Linked by David Adams on Tue 30th Sep 2008 02:26 UTC
Talk, Rumors, X Versus Y A very interesting "Blogwatch" posting at Computerworld links out to an interview with Richard Stallman wherein he posits that Cloud Computing is a trap to entice users to give up control and privacy and become subject to closed, proprietary platforms. Since RMS is a professional provocateur, I wouldn't consider all of his pronouncements newsworthy. But the thoughtful responses linked in this blog roundup were interesting, and I believe the issue of convenience vs control vis a vis Cloud Computing is a very timely and important debate to be having at this point in IT history.
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RE: I never thought I'd...
by UZ64 on Tue 30th Sep 2008 20:50 UTC in reply to "I never thought I'd..."
UZ64
Member since:
2006-12-05

I'm 23 and, yeah, I agree too. 100%. I like to be in control of my computer, including how it works and my data. If I don't like how it's set up to begin with, I want to be able to change it. I don't like the idea of everything I do being up there, in some corporate "cloud" that these companies will sell to other companies as soon as they see dollar signs.

I reject making it so that I can't play my music and video files and access my documents when I want, how I want (ie., practically any time I want). Electricity is quite reliable as far as service goes; it rarely goes out. My Internet connection sure as hell is not! Both of my poisons... er, local choices, Time Warner Cable and AT&T DSL have absolutely CRAP service. Whether it's constant outages (both) or throttled connections (cable), it's as unreliable as can be. And don't get me started on dial-up.

It's bad enough the Web is moving that direction, changing links to from actual audio and video files. Now it's some browser-crashing, CPU-hogging Flash monstrosity that tries its damnedest to keep you from "saving" the file by hopping right over the standards that worked so well back in '97, when I first started going online. The Internet sure has become a messy place, with the advent of DRM, Flash, and advertising companies...

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