I’m sure by now everyone and their dog has heard about the Windows NT/2K source code being leaked, and I have to say, I feel a bit sorry for them.
Now before you bite my head off, no, I’m not going soft on them. Windows still sucks technically, their business practices are still shady, and I still try to avoid buying from them when I can. It’s still their code though, and it’s their right to control it. By application of The Golden Rule, I can’t condone something happening to them that I wouldn’t want to happen to myself. If our company code ever got leaked, I’d probably crawl under a rock and die of embarrassment at having all of my coding sins exposed to the world.
Now that it’s out though, will I look at it? Hell no, that code is poison to any professional programmer. The last thing I need is Microsoft out to ruin my professional career just because there’s even the slightest suspicion I may have glanced at it, or to have any future contributions to open source projects subject to suspicion of being tainted knowledge. Just look at what SCO’s up to to see where that leads.
It is kind of sad. Sort of like something really personal you gave your blood, sweat, and tears for being exposed for all to see. So, I’m down with what you said.
“DON’T GO TO THE LIGHT, CAROL ANN! TURN AWAY FROM THE LIGHT!”
Do I have the code? No. Have I seen it? No. Would I sacrifice my own job to commit an act such as this? Absolutely. Would I take it if I had the chance? Hell, yes. But not to read or use… To distribute.
On one hand, the loss of intellectual property is, as you say, tragic. I have great sympathy for many of the individuals who’ve been mentally raped.
However…
I can’t shake the strong commitment my soul has to the cause of vengeance in general, and from a more faceless, company standpoint, I have to agree with the motives of those who split the beasts’ bellies open for all to see.
Ya see, companies like Microsoft and SCO simply *beg* to be beaten to death with the practises they live by. Anyone in this world who gets the cajones to stand up and fight back against them in any way has my hearty support.
MS deserves to lose at least everything they have, and to be strung out, destitute and banished from the business they’re in, as examples. Of course, nothing that good will ever happen, so long as money continues to buy the law.
SCO, which I once backed, is now in the same boat. I wish nothing but suffering and misfortune on them; almost as much as MS itself.
Summarily, I am simply “down with” anything that hurts the corporate body. I don’t care what the company is or what they do, but if they’ve become either so big that individuals don’t exist, or don’t play by any rules but their own, I will support anything that destroys them.
In this specific example, while I am truly sorry for the loss and damage done to the developers themselves, I can only recall Sun-Tzu’s philosophy, and hope they find some comfort in knowing that it often takes the sacrifice of many soldiers to win a war.