[GRLUG] Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman

[Erik Southworth]

In general I respect Stallman's opinions but this opinion seems
out-of-touch.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/29/cloud.computing.richard.stallman

He seems to target large web platforms like that of Google and Yahoo. I see
cloud computing as targeting developers and developers as targeting
consumers.
Stallman may rightly suspect third-party data warehousing but web
programmers don't write desktop apps. It seems his view is demonizing any
webapp like
Facebook or MySpace but if nobody builds a desktop equivalent, what then is
the point of marginalizing them. I don't like webapps much either but their
linking, hypertexting and open API's seems fundamental to the idea of the
web as a community platform. Amazon sells cloud computing but it's just a
scalable platform. The developers build the apps, not Amazon. If Stallman is
correct then web developers are wrong and desktop developers are right. He's
making a confusing argument.

If a desktop app wants to upset the web paradigm then it would have to
provide all the integrated services of the web itself which seems
unnecessary. What would he have done? Replace the web itself?
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