I feel sorry for Microsoft...

they just can't win!!!

Microsoft draws fire for gay rights stance

"SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp., one of the earliest companies to extend benefits to gay employees, has angered activists by rescinding support for gay rights legislation in Washington state.

Critics say the world's No. 1 software maker caved in to pressure from NFL linebacker-turned-local pastor Ken Hutcherson - who threatened to launch a nationwide boycott - and tried to tiptoe away from a bill it had previously supported.

Last week, the measure failed in the state Senate by one vote.

Bloggers branded Microsoft a corporate coward, and a prominent gay rights group asked the company to return a civil rights award it bestowed on the tech giant four years ago."

www.heraldnet.com...

according to a news report aired, I believe on abc last night, the gays are now trying to organize their own boycott. I find myself feeling sorry for them, and the other businesses that get stuck in the middle..

The article ends in saying:
""Businesses today are right square in the middle of all sorts of real thorny dilemmas because of the shifting nature between the role of business in society and business in government."

ahh, yes, not they are beginning to realize....
big business+big government+religion is a really horrible mixture. Now we might get to watch them all self-destruct.
just how will Mr. DeLay and the rest of the clowns (dems and republicans included) function in washington when it isn't business as usual anymore?

What good is all that money, [power,] if it doesn't make you strong enough to be yourself. Power must truely corrupt. I guess his earlier statements about leaving a mere $10 million dollars to each of his kids is probably no longer true either since he decided to start shelling out money to Republicans, [something he wouldn't do when he supported Gay rights].

Originally posted by dawnstar
gays are now trying to organize their own boycott

Gay people are only 1-3% of the population. (no - not 10% as
some people claim). So if the entire 1-3% of the gay population
got on board with a boycott ... it wouldn't dent microsoft. I doubt
they'd be able to get many people to join in. Microsoft runs the
computer world. They only way a boycott would work, is if ACT UP
or other politically active gay groups got other computer giants
to go along with the boycott and back them up. I don't see this
going anywhere.

Microsoft has a monopoly, it's virtually impossible to boycott them. I don't see either a bunch of gays or Christians (for that matter) able to just switch to Linux and OpenOffice or something overnight. Even if you go with a Mac, you buy Microsoft Office.

the gay issue is really pretty much a non issue though...or it comes with alot of attachments....and leads to about a 50-50 split in the population, the government, ect. For every conservative delay, there's a liberal one. for every conservative business, there's a liberal one. The libs lose a Clinton, the cons lose a Newt. Delay goes, and then so do alot of others, for the same thing. man, if the businesses get dragged into this we could be talking about Microsofts and Heinz's. The businesses would probably decide that it's better not to play politics, which then would cut the contributions a great deal. ect...
Are we seeing the self-destruction of "business as usual" in our government?

Microsoft Boycott Number MCXXVII, brought to you by the Gay Rights Movement....


As much as I would *love* to see MS flushed down the john, like last night's chilli bakeoff, it's not going to happen by a VERY SMALL minority attempting to use _their_ plea as a method to get people to stop buying the product.
Why would the (closed minded, not the open-minded) straight community care about MS' gay equality hipocrisies? It would take ALOT of work and propaganda by the people trying to boycott MS, to even make a dent in Gate's pocket... they'd also have to deal with the MS lawyers, who would be frothing at the bit to find an excuse to sue someone for lible.

And I've made a large amount of money from them directly, and Microsoft Certified Solution Providers, over the years.

Here's the issue:

Microsoft has gotten in front of the wave of Faux Christian morality, and recognized that catering to the extremists ( ChisCons ), even though they're a much smaller group than homosexuals, is the new profit center....or at least the perceived one.

Why else would Ralph Reed be on $20K retainer per month? The violations probe should be juicy, as that retainer never ceased during Reed's status as Campaign Manager for the Bush Reich.

Microsoft paying Religious Right leader Ralph Reed $20,000 a month retainer

"AMERICAblog.com has learned that Microsoft is currently paying a $20,000 a month retainer to former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed's consulting firm Century Strategies. Which now begs the question of whether Reed was in any way involved with Microsoft's recent decision to abandon its decades long support for gay civil rights in order to curry favor with anti-gay bigots of the radical right."

Interestingly, Microsoft had Reed on retainer during the presidential election of 2000 to apparently help lobby then-candidate Bush on their anti-trust suit (he was actually first hired in the fall of 1998). The contract was terminated after Reed was criticized for a conflict of interest - Reed was working on Bush's campaign.



