Richard Stallman: Cloud Computing a Trap
As an original founder of Open Source, Richard Stallman cautions in an interview with the British Guardian newspaper about the repercussions of cloud computing. His main objection: dependency and loss of control.
Just days after Stallman finished celebrating the 25th anniversary of his GNU Open Source project, the controversial free software activist was again making headlines. This time his diatribe was aimed at a current trend in the IT industry known as cloud computing. Through this service, which even Red Hat offers with its Jboss over the Amazon EC2, IT power such software, computing capacity, and even storage can be rented from external sources rather than being drawn from the desktop. The promise to users is the greater flexibility of paying only for what they need. Stallman doesn't trust this promise. He takes Google's Gmail service as an example and warns that such web-based programs force locked and proprietary systems on users, and can only become increasingly expensive.
Stallman's Guardian interview contains harsh words: "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign." He suspects a strategic conspiracy: "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."
The Open Source activist warns computer users to maintain control over their information instead of giving it away to outsiders: "One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control." To do so, he says, would be almost as bad as using a proprietary program. Stallman thereby sticks close to the mission of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and its recent Statement on Freedom and Network Services. Through this statement, FSF and activist group autonomo.us came together to discuss issues of freedom for users under the concept Software as a Service (SaaS). The similarity in concept with that of Stallman's is no accident. Stallman was also the first president of FSF while he was helping develop the General Public License (GPL).
Comments
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Sees Massive Performance Increase from a Single Line of Code
With one line of code, Intel was able to increase the performance of the Linux kernel by 4,000 percent.
-
Fedora KDE Approved as an Official Spin
If you prefer the Plasma desktop environment and the Fedora distribution, you're in luck because there's now an official spin that is listed on the same level as the Fedora Workstation edition.
-
New Steam Client Ups the Ante for Linux
The latest release from Steam has some pretty cool tricks up its sleeve.
-
Gnome OS Transitioning Toward a General-Purpose Distro
If you're looking for the perfectly vanilla take on the Gnome desktop, Gnome OS might be for you.
-
Fedora 41 Released with New Features
If you're a Fedora fan or just looking for a Linux distribution to help you migrate from Windows, Fedora 41 might be just the ticket.
-
AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10 Gives Power Users a Sneak Preview
If you're looking to kick the tires of AlmaLinux's upstream version, the developers have a purrfect solution.
-
Gnome 47.1 Released with a Few Fixes
The latest release of the Gnome desktop is all about fixing a few nagging issues and not about bringing new features into the mix.
-
System76 Unveils an Ampere-Powered Thelio Desktop
If you're looking for a new desktop system for developing autonomous driving and software-defined vehicle solutions. System76 has you covered.
-
VirtualBox 7.1.4 Includes Initial Support for Linux kernel 6.12
The latest version of VirtualBox has arrived and it not only adds initial support for kernel 6.12 but another feature that will make using the virtual machine tool much easier.
-
New Slimbook EVO with Raw AMD Ryzen Power
If you're looking for serious power in a 14" ultrabook that is powered by Linux, Slimbook has just the thing for you.
"Free Software" not "Open Source"