On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 8:52 PM, Kapil Hari Paranjape <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Using the cloud to process data is also not such a big problem as long > as data is not "secret" and the result can be easily extracted and a > copy stored with me. >
Thats the issue. For all its efficiency and ease of use, if cloud computing service provider is going to impose a lock-in to use only its own service, its no different from the lock-in Microsoft is usually associated with. If Google docs does not allow data export to odf then its no better than MS Office (on the freedom aspect.... on features aspect MS Office still beats it). It doesn't matter whether open source software or proprietary s/w is used in the backend. Strangely, many among open source proponents think that as long as open source s/w is used in the backend and as long as the cloud computing service provider is contributing to some open source projects its freedom friendly!!! In fact, in a discussion in this list long ago it was generally accepted that freedom is only an issue if s/w is being distributed without source code. If there was no distribution involved and only 'use' as by a cloud computing service provider, there was no problem!!! regds, mano _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe <password> <address>" in the subject or body of the message. http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