[edit on 28-4-2005 by Bout Time]

Originally posted by djohnsto77
Even if you go with a Mac, you buy Microsoft Office.

dj77' that's only if you purchase a fully loaded Mac off the shelf.
I only order software and hardware through my authorised Mac reseller and he tells me yes or no.

If you have MS virtualpc installed, a Mac even running OS X can be compromised.

Sanc'.

Feel sorry for all the small business owners who had their "American Dream" shattered by the greed of people like Bill Gates and Steve Balmer. Don't feel sorry for Microsoft.

I hate microsoft lol Anything to make them suffer for the constant Blue screen of death makes me feel better

Originally posted by sanctum
dj77' that's only if you purchase a fully loaded Mac off the shelf.
I only order software and hardware through my authorised Mac reseller and he tells me yes or no.

If you have MS virtualpc installed, a Mac even running OS X can be compromised.

Sanc'.

I didn't mean to imply that you have to, automatically, buy M$FT software with the Mac, but I'm a Mac aficionado myself and the truth is there's really no good alternative to the Office suite of products for the average consumer.

Bout time--great post. Very informative and interesting. I'm signing-off now to google it.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
I didn't mean to imply that you have to, automatically, buy M$FT software with the Mac, but I'm a Mac aficionado myself and the truth is there's really no good alternative to the Office suite of products for the average consumer.

Have you tried the Open Office suite?

Go to www.openoffice.org... and download Open Office. It has the same look and feel of MS office, is 100% free, and is compatible with MS Office formats.

I use open office on windows computers all the time. I'me not going to spend several hundred dollars when a free alternative works just as well. I can get word docs or excel spreadsheets in email, open them and modify them in open office, then send them back to someone else who has MS office with no problems. All of my Power Point presentations at work are generated using Open Office Impress (like Power Point) then saved to a zip or CD and the presentations are given on windows computers with Power Point.

Try Open Office. It's free.

I thought you were going to say you feel sorry for Microsoft because Apple released the new MAC OS X Tiger a good year before Microsoft will have Longhorn ready.

I'm just wondering how anyone can feel sorry for Microsoft about anything. After all they are one of the most successful companies in the history of this planet.



[edit on 30-4-2005 by outsider]

Very true and I've heard that The Tiger so far is much better than the projected Longhorn. I think Microsoft has to come up with something alot better than the Tiger to get people to choose Longhorn over it.

.
When a corporation pays more attention to its marketing division and quits paying attention to the products or services it is producing it becomes sociopathic.

sociopathic corporation - a corporation that is more concerned with marketing profits than products.

Once a corporation becomes sociopathic, while people are not geniouses, people do eventually figure out the product is not very worthwhile.

They can tell when the product doesn't live up to the hype. The movie industry is Notorious for this anymore. Whatever package you wrap it in some things still stink.

If microsoft still believed in its product(s) It would stand with its ideals knowing products that work and last are the products people return to over and over again and turn back to when they try something else and find it doesn't work as well.

Obviously Microsoft no longer believes in its products.

Why then should we?

A corporation that has become sociopathic is doomed to become another government leech. The list is very long. They are dinosaurs that have outlived their useful purpose. They and their sociopathic leaders should be taken and out and shot for the good of humanity.

Hey Microsoft, remember when IBM used to be called 'Big Blue'?
.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
Even if you go with a Mac, you buy Microsoft Office.

No we don't. I've used a Mac since 1984, I've never used Microsoft products.
I've got four Macs, no MS products on any of them.

None of the Mac game devs I know use MS Office.

So you are really wrong about that.

And Sanctum a "fully loaded mac", doesn't come pre-installed with MS Office.
Only if thats what "the special deal", is when you by a Mac, instead of say, a free printer, a bunch of RAM, or anything and everything else you would want besides MS Office.

With OS X you don't need Word to open word docs, the free TextEdit on every Mac does that for you.
Excel files?

But anyway, back on topic.
Feeling sorry for Microsoft is just plain stupid.

They are a beast who wouldn't feel sorry for you, no matter what happened.

Well, it seems that Microsoft has had a change of heart:

In a turnaround Friday, Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer said the company will support gay rights legislation.

Ballmer made the announcement in an e-mail to employees two weeks after gay rights activists accused the company of withdrawing its support for an anti-discrimination bill in its home state after an evangelical pastor threatened to launch a national boycott.

The bill died by a single vote in the state Senate in late April.
"After looking at the question from all sides, I've concluded that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our business that it should be included in our legislative agenda," Ballmer wrote.

The above info was gleaned from a NewsMax.com Article