Slashdot Mirror
Layoffs at OSDL
daria42 writes "Open Source Development Labs - which employs Linus Torvalds - has apparently cut nine of its fifty-seven staff (although Linus has retained his job). The cuts come as the organisation re-structures. It will establish a European office and expand into Asia. "We're a small enough organisation that what would be a small change in focus for a bigger company has a large effect on us," said a spokesperson."
- No brainers: the people who most deserve to go, and who everyone agrees
- The group of tough choice cuts, generally 60% of the first round, and not often based on performance but more so on overshadowing
- The painful cuts who don't deserve to go but they have to cut 40% of the last round numbers, so these will have to do
But of course since this is to enable the company to move into Europe, and not due to financial problems -- then perhaps this will be the only round as they will be rehiring these positions in a new office. I like the idea that they will be hiring new locals.The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
What exactly is their income anyway? Do they have a revenue stream?
I would be surprised if nobody donated a ton of cash, to say that they are paying Linus' salary.
No reason to lie.
"The organisation, which calls itself the "centre of gravity" of the Linux movement" How can they possibly be serious? Judging from the average weight of people at a LUG...
Wow, they cut workers on both sides of the fulcrum. Sweet!
On a side note, doesn't ZDNet have a spell checker?
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Um, you want open source in India? Make some.
Opensource is where people code it, mostly.
Anyone that has ever worked for a small programming shop knows this probably isn't a huge event. It sounds like of the 9 people let go, most were not programmers. They probably got rid of some sales and marketing people to prepare themselves for an investment. A lot of times to take larger amounts of venture capital, you have to clean house to prepare to take on execs from the VC firm. We had to name one of their board members our President. They also gave us a marketing guy, and sales guy. It is part of selling your soul to make money.
Hopefully they didn't ditch anyone too integral to the programming. Also, they mentioned consulting positions, so they might have simply decided to not renew some contracts. Without the breakdown of what positions were downsized, it's hard to tell what they are doing.
The one thing that happened to our company during this process is that some of the engineers got fed up (myself included) and left. We had about 15 people total and only 5 were programmers by the time the restructuring finished. Imagine this: 10 people telling you that we need Product X yesterday, and it gets added to your list of 10 other things that were promised to your top clients.
/. ++
OSS is whatever you contribute. There no real dollars chasing OSS based on where you live. It is based on how much you contribute. If you contribute a lot, you will find that HP, IBM, even OSDL would hire you.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
If you were fired by a company that paid you to write Open Source, would you still develop it? If so, I can see how management would say, "what's the point of paying you, exactly?"
Europeans are, at this point, probably as or more expensive, especially considering the weak dollar.
It's not outsourcing, it's expanding. Linux doesn't just exist in the US, you know. There are big opportunities in other parts of the world, and apparently they want to be there.
http://www.welton.it/davidw/
Or maybe it just shows how little you know about what is being developed where.
The myth that US software developers are so much better than their Indian counterparts is just crap. And the idea that Dell support was any good when it was on shore is just plain baloney. It was rubbish then, now its rubbish and cheaper with a more dodgy accent.
You do know of course that many of the finest mathematicians on the planet are Indian. That senior posts in many technology companies in the US are taken by Indian people, not because they are cheaper but because they are better.
Rather than moaning, and slinging mud, about elements moving to India, wouldn't it be better to ask how come all these "superior" US developers couldn't break a 50% success rate on projects. Not so hot
As a friend of mine said
"We like to pretend that its India thats rubbish, in fact its pretty much everyone".
And the worst lot are the ones who moan that the other guy is crap, while never checking out the fact that they are worse.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Woooah...
Hold the phone thunder.
Before they outsourced, I could call up Dell parts and give a base description and get a part.
Now, if I call up Dell parts I have to search the internet for the part number and give that to them.
Pretty much the same thing for anything else involved in support now.
The quality has gone down hill and no matter how you want to spin it... you can't change that fact.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
"We had some dead weight around here, and we wanted to avoid lawsuits for firing them. So, we decided to call it a layout due to restructuring."
That's a common one too. I worked for a startup that laid off about 20% of their workforce because the CEO was an idiot and didn't get enough business. To save face, he told some of his buddies that ran the other programming firms in the area that he cut out some dead weight. The 20% of the people let go were mostly really good developers that were let go because they weren't on any projects. They had a hard time getting new jobs because some of the other area companies thought they were dead weight. If it were me, I probably would have sued my previous employer for slander.
/. ++
You're absolutely right that expanding into Asia and Europe is hardly synonymous with outsourcing. It's more like being realistic about where the growth is in IT. I'm suprised they aren't also setting up in Brazil.
The key markets for information technology in the next few decades are not the US, Western Europe or Japan. The key markets key, as in where the majority of goods will be purchsed and consumed-- are Mainlaind China, India, Eastern Europe and South America.
Where do I get that idea? Easy, hardware manufacturers. People in the wealthy nations often have a hard time imagining how hardware can get any cheaper and still remain profitable and yet it does relentlessly continue to decline in price. The answer to how it remains profitable is simple, volume. And that volume cannot and will not exist in the highly profitable and yet relatively sparsely populated wealthy countries. There simply are not enough consumers.
So, as a manufacturer, you simply enter new markets by lowering your costs until the real masses, the billions, can afford your products. And you can bet that WiMax is going to be one of the enabling technolgies that is going to make this push into the "third world" happen all that much faster.
Which means it makes perfect sense for OSDL to have a real presence in these markets. In fact, you could argue they're moving too slowly.
But none of that has the slightest thing to do with "outsourcing". It's just the reality of where IT is going.
It's not outsourcing, it's expanding. Linux doesn't just exist in the US, you know. There are big opportunities in other parts of the world, and apparently they want to be there.
They are firing people in the US and replacing them with people not in the US. You could make the "expanding" argument if they weren't doing the firings. They are not "expanding". They are relocating.
Not that I'm paranoid or anything.
You can have your god back when you are old enough to handle the responsibility.
I can see you've never run a small company. If you had, you'd realize that a good (or bad) receptionist can make (or break) your business. Think about it--here is one person who typically talks to every employee several times a day, and most of your customers every week or two. The person who watchs who and what enter and leave, gets to see the unguarded moments, the body language, hear the idle gossip--in short, the best clue catcher you'll ever have.
I'm always amazed at the money people will pay consultants for clues they could have gotten in far less time just by asking the recptionist. Often, the receptionist is the only person in the whole outfit that sees the big picture.
--MarkusQ
The cuts come as the organisation re-structures. It will establish a European office and expand into Asia.
This is bizspeak for what the rest of humanity calls outsourcing.
Pretty words to hide real actions.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --