely corrupt, bureaucratic and unresponsive to users’ needs (Wikipedia is this way, and its members earn no money from running the site).
The big difference is that a corporation often has to answer to its shareholders, and if the shareholders are not happy the people running the bigco are not happy.
It is in the interest of the bigco to make people (custoemrs) happy. Walmart is so large it can actually coerce other bigcos to create entirely new products because its customers want it (Diet Coke with Splenda was a WAL*MART demand) - how is that bad?
Consumers have extreme power, they can take their money elsewhere, as the big carmakers have seen in the past decade or two. Why else would the Hummer 3 be so much smaller? People were buying the H2, but more people wanted a smaller/more sensible SUV named hummer so the H3 is basically like a vehicle out of HALO more than a US Military jeep these days.
And yes, you are a hypocrite because you rail against bigcos and pump their products simultaneously (while eating guilt-free “organic” eco-concious food that cost twice as much prolly, again corporate america gives you what you want, for a price you are willing to pay).
I could never figure out why anti-corporate folks love Apple. The latest iPhone/Flash flap is just another example of how corporate and closed Apple is.
Well you can enjoy my thoughts on the iPhone/Flash problem here http://www.fusionauthority.com/views/4734-iphone-the-real-story.htm