3 posts and columns on Richard M. Stallman

Windows Cloud Rolling In

in News on October 2, 2008 at 11:00 am PT

Not the Dreaded Blue Sky of Death Again …

in News on October 2, 2008 at 12:00 am PT

If Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Free Software Foundation founder Richard M. Stallman are planning a membership drive for their new Anti-Cloud Computing Coalition, they best not go knocking on Steve Ballmer’s door. Because the Microsoft CEO might not agree with their assessment of the Cloud Computing sobriquet as “complete gibberish,” “idiocy,” “stupidity,” and “worse than stupidity.” At an event in London today, Ballmer said Microsoft will debut its own “cloud operating system” at its Professional Developer Conference at the end of this month.

QOTD

It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: It’s a marketing hype campaign. 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. One reason you should not use Web applications to do your computing is that you lose control. It’s just as bad as using a proprietary program. 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 defenseless. You’re putty in the hands of whoever developed that software.

– Free Software Foundation founder Richard M. Stallman joins Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s Cloud Computing Skeptics Support Group