Cloud Computing is "Stupidity", Says GNU Founder

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"Idiocy", "stupidity", and "fashion". Those three words are brought to bear against the trend of cloud computing, which entails storing private info (normally saved on your hard drive) on remote servers accessed via the Internet. Most people already use this technology to some extent, as with free email providers. Flickr, and Google Docs.

Richard Stallman, GNU founder and open-source enthusiast, is not down with this.

Stallman actually uses the word "stupidity", though I can see the appeal: if you drop your laptop or run out of storage space, or simply want to switch machines, all your stuff is out there in the ether, waiting for you.

That's the problem, though: it's out there in the ether. As in, "you can't get your hands on the drive that's physically storing your stuff". Also as in, "you have no control over the delivery system that's sending you your stuff".

Private users are unlikely to really need a cloud solution, whose sole advantages are in simultaneous delivery to a great many users, and massive mass-storage capability. For example, all Hotmail users, back in the day, were dealing with a cloud system when signing up: their account details were stored ona server somewhat close to them. For example, the nearest  one to me at the time was in California, but when I moved to England, the account storage didn't follow me across the pond. It waited faithfully in Cali, getting pinged every time I logged in. Of course, when that server went down, my email became unavailable. Not a big deal for free email, but for anything really personal, I'd not want it too far beyond my reach.

That way, if it gets broken, at least it's my fault.

With storage so affordable these days, including cheap flash cards, USB drives and even RAID setups, there's nothing really inevitable about the cloud.

(found via Slashdot)