Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman(guardian.co.uk)
guardian.co.uk
Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/29/cloud.computing.richard.stallman
3 comments
http://catb.org/jargon/html/W/wheel-of-reincarnation.html
There are other examples of this than the one cited. There's a wheel of reincarnation in computing between the mainframe/thin-client model and the PC/P2P-network model. Right now we've come from an era of PC dominance back to an era of mainframe models around the "cloud." (The new term for mainframe computing.) IPv6 and ubiquitous wireless broadband would be among those things that would turn the wheel back around to the PC/distributed side.
The big barrier is the carriers and their squatting over the wireless spectrum and insistence upon control over the device. Once the carriers are opened up and commoditized, or once meshnets or other innovations make them less relevant, we'll have this. Open the spectrum and kill NAT (with IPv6), and you kill the cloud.
There are other examples of this than the one cited. There's a wheel of reincarnation in computing between the mainframe/thin-client model and the PC/P2P-network model. Right now we've come from an era of PC dominance back to an era of mainframe models around the "cloud." (The new term for mainframe computing.) IPv6 and ubiquitous wireless broadband would be among those things that would turn the wheel back around to the PC/distributed side.
The big barrier is the carriers and their squatting over the wireless spectrum and insistence upon control over the device. Once the carriers are opened up and commoditized, or once meshnets or other innovations make them less relevant, we'll have this. Open the spectrum and kill NAT (with IPv6), and you kill the cloud.
So was Windows, Iphone, Oracle DB, etc. etc. It always starts off as the "easy button" and it takes a while to figure out you're trapped. "Just get Windows 95" ... "Iphone just works" ... "Don't worry, it's SQL, we can port it to another vendor anytime". Eventually people wise up and a low cost alternative undercuts whatever happens to be the "evil empire" of the day.
Just make sure you can secure and recover your precious data and code when disaster strikes. Pray that the "company jewels" are being traded on some East European dark net.