Comments on: Stallman’s Hype Machine About Cloud Computing

By: Chris the Cynic

Chris the Cynic — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:10:59 +0000

Does anyone recall reading in the paper about credit card numbers being stolen in the millions? How about social security numbers? And this was in company data not intended to be put out over the web.

There used to be a saying that no IT person ever got fired for buying IBM. In the future none will be fired for not putting company data into the cloud.

By: Cloud Computing Aus

Cloud Computing Aus — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:51:24 +0000

Always like to see info on Cloud Computing! Looks like Australians are starting to wake up to it now with Telstra announcing a $500m spend this week on cloud computing services.

By: Richard Stallman’s cloud computing nonsense « Webcitizen FelipeC

Richard Stallman’s cloud computing nonsense « Webcitizen FelipeC — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:11:20 +0000

[...] Stallman’s Hype Machine About Cloud Computing Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Oracle CEO Larry Ellison Spits on Cloud Computing Hype [...]

By: Myles Eftos

Myles Eftos — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:54:14 +0000

Sham: Ideally it is, but in reality all that FOSS gives us is the opportunity to view, review and change the source of those systems – so my point is, that it’s relevancy, particularly when speaking about web applications is small when talking in terms of the vast majority of users, as the number of people that can and will make modifications is minute.

By: Sham Chukoury

Sham Chukoury — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:01:49 +0000

Myles, I think that the issue of skill/convenience is orthogonal to FOSS. FOSS is simply about licencing software under terms that permit third parties to obtain, modify and redistribute source code. How this is achieved – whether or not people are paid to produce the original code, whether any third parties have the time or skill to get involved, and so on – is separate from the issue of open licencing.

By: Myles Eftos

Myles Eftos — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:07:00 +0000

Two things that Stallman hasn’t taken to account (And it’s these two things that the fundemental flaws in FOSS in general)

1. Not everyone has the skill or hardware to build and/or install their own software that would allow them do what services like Gmail, Google Apps or Basecamp do

2. Not everyone out of those who DO have skill or hardware have the time to do it. Did he think about the fact that many people use these services because they are convenient? I don’t have to care about hard drive failures, or power outages – it’s someone else’s problem.

So once again FOSS fails to realise that the < 1% of people who would rather spend their lives sitting in a dark office in some Computer Science faculty somewhere optimising their Haskell implementation of the towers of Hanoi aren’t the norm – most people just what to get their work done. If that means Google gets to go through my data, big fucking deal. If my data was that private, I wouldn’t be using the cloud anyway.

By: Sham Chukoury

Sham Chukoury — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:13:41 +0000

While the article tries to frame the statement in the context of privacy, I’m more inclined to believe that the ‘freedom’ Stallman was referring to is about software freedom, not ‘the freedom to move your data to wherever you see fit and access it however you want to’.

See the FSF’s Free Software definition here: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

I believe the reason why Stallman sees cloud computing as dangerous is primarily because users of cloud computing services usually cannot have access to the software that runs those services. They cannot study the software or modify it or redistribute it.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:55:23 +0000

Aahhh Chris. It’s interesting that you picked on my one bit of fun. A little bit of sarcasm. What did you think of the rest of the blog post?

By: chris

chris — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:33:51 +0000

To claim that RMS has “exhausted [his] used-by-date…” is both foolish and arrogant.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 07:00:53 +0000

PaulO, exactly. And that’s why the question is important no matter what we use.

I ask the question whatever I use. I know that with services like Zoho CRM, Flickr, and Google Docs I can export my data. I also know they are big enough not to show warning signs, or provide enough time if they go belly up to export my data, photos, and documents. I wouldn’t use a small, unfunded company to store important data for that very reason.

But Stallman didn’t qualify what he meant (at least he wasn’t quoted as qualifying it), and instead made a blanket statement. If I listened to him I’d miss out on a great CRM I can easily share with work colleagues, an amazing photo community, and collaborative sharing of documents no matter where I am. That’s freedom to me.

We could very easily extend the old analogy that was used in the computer security business (might still be in fact), that if you want to protect your data, stick it in a safe and lock it. That’s not “free.”

There are always pros and cons, and they always have to be considered (my point in asking the question). But Stallman doesn’t even seem willing to ask what the pros are when using the “cloud.”