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Microsoft Censorship It's funny. Laugh. United States Politics

What If There Was a Microsoft Appreciation Day? 362

Posted by Soulskill from the good-luck-finding-one-around-here dept.
theodp writes "In 2005, Microsoft came under fire after withdrawing support for an anti-gay-discrimination bill. 'I don't want the company to be in the position of appearing to dismiss the deeply-held beliefs of any employee, by picking sides on social policy issues,' explained CEO Steve Ballmer. That was then. Microsoft — like Google and Amazon — has since very publicly declared its support for gay-marriage legislation, which means it — unlike Chick-fil-A — needn't worry about the 'deeply-held beliefs of any employee' causing it to be blocked from doing business by the mayors of Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. I guess we'll never know what Microsoft versions of 'Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day' or 'National Same-Sex Kiss Day' would have looked like."
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What If There Was a Microsoft Appreciation Day? More

What If There Was a Microsoft Appreciation Day?

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  • What's the point of this "story"? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04, 2012 @05:37PM (#40880919)

    Other than just trying to rile up commentators? Clickbait much?

    • Re:What's the point of this "story"? (Score:5, Funny)

      by shutdown -p now ( 807394 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @08:55PM (#40882327) Journal

      If there were a Microsoft Appreciation Day, there would be a story on Slashdot about it. It'd get over 1K comments, about a third of which would be iOS vs Android and libertarian vs liberal flamewars, a separate 100-comment thread on the evil on H-1B, another one about why Unity sucks, and the rest would be uniformly panning the UI Formely Known As Metro (occasionally diverging into the 5-minute hate of ribbon). All of that would, of course, generate a quite astronomical amount of ad views.

      Given that there isn't a Microsoft Appreciation Day, Slashdot has to content itself with imagining that there is one, and going from there. It's not as good as the real thing, but for some reason people mostly ignore the Bitcoin stories outright these days, and even the regular AGW flamewars barely scrape a measly 400 comments, so you have to do with what you have...

      In other news, what if Richard Stallman said "I laid off the 'shrooms and bought an iPad - fuck GPL, it was all just a bad trip all along" - stay tuned!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mashiki ( 184564 )

      Maybe it can look like this instead? Where gays accost homeless street preachers. [legalinsurrection.com] Kinda assine isn't it? But no it's no click bait, maybe you've heard of the guy who runs the blog too. He's a Associate Professor at Cornell Law. Then again, there's no shortage of hate floating up today either, just a small sample.

  • Ready... set... Troll! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pspahn ( 1175617 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @05:38PM (#40880925)

    I'm not even sure what this post is about or why it is something that matters.

    I imagine there will be a troll fest coming in 3... 2...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fm6 ( 162816 )

      How can you have an article on LGBT issues without trolling?

      The post actually presents an interesting issue (via the time.com link): why do corporations feel they have to take sides on the gay marriage issue? The problem is that the poster gave into the temptation to make his headline and post cute and snarky.

      It's worth pointing out that whole "appreciation day" thing happened because Chick-Fil-A has a rather affectionate relationship with its customers. Hard to see the same thing happening at McDonalds, ne

      • Re:Ready... set... Troll! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by cpu6502 ( 1960974 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @06:30PM (#40881317)

        >>>Chick-Fil-A has a rather affectionate relationship with its customers. Hard to see the same thing happening at McDonalds, never mind Microsoft.

        Interesting. Maybe I ought to try this Chick-Fil-A business.
        The ACLU has strongly criticized the mayors of Boston, Chicago, et cetera. They say if the government follows-through on blocking Chick-Fil-a then the ACLU will sue the local governments for discrimination against a business (or group) based upon its religious beliefs. Though I am pro-same sex marriage, I agree with teh ACLU that it is not the role of government to punish/boycott/ban people or businesses or groups for their speech or ideas.

        • Exactly. The turnout wasn't because the owner said he was for the Biblical View of Marriage.

          Everyone knows Chick-Fil-A is a Christian company. They're closed on Sundays. Was it really news that the CEO stated that he supported the Biblical version of marriage? No, it wasn't.

          The reason there was such a response was the media putting words in his mouth combined with the threatened tyranny of mayors trying to bully Chick FIl-A.

          And good for the ACLU.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • The problem is that that's not a good analogy.

            Chick-Fil-A doesn't refuse to serve gays. If they did, your analogy would apply. Instead, the owner supports policy (read: laws) that would deny gays certain rights (in this case, the right to marry).

            A better analogy would be if a restaurant owner supported legislation banning interracial marriage, but still served blacks and interracial couples in the restaurant.

