That’s the opinion of Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation and the creator of the open source GNU system. Stallman recently told the Guardian exactly what he thinks we do when we embrace cloud computing.
"It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign,"
"Somebodyis saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody sayingthat, it’s very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make ittrue."
This is a common argument that many have against cloud computing. Giving up of control over vital data requires an awful lot of trust in the keeper of it.
"One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing isthat you lose control," he said. "It’s just as bad as using aproprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer withyour copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietaryprogram or somebody else’s web server, you’re defenseless. You’re puttyin the hands of whoever developed that software."
Let’s hope that Stallman is not a prophet about the cloud as it is certainly gathering the steam of acceptance more each day. I must admit that the lack of control over my data has been the biggest obstacle for me to clear in adoption. I remember not that long ago when ALL data was stored on some corporate server somewhere, even our communications, and we all shouted hallelujah when personal computers came along giving us control over our own data. It seems to me the cloud is just us giving the data back to the servers we don’t control as Stallman says.
Putting data back up on the servers in this day and age isn’t so bad, so long as people start *caching data locally.*
Stallman’s always been a bit of a crank on these things, and while it’s very useful to have a miniature infrastructure in your home in order to build NEW software, and control your data, at the end of the day, open formats count for a lot in the grand scheme of things.
Ideally, I should be able to run Google Docs and Spreadsheets from a laptop inside a Faraday cage without a problem, for example. That program ties into what amounts to the Google Gears OS, which is either run through a web server, or locally, and all of THAT should be Open Source.
In the end, that means that some standardized document synchronization API would let you store your files locally, in Google’s cloud, or in someone else’s cloud, with all of the same functionality. It doesn’t take anything away, and it adds to the idea that you don’t need to carry your data with you all the time, but you *can* if you want to.
RMS wants to live in a world where everyone controls their data, their code, and their backups, but the rest of the world hasn’t even learned to back up daily, let alone write their own code.
I have a hard time agreeing with what he’s saying. This is the same guy that was featured in the Open Source documentary a few years ago and he seems a little ego-maniacal to take everything he says at face value.
I understand the need to secure and control one’s data, but I also understand that there are many companies out there that can secure and maintain hardware at a low cost that I could not afford otherwise. I like the portability of the various apps I use. It makes getting new “toys” much easier and I have options without requiring a lot of data syncing or running into compatability issues.
To say that “cloud computing” is only a marketing ploy and that Google is going to own all of the data one day is absurd. I wouldn’t even know about his article if I hadn’t found it on the web this morning (and I can guarantee you that neither Mr. Stallman nor I own that hardware.)
Serious question from me. Is this just a question that you’re asking because it’s been covered in blogs during the last several days, or do you REALLY care about issues of vendor lock in and data integrity? I ask this because it doesn’t seem to be an issue that gets much recognition here at JK, even though a lot of your coverage could often be filled out by addressing these issues.
I like this blog, but to me it’s more about the excitement of new things than thoughtful adoption. I get that stuff elsewhere, and those guys don’t seem to get their hands on the shniy new things that you do. If you’re going to adopt thoughtfully then you want to add this angle to more items that you cover. Otherwise, why do you care? The “cloud” is new and exciting except that networking computing was actually one of the first forms of computing rather than one of the most recent.
-bb
theasset, this is a subject that we have expounded on frequently as it is an issue many are currently struggling with. Kevin even did a long period of “cloud-only” computing that we covered extensively. You can find that under the “WEB” category.
I fully agree with Stallman. My biggest thing is our precious data is at the mercy of someone you didn’t hire, haven’t screened, can’t depend on to keep your stuff secure. With the pay cuts IT jobs have taken in the last couple of years, who knows what the caliber of the person that has been donned with the task of maintaining a server environment that your data resides on. Cloud computing in the business segment is not likely to happen anytime soon, which is not a good outlook for the netbook market.
@Ben Smith
Your blog says “IMHO, his idealistic views lower his credibility of the subject…” with respect to Stallman.
Your idealistic view that Google will never own all of our data may be equally idealistic and by your own (weird) logic discrediting of any opinion that you may have.
I’ll make you a deal. If you know who Robert David Steele is without asking a search engine then I’ll bow to your authority on Stallman, otherwise, I recommend that you use the Internet for more than just posting opinions about repackaged news about opinions… like say RESEARCH.
While I agree that cloud apps and data have their place, we are living in an increasingly dangerous and unstable world. The public network is itself a target.
Clearly, cloud computing would be improved if it adopted standards for a more robust model of data replication and region-service availability. We must remember the Internet started as a DoD concept of robust survivability in a very imperfect word.
The cloud is useful and allows the regular folks all to leverage its power especially for online collaboration, secondary storage, email etc etc. The cloud will continue to be increasingly present in our lives. HOWEVER, I will NOT depend on it for sole access to applications or data. That path is strewn with risks that I cannot accept. For the foreseeable future I still intend to balance the power of the cloud with the power of controlling my apps and data in an off-line world.
IMHO it depends on YHO (your humble opinion). I’m a big fan of RMS but some of my personal info are not in the cloud nor in my mac. Having been following your blog for a while I think you are a true believer when it comes to using the right tool for the task. I think this means that if the tool is on the cloud than you have to trust the cloud. Stretching RSM’s idea anybody should run his own mailserver and, why not, own a Telco company to get access to the internet. Not such a handy solution, IMHO. Clearly this, I think, is not taking away any value from freedom-respecting-computing.
As is so often the case, both camps are correct about the extreme positives and negatives possible… but it’s the “third way” in between that is the best way to go: use “the cloud” but do so on your own terms, and keep hold of your data.
As an example of how we do it and how it works for us, my Windoze laptop recently failed to go into hibernate properly and after travelling with it running the harddrive physically crashed.
I was on the road, but bought a new harddrive the next day, inserted the boot CD for Kubuntu that I had in my bag for just such a situation, and within a few hours of discovering the problem (after only an hour of simply typing apps that I wanted into Adept package manager and clicking “install”) I was back working as normal.
All of my tools are “in the cloud” to some extent: IMAP email, SVN code repositories, Google Docs (backed up automatically to one of our servers) and other Web Apps like those from 37Signals (which again give you very easy interfaces to get all of your data off of them – again to backup yourself on a separate server) and some internal tools we’ve made ourselves.
Obviously I don’t need to run the hardware (I’ve worked in hosting before, and I’m happy for someone else to deal with it!), but that doesn’t mean sacrificing either your data or your ownership of that data. The best of both worlds is readily attainable, and if you have a problem with a specific provider (i.e. Google) then just use one of their many competitors.
As an added aside given the nature of this site, it also allows me to do 80-90% of my work on my HTC x7500 with VGA-out and ThinkOutside bluetooth keyboard and mouse!