Hi,
I'm new on this forum. I discovered Trisquel through FSF and I was very glad
of this discover. First I want to congratulate the developers of this OS. We
seem to forget today the meaning of GNU/Linux.
Now, I will explain you my interrogation that could seem awkward...
I must acquire a new laptop, and I want to use free software on it. Ok... But
I think that the philosophy of free software ("la philosophie du libre", like
we could say in french) is confronted to a problem... The hardware...
On which kind of hardware (for example a laptop) would this philosophy must
be applied ?
In my opinion, it perverts the "philosophie du libre" to use GNU/Linux on
laptops which are produced in dreadful social conditions in Asia (e.g. for
Apple Inc. with foxconn), without respect of nature, and of course without
respect of freedom (in the sense of FSF).
An ideal would be an "open-source hardware" in fair trade...
I know that someone like R. Stallman uses a lemote yeelong, for the free bios
and the compatibility with free software.
But I think it's not enough. It's still a laptop which is produced not in
very fair conditions.
In my opinion, this philosophy could be perverted if we use a libre GNU/Linux
distribution on a laptop which is produced against some ethic, environmental
and free software values(not all the values, it should be too idealistic...
just some).
I put the accent more on social conditions of production and environmental
protection (to illustrate what i'm saying
http://chinalaborwatch.org/pro/proshow-149.html for the social conditions and
for the environment
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/electronics/Guide-to-Greener-Electronics/)
So, does a kind of laptop which respects all of these values exist ? For
example, a laptop produced by a small business in good conditions, for
example in Europe ?
I know that it is a little bit idealistic, I'm a aware of the importance of
the asian manufacturers and that in a laptop there are a lot of components so
a lot of manufacturers (the CPU manufacturer in a country and the harddrive
in an other country, etc.).
We can't just be proud of our freedom when it's based on the oppression of
freedom in other countries (or even in our country).
To sum up this long and unclear development...
Fair trade and laptop, is it possible ?