            Support for the laws that discriminate is detestable, but it should not be illegal. Discriminatin

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by EdIII ( 1114411 )

        because Chick-Fil-A has a rather affectionate relationship with its customers. Hard to see the same thing happening at McDonalds, never mind Microsoft.

        Well, I don't know about Microsoft, but ol' Ronald McDonald was quite well known for his affection to some of his customers...

        • Well, I don't know about Microsoft, but ol' Ronald McDonald was quite well known for his affection to some of his customers...

          Plus Mayor McCheese was pretty flamboyant - and let's not even start with the Hamburgler!

      • Re:Ready... set... Troll! (Score:4, Informative)

        by sumdumass ( 711423 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @07:12PM (#40881595) Journal

        To be fair, the CEO made the comments outside the business realm to a group at a southern baptist online convention. His son repeated and clarified the remarks when asked by reporters outside that. The official company stance on the issue was somewhat agnostic as they said they didn't want o be involved in the debate and wanted to leave it to the political and government arenas.

        It is really being blown out or portion to state that Chick-Fil-A itself as a company other then donating to a charity the owner's wife is involved with has an anti gay or anti gay marriage stance. Even with the controversy in the headlines, we haven't seen any gays step forward saying they were refused promotions or denied jobs because of their orientation.

      • Re:Ready... set... Troll! (Score:4, Informative)

        by mdf356 ( 774923 ) <mdf356@gmai[ ]om ['l.c' in gap]> on Saturday August 04, 2012 @07:31PM (#40881727) Homepage

        The post actually presents an interesting issue (via the time.com link): why do corporations feel they have to take sides on the gay marriage issue?

        As I recall, Microsoft's reasoning was made explicit at least once. MSFT believes that, by supporting issues such as same-sex marriage, it can attract the most talented gay people in the software industry as employees, who may see the company's support of such an issue as a reason to work for MSFT rather than a competitor.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Salgak1 ( 20136 )

          As I recall, Microsoft's reasoning was made explicit at least once. MSFT believes that, by supporting issues such as same-sex marriage, it can attract the most talented gay people in the software industry as employees, who may see the company's support of such an issue as a reason to work for MSFT rather than a competitor.

          Silly question: shouldn't MSFT be interested in the most talented people in the software industry as employees, PERIOD ?? Software engineering and development doesn't care if you're gay, straight, or even reproduce by fission. . . .

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by Surt ( 22457 )

            I think they are. But gay rights is a wedge issue that attracts a substantial number of gay employees, but costs relatively few religious bigots (who, for whatever reason are not as common in software engineering as they are in the general populace, possibly because the rest of us make them feel sufficiently unwelcome that they give up on the industry). So taking such a position is a net win in competing for employees, and comes at almost no cost.

          • As I recall, Microsoft's reasoning was made explicit at least once. MSFT believes that, by supporting issues such as same-sex marriage, it can attract the most talented gay people in the software industry as employees, who may see the company's support of such an issue as a reason to work for MSFT rather than a competitor.

            Silly question: shouldn't MSFT be interested in the most talented people in the software industry as employees, PERIOD ?? Software engineering and development doesn't care if you're gay, straight, or even reproduce by fission. . . .

            Sure. But software developers care if you're tolerant; and this may be an important point among gay potential employees, and for most straight potential employees supporting same-sex marriage is a minor but positive point. I work for a different top-tier software organization; there's lots of pro-gay-marriage stickers around the office, mostly put up by people I know to be straight. Software developers are rationalists; so there's fewer fundamentalist religious than among the average population, and thus

      • why do corporations feel they have to take sides on the gay marriage issue?

        Sometimes it's because their employee base (both existing and potential) leans strongly one way over some particular issue, and so officially supporting it is good for morale, and makes it more attractive to people seeking employment. At least that seems to be the case for most IT companies when it comes to LGBT.

      • How can you have an article on LGBT issues without trolling?

        on slashdot? Simple. 1) Make it news, 2) make it matter, and 3) make it for nerds.

        Here, it's not news because it's a speculative question. A question about a horse of a news story that has been beaten into a bloody pulp by the national media. Does it matter? The basic topic might, but the hypothetical doesn't. Is it for nerds? Nope. And simply dropping MS in there doesn't make it so.

        This is the kind of bullshit that degrades the quality

  • Meme time (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04, 2012 @05:45PM (#40880977)

    Soulskill: This article is bad and you should feel bad.

  • Missing Borg Logo! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04, 2012 @05:47PM (#40880983)

    how much $$$ did /. receive to remove it?

