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Old 09-13-2005, 08:39 PM   #1
cuiq
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Microsoft offers job to Eric S. Raymond! Gasp!!!!!!


I don't know if anyone has posted this yet, I did not see anything in my search. Here is what ESR posted on his blog in response.

http://esr.ibiblio.org/index.php?p=208

What came to my mind when I read this was RMS' book "Free As In Freedom" why, you ask? Because I remember reading in this book about the programmers who wanted to be paid for their work and how they seemed to change their mindsets for the love of money, is this wrong? No, not by any means, however for someone to go from a willingness to share what they have learned to making someone pay for what they have learned is to produce what we have today. An over saturated market of people selling information but not really supplying anything useful with that information or giving you something you could have found out yourself if you had gone to the library on searched online. Some information is very useful (i.e. tech support. That is, really good tech support.) While programmers are being paid for what they produce (this is a good thing), what we are getting is over priced and very crappy products. But I digress.
Now because corporations were buying (um I mean hiring) programmers in droves and then making them sign contracts not to give out any information about what they were and are doing, makes me think that Microsoft's new strategy is to payroll as many Linux programmers or at least it's very top (so Microsoft may think) as possible, infinitely trying to slow down or stop this constant thorn in their side. I mean if you can't fight open software, why not hire the makers of open software and then shut them up with confining death nell contracts.
I realize that this could be way off, but it is just a thought.




peace V

Forgive me is this thread has been started elsewhere. Moderators feel free to delete. Thanks.
 
Old 09-14-2005, 12:57 PM   #2
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The whole point of open source is the unlimited number of potential developers for it. Alhough MS is huge there is no way they can hire everyone.

In fact if it became evident MS was doing this then people who might otherwise not be inclined to contribute might actually start doing so just to get the attention of MS for a big payday.

Of course its not just developers. Most of the big companies are making as much if not more money from support contracts as they do from initial sales. Even though I'm a paid admin my company sees the value in my contributing to lists such as this as they see I also get the contributions of others when I need them from the list.
 
Old 09-14-2005, 01:50 PM   #3
XavierP
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MS didn't approach him, a company who sends out invitations to apply for MS did. This company head hunts by sending out letters, apparently at random.

And this thread is moved to General as it's not a Linux technical question.
 
Old 09-15-2005, 10:27 AM   #4
cuiq
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I thought I posted in General, my bad.



peace V
 
Old 09-15-2005, 06:58 PM   #5
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Hmm... I got a similar email from Microsoft (though it did not mention me as a world class programmer) or so the header says. They were using this as a way to get people to respond to a survey. It looks like they scoured the net and found resumes (I am pretty certain ESR has his online) or got some from Monster -- where mine is.
 
Old 09-15-2005, 07:13 PM   #6
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Oddly enough, I got one too; only it mentioned that I was a world-class idiot, and instead of offering me a job, they insulted my heritage.
 
Old 09-16-2005, 04:20 AM   #7
XavierP
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Quote:
Originally posted by Charred
Oddly enough, I got one too; only it mentioned that I was a world-class idiot, and instead of offering me a job, they insulted my heritage.
hahahaha - that really cheered me up!
 
Old 09-16-2005, 08:36 AM   #8
Charred
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Glad to help.
 
Old 09-29-2005, 10:57 AM   #9
MensaWater
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Being thought of as a world class idiot by head hunters (let alone head hunters that specialize in MS jobs) is much like being called a "geek" by non-techies. It should be thought of a as a badge of honor.

On my last 2 job searches I found just adding various technologies as line items to the technical summary of my resume got me far more hits than detailed explanation of job in the tradition resume style. Headhunters have almost no clue what they're looking for - they just go by keywords. My resume lists Oracle/Sybase/Informix so of course I'd get hits for DBAs even though the detail and objective made it clear I'm a Systems Administrator.

Anyway had to post because your comment was funny as hell. Thanks a lot.
 
Old 09-29-2005, 11:51 AM   #10
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You're welcome.
 
  


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