Being free from megacorps let's humans be humans, to express themselves, I love it, the jokes are nice (and are jokes, unlike the nightmare abominations like Clippy and their AIs).
I was part of a coding bootcamp, and one day the class was talking about git. Somebody mentioned that "git" is also a word used as an insult, like "That guy is a total git". When I revealed that was where the name came from, several students audibly gasped, and a couple said something like "Oh, how embarrassing!" I had the weirdest sense of culture shock, and I had no doubt those students would make very good corporate drones.
Yeah it’s weird how computers are still so grounded in weirdo cultures but because everyone has to use them and they’re the foundation of modern society and economy these people often run into something they aren’t prepared to deal with whether it’s copy left and the open source movement or it’s terminology and naming with an irreverent flair.
This is also how you wind up with me casually talking about linux and home servers with a bunch of anarchists as we fix up old bikes while I know engineers and tech chasers who are scared of such things.
I did too, but I was a child and in retrospect I feel like that made me the target audience.
Like I get that Microsoft has for a long time been trying to make tech and computers feel non threatening. And clippy feels like a reasonable attempt especially within the program it was created for Microsoft Bob which was something I can totally see a world in which it had been popular
While it is understandable to have concerns about the influence of large corporations, it is important to recognize the significant contributions they make to society. Corporations provide numerous benefits that enhance our daily lives and drive economic growth.
Corporations are major employers, providing jobs and economic opportunities for millions of people. They invest heavily in research and development, leading to innovation and the creation of new products and services. This economic activity stimulates growth and benefits communities worldwide.
Many large corporations prioritize social responsibility and sustainability initiatives. They implement ethical practices, reduce their environmental impact, and engage in philanthropic activities. By leveraging their resources, corporations can positively influence society and address important global challenges.
Overall, It is essential to acknowledge both the positive and negative aspects of corporations. While there are certainly areas where improvements can be made, it is unfair to label all big corporations as inherently bad. By recognizing their contributions and encouraging responsible practices, we can foster a more balanced and productive dialogue about the role of corporations in society.
Corporations are an outdated means of organizing industry. While they can innovate upon existing technology, invention and discovery are avoided, as the length and uncertainties in such undertaking can eat into shareholder returns. While there are exceptions, this selective pressure is seldom overcome. This competitive evolutionary model forces participant companies into a race to the bottom. Corners are cut, labor stiffed, and customers squeezed in order to draw greater and greater profits -- or else run the risk of loosing out to more ruthless competition.
In the same way large firms were able to stabilize disruptions in the supply chain through vertical and horizontal integration (thus outliving smaller, regionally managed businesses), mixed economies stabilize the shocks and disruptions of large firms, with the added benefit of re-focusing the output of industry to common goals, rather than to enrichment of a narrow few.
Overall, it is essential to see corporations as a phase in the conscious and unconscious evolution of human endeavor - a tool in the industrialized toolbox and not an end goal unto itself. It's also important to learn to write for yourself, or you'll be clowned on quite easily.
corporate governance structures are anti-democratic by nature. framing corporate capture of innovation, economic opportunity, scientific research, and our most critical services as a positive thing is grotesque. nobody should own lifesaving research. nobody should own our houses, our hospitals, our livelihoods and our parks, corporations shouldn't be able to decide what causes are worthy, what challenges can be addressed. we should. the people who do the work, who make the products, who do the labor that serves others, not unaccountable boards of ultra-wealthy assholes who think they get to make our decisions for us, and are using that power to actively kill the fucking planet.
if you wanna lick the boot, have fun with that corpo.