    • Bill hasn't been CEO in over a decade, or a Borg encounter on Star Trek in almost as long. It's an old icon whose time is past.

  • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • What If There Was an End to All These Silly Interrogatory Posts at Slashdot?

  • If there was a Microsoft Appreciation day, Bill Gates and Steve Balmer would get a free meal ticket to the cafe at work.

  • It seems (Score:4, Insightful)

    by maroberts ( 15852 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @05:53PM (#40881033) Homepage Journal

    ...that most IT companies have led the way on gay rights.

    OK, Microsoft was a little slower than a few off the blocks, but in general I think that IT corporations should be proud of their lead in this issue, and MS should be applauded for being among them.

    Still won't stop me loading up Linux instead though...

    • Microsoft was actually historically one of the leading companies on this, with things like benefits for same sex couples same as hetero ones long before any official recognition. Google "GLEAM Microsoft" for some context. 2005 was a setback of sorts.

  • People bash Microsoft (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Smallpond ( 221300 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @05:54PM (#40881041) Homepage Journal

    ... because they don't know what the software market was like before them.

    A good CAD setup including workstation and licenses could be $100K. A mainframe to handle your accounting could be $6000 per month.

    Personal computing - IBM, Microsoft, and Apple - demolished the old model which was low volume, buggy software at high prices. I have no illusions about their intentions, they've made more money than any emperor. But I do appreciate what they created.

    • This stuff would have all existed without Microsoft. IBM would have asked some other company to make their PC-DOS. Like Atari. Or Commodore.

      Who knows? We might all be running GEOSworks on our PCs instead of windows. (And WordPerfect with Lotus 1-2-3 and OrCad and Netscape..... not a single microsoft program in sight.) Hmmm. I think I just thought of an alternate history short story: The Year 2012 w/o Microsoft.

    • Re:People bash Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Xtifr ( 1323 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @06:43PM (#40881415) Homepage

      Nope. Most people don't know what the software market was like before MS, and those people are divided between bashers and non-bashers. Some people know what the software market was like before MS, and they are also divided between bashers and non-bashers.

      I used QDOS before Microsoft bought it and renamed it MS-DOS. I helped develop software for the IBM PC before it was released to the general public. I used CP/M, Apple II DOS, C64 OS, and Unix before MS was more than an obscure BASIC vendor. I contributed to at least one ISO language standard before the PC was released. I know what the market was like back then, and I unreservedly bash MS.

      The best thing they've done is try to implement Gary Kildall's vision--badly. The worst thing they've done is set software development back by years if not decades by deliberately ignoring or undermining open standards, and by destroying competition in the market. Between those two, I think the latter is more significant, so I freely bash them. I think I've earned the right.

      You seem to be confusing "personal computers" with Microsoft. Microsoft didn't invent the personal computer, and they weren't the first to come up with the idea of creating a vendor-independent OS. In fact, I come up empty trying to list their actual contributions to the world--aside from not dropping the market IBM handed them on a silver platter.

      • Re:People bash Microsoft (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Nethead ( 1563 ) <joe@nethead.com> on Saturday August 04, 2012 @08:05PM (#40881983) Homepage Journal

        I too was an early MicroSoft user. I remember the paper tape of BASIC 1.0 being passed around at the computer club. I grew up using MS BASIC on the Altair, TRS-80, Kaypro, VIC-20 and C64 (sysres made that so sweet to work with.) I even "re-engineered" the VIC-20 BASIC and ROM for use in a telecom board (think of a VIC-88 with 4x6522 and 4x20 LCD display with a 4MHz 65C02, hella board for the day.) Come the PC I used QBASIC to run broadcast automation. I could freaking fly around a DOS machine with Norton Commander and my Northgate keyboard ("Function keys on the left, where God intended!")

        When Windows came along and I found this Linux thing, and then later, this BSD thing. I just can't do Windows anymore.

        But I do have to give it to them for giving us a common language that was easy to port from platform to platform back in the day. Not an easy thing considering the vast architectural differences between those machines. I'm not sure if that is what they intended, but it worked out that way. I mean, you could take a BASIC program for calculating orbits that was developed on a Cromemco and quickly get it running on a C64.

        I do have to thank Bill Gates for choosing to locate in the Pacific Northwest. I've never worked for Microsoft, directly, (and god knows I've had the offers) but he created a great ecosystem where I am able to get people to pay me to play with very expensive network toys.

        As much as I don't like working with current MS products (except keyboards and mice, hell, I'm typing on one now) I sure am glad to have grown up in their shadow.

    • ... because they don't know what the software market was like before them.

