Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman this week said cloud computing was "stupidity" that ultimately would result in vendor lock-in and escalating costs.
Richard Stallman at MIT in 2006.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
"The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we've redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do," Stallman said, in a report posted by The Guardian this week.
Cloud computing, the latest marketing description for a notion put forth by computer industry companies in recent years, moves most of the computing power, and sometimes data, to servers maintained by companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. The classic example of cloud computing might be Gmail, offered by Google.
Stallman says cloud computing forced people to hand over control of their information to a third party. His objections echo his longstanding belief in non-proprietary software. "One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control," he said. "It's just as bad as using a proprietary program."
"Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenseless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software," he said.
Stallman dismissed cloud computing as industry bluster. "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign," he said. "Somebody is saying this is inevitable: and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it's very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true."
