Microsoft has now fired the employees who publicly protested the company supplying AI tech to the Israeli military
Microsoft has now fired the employees who publicly protested the company supplying AI tech to the Israeli military
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/42022906
While I wholeheartedly agree with her message, the reality is that any employee that interrupts a company event to criticize the company until they are escorted out of the room is gonna be fired regardless of the accuracy of their statements. We should be appalled at Microsoft's complicity in Gaza, not that they fired an employee.
I applaud her for her stand, but she and everyone knew this would result in her termination.
Not wrong there, though I find it humorous they expected her to apologize in the dismissal letter
I don’t see the humor in it anymore. Whenever it comes to even admitting the crimes happening to/in Palestine, it’s always decent people getting the entire book thrown at them, while others who actually do something evil get off scott free.
You can’t just ask for accountability for crimes. You have to kiss the ring and you have to be made an example of. What we are seeing with the response to student action is actually unprecedented and it’s genuinely unhinged. And it’s not just the US, it’s most of Europe too.
It’s not enough that our brothers and sisters in Palestine are getting rounded up and massacred. You have to support it with every fiber of your being or you’re a terrorist. After planing my whole life to move to the West I’m now genuinely scared I’ll be jailed for thought crime if it keeps getting crazier.
I know that's not the intention, but saying it like that slides into apology territory.
We should be absolutely appalled at the firing, maybe to a lesser extent, but there is no better time to point out this than during a big event.
It's kinda like saying 'protestors should not disrupt public spaces', like they have done everything else, what else do people need to wake up and draw the line?
And we can be hopeful for companies to have solid principles where if they are accused of genocide that they reflect on their actions instead of firing, and hope for a future where that's the expectation instead of apathy.
Yes, there is nothing surprising about this.
No. Absolutely fuck everything about your argument against the fired employee. We should be appalled at her termination as well as Microsoft's atrocities.
Did you mean to say we shouldn't be surprised that she got fired, or do you truly believe nobody should be appalled at Microsoft's decision to fire her?
Civil disobedience involves the acceptance of consequences.
Name a job where interrupting a CEO's presentation in public wouldn't be a terminable offense. What employee handbook says "If you've exhausted all other internal channels and are unhappy with the company's direction, just call out the boss in front of thousands of people and there won't be consequences."
If your company is that evil and unsettling to change, you call them out and resign. Calling them out but still wanting to be paid is saying you're okay with taking blood money as long as you're saying it's bad.
I feel good about cancelling my 365 subscription, and I will continue to feel good about switching to Linux when windows 10 hits end of life. Not giving this company another dime.
I know this is unsolicited advice, so feel free to ignore me, but I am an expert on these things so here's my take:
Before you switch to Linux, start switching your apps to ones that you know will work on Linux. It'll make the process much easier for ya! :-)
For sure. Linux has a lot of great apps but there are times where it'll become incredibly frustrating. For example, file explorers can be basic & frustrating... The best you'll prob get is Dolphin.
I've been on Linux as my primary OS for around a year now. I'm still looking for a replacement for Lightroom and camera raw that doesn't absolutely crush any image I'm working on.
The only hurdle here is design software. I use Affinity mostly and it's great, but they don't have Linux apps. I did manage to get Affinity Designer running with Wine at one point, but it wasn't particularly stable.
I recommend you to do the switch now. Linux is more accessible than ever and there is no reason to give them any more of your data. Also it helps you to transition step by step where it might take a bit longer to get used to a different way of doing things.
Switch to Linux. Don't use Microsoft email. If possible don't use MS Office and if you currently need it, encourage Libreoffice, OnlyOffice, etc
Regardless of current politics, this is great advice anyways for a lot of people. These alternatives are very user friendly now a days, including many Linux distros. They will do almost if not all what a user needs. Few exceptions.
For Europeans the illusion American reliability is rapidly fading as well. If BDS is not a good angle consider cybersecurity as well.
One small problem: some services won't let me change my e-mail for dumb reasons, thus I'm struck with MS for now.
In the past when I've had to migrate emails I'll set up automatic forwarding for anything important like that. Then switch the services you can. Idk if something like that could work for you and it is admittedly a bit of a pain to keep track of. Could limit MS influence on your stuff though
I cannot recommend switching to Linux enough! Linux mint is a solid, stable OS with a thriving community and ample support for newcomers.
There are alternatives to nearly everything, yes YOU CAN absolutely live without microsoft or google tracking your every move, stealing your data, selling it and using that profit to fund unethical bullshit. Take back control, you will never regret it.
Someone broke into my house on Tuesday and installed Linux Mint on my previously windows ThinkPad so I'm setting that up with all my productivity software today.
Fun fact I thought that my sound card was just gradually dying because I lost onboard speaker output 5 years ago, and lost any BT audio output last week, but it all came back after Mint was installed so I guess it was just windows being windows this whole time. I honestly just accepted that she would never speak again from her onboard speakers.
Someone broke into my house on Tuesday and installed Linux Mint on my previously windows ThinkPad
Now that's my kind of mischief.