      A good CAD setup including workstation and licenses could be $100K. A mainframe to handle your accounting could be $6000 per month.

      Personal computing - IBM, Microsoft, and Apple - demolished the old model which was low volume, buggy software at high prices. I have no illusions about their intentions, they've made more money than any emperor. But I do appreciate what they created.

      I know what the software market was like. I supported a software product that we had bought for $60,000 1980 dollars initial fee and $5K a month to run on a million-dollar mainframe. But when I put together my first personal computer (long before there was a "PC"), I spent $2-3K on the hardware, so speding tens of thousands for personal sofware was not something people could or would do. Fortunately, they could make it up on volume.

      Give Microsoft credit, but not too much credit. My first C compiler ran und

  • I'm not entirely sure what the point of this story is, but afaict, Microsoft, like most large firms, has always taken the most boring possible position on any political issue that doesn't directly affect their bottom line. Their two driving factors are: 1) appeal to likely employees, who are generally urban, young, and moderate social liberals; while 2) not pissing everyone else off too much. Both their 2005 and 2012 actions are consistent with that.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • What if... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SpeZek ( 970136 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @06:08PM (#40881143) Journal
    What if Slashdot just stuck to posting actual news stories instead of speculatory flamebait?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      you must be new here

    • You have a relatively low UID, perhaps you remember and long for Slashdot before the politics section was installed temporarily and never got removed.

      I too remember of a better time in slashdot history. I guess we are getting old and useless or something.

      • I wouldn't call a 6-digit UID "relatively low". Mine is in the same ballpark, and I don't remember Slashdot ever being without a lot of political flamebait. Heck, didn't it date back before 9/11? Looking at comments in that story [slashdot.org], and I don't see any UIDs above 500k.

        • The "politics" section of slashdot was added supposedly for a temporary measure around the 2000 or 2004 elections because people were trying to inject politics about the elections into normal discussion.

          The temporary turned into permanent and the quality of articles and the discussion went down hill since then. That was my point, it was about the politics section. Before that was around, stories like this never would have made it out of someone's journal entry.

          And I would say a 6 digit UID is pretty low con

  • Microsoft Appreciation Day on one condition (Score:3)

    by jiteo ( 964572 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @06:16PM (#40881221)
    Only if it coincided with Opposite Day.

  • A gay viewpoint (Score:5, Interesting)

    by girlintraining ( 1395911 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @06:16PM (#40881223)

    I don't consider it real progress that some companies come out in support of gay marriage, while others are against it. I go to Pride, but I wish we didn't have it. Real progress will be when it ceases to matter whether or not you're gay; When it's as natural as not being gay.

    It's like black history month. I don't support that either. People call me racist for it, but I don't. There is no black history month; Black history is American history. It's human history. And their accomplishments should be celebrated the same way as every other historical accomplishment is. We don't need a "special olympics" history for people based on the color of their skin, we need to delete those divisions from our history books, mentioning only that there was a period of time (known as the Stupid Ages) when it was relevant, and then we grew up and put a stop to it. Ta-da, the end.

    It'll be progress with companies like Chic-Fil A say they don't support gay marriage or homosexuality, and gets no press coverage at all. Like, wait, what? Why the fuck does anyone care what a fast food restaurant owner thinks about a perfectly natural state of being? That'd be like Ford Motor Co., coming out and saying they're against red heads marrying. It would go on the back pages, in the "News of the Weird" section.

    That's where shit like this belongs, and until that's where it ends up and people pay it no more attention than as a source of fringe humor and entertainment when companies make announcements like this, we're still in the Stupid Ages of our future history books.

    • Real progress will be when it ceases to matter whether or not you're gay; When it's as natural as not being gay.

      I broadly agree (on this, and on race, too). But specifically with respect to LGBT issues, it won't happen for as long as traditional religions retain a wide following. There's only so much wiggle room when your "holy book" says that homosexuality is a sin in no uncertain way.

    • I don't consider it real progress that some companies come out in support of gay marriage, while others are against it. I go to Pride, but I wish we didn't have it. Real progress will be when it ceases to matter whether or not you're gay; When it's as natural as not being gay.

      If you are actually gay, you know perfectly well that we're several generations away from that point. So shouting down any group (jews, blacks, gays) wanting to take pride in it's existence after recent or ongoing persecution makes l

  • It's a joke... right?

  • I ate at chick-fil-a every day this week. (Score:3)

    by codepunk ( 167897 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @06:27PM (#40881297)

    I ate and or bought chick-fil-a for others every single day this week and will continue.

    Now before anyone goes hating on me know this.

