justinian said:
...investor in cloud computing technology ...
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Well, I'm an open-source/free software supporter, and from my point of view cloud computing is much worse for the consumer than mere closed-source binaries.
- No hope of interoperability or competition, as data can't be transferred between services easily and you only have one choice as to how to access that service
- Data isn't under users' control, so can be sold for marketing purposes or restricted using DRM
- Turns one-time fees into subscriptions which increases costs long-term at no benefit to the consumer
- When services expire or change data can be lost: see all the music DRM schemes which closed down leaving people without the music they paid for
- If governments adopt these technologies (which they will if enough marketing money and corporate power is behind it), people who didn't choose the service will be forced to use it anyway. For example, I am forced to use Microsoft Sharepoint in order to do schoolwork. I have no choice but to use Internet Explorer to interface with parts of it, (and I can't refuse to use it otherwise I would fail my course) so that is one of the reasons I have to use a Windows OS.