I used to be an avid Linux user a couple of years back -- but had to move to macos due to work. I however soon have the freedom to move back soon. Just out of cursiosity, do you know why people are recommending Mint over Ubuntu now?
I have no horse in the race, i'm just curious what changed as when i used Linux last time you would be recommended Ubuntu 95% of the time.
Ubuntu is run by Canonical and people have mixed opinions about them. It mostly stems from their insistence on using snaps to run apps when other versions are supposedly faster (flatpack).
I think that's the biggest issue otherwise Ubuntu is fine and I use it on all my VMs.
Mint is Ubuntu with the icky proprietary Canonical stuff removed and with an extra layer of polish.
Mint Cinnamon even has a windows-like desktop/taskbar-like setup out of the box. I don’t know of any reason I might recommend somebody replace windows with Ubuntu rather than Mint.
I installed pop os yesterday after repeatedly saying I hate Microsoft all week. Bye windows 11!
How hard is it to distro hop on your daily driver without losing your userdata/homefolder
AutoHotKey on Wayland is my entry barrier. Not a fan of X11
Mint for general use.
Nobara or PopOS for gaming.
Edit - you know what's dumb about silent down votes? If you have an opinion, share it.
We have reviewed our internal policies and found our employees do not share the same values as us.
Yep, you are 💯 correct that this is what they did. Regardless of industry, is why unions are so very important. “At Will” employment is too easily abused, and even if this could somehow be considered a wrongful termination (ANAL, but protesting a company’s social-political viewpoints is not protected like gender, age, race, etc are) it can be costly and time-consuming to fight it in courts by yourself.
Textbook retaliatory, I hope they have a nice retirement
Microsoft will feel the wrat of Europe. Many people are switching to Linux. Even (local) governments with thousants of employees. This all together will have hudge implications in the next few years.
I mean no offense here. But Microsoft isn't an OS company anymore they are an AI company. They have moved a lot of things to the web and they deal with orgs rather than end users.
PS. I want your statement to be true.
IBM had a role in the holocaust. Those numbers tattooed on everyone in the concentration camp? Those were IBM ID numbers for the punch cards.
If IBM staff protested about their role, it’s been lost to history. But it’s repeating today with Gaza and the staff who speak out are being demonized. Israel’s Lavender AI is being used to kill civilians. History will prove this woman and the other employees right in the end.
Ironic because Thinkpad T- and P-series laptops are some of the most robust machines you can get for a reasonable price these days.
Of course, the IBM that launched the Thinkpad line is a completely different company than the IBM that helped commit WWII atrocities... But it doesn't matter anyway because they sold the entire PC division to Lenovo 20 years ago.
History will, but these people have made a stand, achieved nothing, lost their jobs and won't be remembered.
I guess most everyone else that works at microsoft is cool with this.
Saint Luigi guide us.
I mean this person apparently was cool with it for years up until this point so..
Linux being better than ever couldn't have come at a better time.
Hopefully they will find better jobs with better employers.
For everyone who uses Windows, try Linux. Don't be scared to try something new, most things that are worthwhile come with some sacrifice. Sometimes, if we don't leave our comfort zone, we miss out.
I will provide a small guide, but there are tons of resources on the internet.
See the ranking on the right hand side here: https://distrowatch.com/ You can pick something from there on the top of the list.
Watch YouTube to learn more about each Linux distro that you find interesting.
I personally would recommend Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distros, as they have the widest support.
You don't have to wipe your Windows-installation completely, instead you can dual-boot. This allows you to pick Windows or Linux when you start your computer. If you feel comfortable switching entirely, you can wipe out Windows and keep Linux exclusively.
Just be careful when you partition your drive, don't accidentally overwrite your Windows installation (if that's not what you want to do). Make a backup copy of your most important files on a separate external drive before the installation.
Was going to ship an innovative Windows application, will now stop working on it to focus on other apps.
Ship it to Linux if possible lol
You're a war profiteer Mustafa!
Every mega corpo is infiltrated by the Israelis
Do evil.
Everyone needs to learn about Open-Source, Community-Made stuff, & more useful terms to know
Apalling.
Nice
https://www.theverge.com/news/644769/microsoft-fires-employee-protestor-war-profiteer
SAY YOU'RE SORRY OR THE COMPANY WILL BE SAD
It's comically ironic that the author of that note thought the whistle-blower should apologize to the dirtbag for saying something.
If you don't want people to be upset about your supporting genocide, then please consider not supporting genocide
It's fucking wild how many people simply won't consider not supporting genocide.
oh nooo not finger pointing, thats so outrageous, unlike killing thousands of children
the truth cant be hostile or inappropriate and the accusations were certainly not unprovoked
I think they were expressing remorse. Just, you know, remorse about the killing. Not the loss of face to the C-levels.
That is the real crime here ...
Embarassing rich people or losing profits. Their lives are what really matter, wouldn't want them to be inconvenienced in any way.
Have they said thank you once?
They want him to apologize for calling out Microsoft helping Israel murder children.
Soy Microsoft, tbh
you are Microsoft?