I don't speak for Eazel, but as one of the remaining staff members, I don't think this is a fair summation of the morals of Eazel's executives, and it pains me to read it.
If you ever have the good fortune work with Bud and Andy for a few weeks, you'll know they're some of the most ethical and compassionate people in the computer industry.
I've been through layoffs at several respected companies, and Eazel's treatment of the remaining staff is the most generous and kind I've ever experienced.
Would you believe several staff members are even insisting on continuing their work unpaid --- or making Eazel open-source their part of the process so that they'll be be to do so?
Having lived through all of what the author describes, this article simply distorts Netscape's past year of history in order to create a flashy, attention-grabbing story --- even if it's of questionable accuracy.
1. Attrition: Yes, people have burned out and left Netscape. But, you know what? New, enthusiastic employees of equal or greater caliber --- excited about the work that's being done at Netscape, and already trained from hacking on the Mozilla source code --- have come back to replace them in full force. The net effect is zero.
2. Netscape culture: Guess what? For most employees, the culture *hasn't* appreciably changed. Employees' dogs and children still have company badges, and we drink all the beer we want.;) Yeah, it takes a few months to order a new computer, and we see an AOL logo at company meetings. So what? Personally, I think AOL is a great company to work for, whether perceived as "cool" or not.
3. 5.0 Release Date: The author provides no evidence that the turnover has resulted in the one year delay in the Communicator 5 beta. Which is convenient --- because no cause and effect relationship exists between these two events. As many Mozillans have pointed out already in far more detail, the delay came about from a ground-up rearchitecting of the entire product. (And anyone who is bothered by this can go to http://www.mozilla.org and help ship a browser; whining here won't do jacksquat.)
4. Barry Schuler's comments: I attended that meeting. Barry **never** made these comments. He was, however, busily serving up a barbeque after the meeting, as Mr. Barksdale himself would have done. (Another AOL executive, in fact, did make these comments, but the journalist is, in my opinion grossly stripping the comments out of their intended context, which would have been obvious had he attended the meeting.)
Based exclusively on my personal experiences, it looks to me as if this journalist sought to write an article about a topic, and then wedged the facts to fit his original preconceptions. We ain't dead yet.;)
Slashdot Mirror
http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/234/234762.htm l
I don't speak for Eazel, but as one of the remaining staff members, I don't think this is a fair summation of the morals of Eazel's executives, and it pains me to read it.
If you ever have the good fortune work with Bud and Andy for a few weeks, you'll know they're some of the most ethical and compassionate people in the computer industry.
I've been through layoffs at several respected companies, and Eazel's treatment of the remaining staff is the most generous and kind I've ever experienced.
Would you believe several staff members are even insisting on continuing their work unpaid --- or making Eazel open-source their part of the process so that they'll be be to do so?
Now, Let me get this straight.
;)
DeCSS code in an MP3 is "offensive lyrics".
But, having the nerve to publically claim on http://www.mp3.com/songworm that God wrote the Earth in LISP is not as much of a crime?
Clearly Christian fundamentalists do not run MP3.com.
Heh. Actually, I believe that the original code name for the Apple II GS was the Apple IIx. ;)
Having lived through all of what the author describes, this article simply distorts Netscape's past year of history in order to create a flashy, attention-grabbing story --- even if it's of questionable accuracy.
;) Yeah, it takes a few months to order a new computer, and we see an AOL logo at company meetings. So what? Personally, I think AOL is a great company to work for, whether perceived as "cool" or not.
;)
1. Attrition: Yes, people have burned out and left Netscape. But, you know what? New, enthusiastic employees of equal or greater caliber --- excited about the work that's being done at Netscape, and already trained from hacking on the Mozilla source code --- have come back to replace them in full force. The net effect is zero.
2. Netscape culture: Guess what? For most employees, the culture *hasn't* appreciably changed. Employees' dogs and children still have company badges, and we drink all the beer we want.
3. 5.0 Release Date: The author provides no evidence that the turnover has resulted in the one year delay in the Communicator 5 beta. Which is convenient --- because no cause and effect relationship exists between these two events. As many Mozillans have pointed out already in far more detail, the delay came about from a ground-up rearchitecting of the entire product. (And anyone who is bothered by this can go to http://www.mozilla.org and help ship a browser; whining here won't do jacksquat.)
4. Barry Schuler's comments: I attended that meeting. Barry **never** made these comments. He was, however, busily serving up a barbeque after the meeting, as Mr. Barksdale himself would have done. (Another AOL executive, in fact, did make these comments, but the journalist is, in my opinion grossly stripping the comments out of their intended context, which would have been obvious had he attended the meeting.)
Based exclusively on my personal experiences, it looks to me as if this journalist sought to write an article about a topic, and then wedged the facts to fit his original preconceptions. We ain't dead yet.
--- elig@prometheus-music.com's personal $.02.