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Comment by tobylane | Hacker News Reader

China? Could he not side with someone who dislikes USA more? Surely there's a North Korean laptop that fits his requirements. Not that anyone other than Stallman is right, it's just odd.

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Your complaint seems just a little bit ridiculous considering that most Americans, yourself probably included, use computers made in China or made with parts made in China. In fact, it's probably easier to find and computer 100% free of proprietary software than a computer 100% free of Chinese components. Considering that, national security concerns aside, free trade between countries is usually mutually beneficial, I see no reason to fault Stallman for this.

I meant that he cares about total freedom and control of his hardware, and yet bought from a country that likes the opposite. Who knows if some part of it isn't actually open source, and if it isn't, China and NK are the least trustable countries (not companies per se) for it to be from.

At the risk of making meta-noise, why, oh why, have five different people replied to this thing in a single hour? Does anyone think that some kind of lovely discussion is going to bloom by "refuting" this comment? Half the page is now about whether Richard Stallman is anti-American and anti-freedom for buying a Chinese-manufactured laptop. Is this a good outcome?

Seriously, just downvote (or if it's bad enough, flag) and move on.

His concern in this case is to get something that runs with free software, rather than buy something from a particular country. I'm sure he'd agree that China does a lot of things he disagrees with at a political and philosophical level.

I would think he'd have a problem with China's track record on freedom more than any anti-USA connotations.

I guess Coca-Cola is an evil company but China is okay.

If people based their buying decisions on whether or not they like the producing country, it would kill US exports.

Not as much as you would think. Most people don't quite like the US but vastly prefer us to, say, China.

I disagree. I think people dislike the Chinese government, but not the Chinese people. I think there's a lot more racism against Americans in general in foreign countries than against the Chinese.

What does the USA have to do with this? It's not exactly the paragon of freedom.

He's American.

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