[Ilugc] RMS and Cloud Computing

[Kapil Hari Paranjape]

On Thu, 09 Oct 2008, Bhuvaneswaran A wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 10:33 AM, Kapil Hari Paranjape <kapil at imsc.res.in> wrote:
> >
> > Apropos some flaming^Wdiscussion that took place on this list
> > earier.
> >
> >  http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/stallman-vs-clouds
> 
> I also agree that stallman is wrong.
    ^^^^?

I did not say that I think RMS is wrong! In fact, I agree with him
quite a bit in this matter.

> If user is worried about security, FREEDOM, or relying upon a
> third-party software vendor for data processing, well, he can have
> his own setup.

Of course, we are worried about Freedom. That is what the F in
FOSS/FLOSS/FSF stands for!

I have no objection to putting data that I would normally put on my own
web pages or a public server onto the cloud. After all:

 (a) The cloud may be more easily reachable for some users than my
 own web pages.

 (b) The master pages for the data are with me so I can make another
 copy if the cloud "vanishes".

Using the cloud to process data is also not such a big problem as long
as data is not "secret" and the result can be easily extracted and a
copy stored with me.

Perhaps I am too old-fashioned! :)

Regards,

Kapil.
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