Richard Stallman has spoken out about cloud computing and what he believes is a trap aimed at forcing people to buy into proprietary systems.
Cloud computing is basically where you store data online or run your servers via remote. Millions of people now upload personal data such as emails, photographs and, increasingly, their work, to sites owned by companies such as Google.
Stallman sees cloud computing as nothing more than a sales ploy;
“It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign,”
“One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control,” he said. “It’s just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program.
If you use a proprietary program or somebody else’s web server, you’re defenceless. You’re putty in the hands of whoever developed that software.”The Guardian
If we choose to store data online we have to accept that we could lose it at anytime, either through a mistake, hacking or some other disaster.
Insightful and thought provoking stuff from Stallman.
hmmm strange
I guess he has a point but cloud computing rocks for being able to do your shiz from anywhere. Sure you maybe able to setup your own cloud and host it on free software etc but not everyone could easily set that up.
That’s true, it’s got me thinking, but I wonder if he knows of another way to collaborate without being present with people we didn’t know we wanted to know. Wait! We’ll organize this experience by creating a ring of personal web pages and and call it a web ring!