RMS and Cloud Computing
Richard M. Stallman (RMS) is the largest driving force behind the open source computer movement (created the GNU tools, the GPL, Free Software Foundation, etc.). However, RMS is an ardent free software advocate, and many find his unending rants on the evils of proprietary software to be tiresome. RMS recently spoke about cloud computing, and had this to say:
It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign … whenever you hear somebody saying … this is inevitable … it’s very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true.
In the comments section of OSNews’ link to the article, there was a surprising amount of people agreeing with RMS. I guess when you are right, you are right.
September 30, 2008 at 8:29 pm
If cloud computing had a litany of competitors or even offered architectures licensed as free software (with source), I doubt he would have a problem.
I know it gets tedious, but in this case, he may have a point.
How many cloud computing suites do you come across anyway? I see Google and just one or two potential competitors. But they charge something. Even Google has premium services for this.
What would really be awesome is if each computer could connect to this cloud to increase its own processing and memory capability. I.E. Connecting to the Internet makes you part of a massive cluster, giving access to its resources, with your own personal terminal.
The real “evil” here may not be the cloud computing. I think, technically, it’s a great idea. I just think propietary intrests and privacy concerns are something to be cautious of.