    1. I donate large sums of money to GLBT causes every year and have nothing against gay marriage.
    2. I am not religious.
    3. I believe in evolution not creationism.
    4. I am a hard core right wing Republican.

    All that being said, I am extremely pro private business and that value far outweighs anyones little pissing match with the management of chick-fil-a.

    • I don't get your last point. Are you under the impression that Chick-fil-A is the only private business that can serve you food? Because otherwise, I don't see how exactly does being "pro private business" has anything to do with eating at C-f-A.

      • No but they are the ones under attack for their president stating his opinion. Which of course has nothing at all to do with any of the franchise owners and or their employees.

        That and well the simple fact they sell hands down the best chicken sandwich.

        • Re:I ate at chick-fil-a every day this week. (Score:4, Interesting)

          by An Ominous Coward ( 13324 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @07:55PM (#40881915)

          I understand the sentiment, but please reconsider your choice. Chick-Fil-A did not come under attack because of its CEO's statements, although those statements did fan the flames afterwards. Chick-Fil-A came under fire for its funding of hate groups. And I'm not using "hate group" here in a wishy-washy, "anyone who disagrees with me is a hate group" way. I'm talking about groups that are pushing for Ugandan law to make homosexuality a capital crime. There's some confusion out there about much of Chick-Fil-A's millions of dollars of donations research that particular organization, but I would anyone involved in supporting GLBT issues to find any association with that hate group to be reprehensible.

  • I though that was clear by now...

  • Seriously.

    Why is it that there's this need to "celebrate" the idea that some people are intrinsically worth less than others?

    If you're born on that side of an arbitrary line, you're a great guy, if you're born on the other side, you're a piece of scum who deserves to die a painful death.

    If you happen to have a different skin pigment than the other people, you're filth and less evolved.

    If you believe that this myth is reality you're an idiot, but believing that myth makes you a saint.

    If you're this gender an

  • One critical difference (Score:5, Informative)

    by eclectro ( 227083 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @06:38PM (#40881375)

    Chic-Fil-A is a private company serving the interests of a private owner. Microsoft soft is a publicly held company which primarily exists to serve the interests of their shareholders.

    The same sex marriage debate is divisive and there are strong beliefs on both sides. Does a public company exist to sell a product and provide a profit to its shareholders, or help enact social change even if it means the cost of business? Even if it hurts shareholders?

    It simply does not make sense to take sides on a on a highly divisive social issue. [businessweek.com]

    In Chic-Fil-A's case, Rahm Emmanuel shot his mouth off saying "Their values are not our values" and supported his alderman's postion to stop Chic--Fil-A from building a restaurant based on Chic Fil A's president stance on opposing same sex marriage. Which subsequently led to the anti-boycott and Chic-Fil-A's single biggest sales day in the history of the company Aug 1 [chicagotribune.com]

    • A company, public or not, exists to do whatever its owners want it to do. If the Microsoft shareholders don't like the position of the current board they can vote it off.

  • We could all wear bright blue t-shirts.

    • We need a way MS people could identify each other

      That's pretty easy, you just look for a Windows Phone. Those new candy colored Lumias make it especially easy to spot.

  • The old CEO, Mr. Gates, is a much better man then I once thought of him. Microsoft's operating system did get better... in fact it was finally worth its price! It is a shame though... the decided to do a power grab with a BIOS mod. It becomes laughable when they tried to push Windows 8 on us with so much bad news. They might have had a chance with Windows 7.

    I find humor in the fact that game companies are now looking hard at Linux. As Microsoft shovels two healthy spades of dirt upon their own grave I know

    • The old CEO, Mr. Gates, is a much better man then I once thought of him. Microsoft's operating system did get better... in fact it was finally worth its price! It is a shame though... the decided to do a power grab with a BIOS mod. It becomes laughable when they tried to push Windows 8 on us with so much bad news. They might have had a chance with Windows 7.

      What does Gates have to do with Win8 secure boot (or Win7, for that matter)?

  • MAD, I say.
  • If there were a Microsoft Appreciation Day, I'm sure it would have quite a few corporate sponsors. All of the anti-virus, anti-malware, third-party firewall vendors would be happy to sponsor it along with all of the other companies who's business model depends on patching up holes and vulnerabilities in various versions of Windows. After all, if it weren't for Microsoft, they wouldn't be in business.

  • They can have one when.... (Score:3)

    by TCPhotography ( 1245814 ) on Saturday August 04, 2012 @08:26PM (#40882113)

    They bring back the Trackball explorer line and not a moment before.

  • Microsoft has been bending customers over for decades, why wouldn't they support gay marriage?

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