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.
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