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Comment by frik | Hacker News Reader

Munich should have switched to ChromeOS/ChromiumOS or Android or RedHat/CentOS or Ubuntu on thin clients, as the software is anyway usually web based in the cloud/intranet. But neither Google nor RedHat or Ubuntu are known to lobby.

@sz4kerto:

> ChromeOS proprietary

Why you pick this one of a list of many? ChromiumOS is open source, as is Android, as is RedHat or Ubuntu. But Windows is proprietary.

> Google spends a lot on lobbying, by the way, afaik more than what Microsoft is spending.

Really? Source please. The question is how much do they all spend lobbying for an OS? How much do they spend lobbying in Munich? (hint German HQ got relocated to Munich) You read like a employee.

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How's ChromeOS better than Windows? It's proprietary, and on the top of that, it directly relies on an external service.

Google spends a lot on lobbying, by the way, afaik more than what Microsoft is spending.

Why do you reply by editing your original comment, instead of using the "reply"-function?

Here is why - even if I risk more downvotes or getting flagged down:

If someone flags your comment on HN, you can only post about 4 comments per day and news submit feature is "practically" disabled - HN displays a "slow down, don't submit so fast" Error message which of course makes little sense. Also your comments will start with a lower/negative value behind the scene, you will find your posts on the bottom even if it says 1 votes, and other comments with negative value may be above yours.

There is a lot of monitoring by companies contracted obviously by $$ going on, to shape PR and public opinion. Be it employees, fanboys, or paid PR drones, it doesn't matter, they are quite toxic to the community at large I would say. I would wish more moderation in regard, and the removal of the downvote- and flag-functionality for everyone (but moderators).

Okay, I understand. I agree that the Hacker News comment system isn't optimal. Downvotes shouldn't hide a comment. Unpopular opinions shouldn't be suppressed. I'm not sure how the flag-functionality works, but if it can hide a comment without moderator input, then I'm all for replacing it with a "report"-function. Too many times one sees throwaway accounts being used for expressing possibly unpopular thoughts. I can only imagine how many comments weren't written, because somebody was afraid of downvotes and losing the good standing of his account. Personally I too have started writing a couple comments and not posted them in the end, because I was afraid of downvotes and the associated consequences. Having to think like that doesn't exactly help to make HN a diverse and interesting place.

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