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Stallman slams the cloud as "stupidity"
You'll be "putty in the hands" of your host

By Mike Ricciuti

Published: Wednesday 01 October 2008

Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and creator of the GNU operating system, has slammed cloud computing as "stupidity" that ultimately will result in vendor lock-in and escalating costs.

In a report posted by The Guardian, Stallman said: "The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we've redefined [it] to include everything that we already do."

Cloud computing, the latest marketing description for a notion put forth by computer industry companies in recent years, moves most of the computing power - and sometimes data - to servers maintained by companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon. The classic example of cloud computing might be Gmail, offered by Google.

Stallman said cloud computing forces people to hand over control of their information to a third party. His objections echo his longstanding belief in non-proprietary software. "One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control," he said. "It's just as bad as using a proprietary program."

He added: "Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software."

Stallman dismissed cloud computing as industry bluster. "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign," he said. "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."