Personally, I don't understand why Debian Cloud needs a philosophy at all. Doing so puts us at risk of making such strange statements that also don't exactly come across positive either.
On Sun, Apr 21, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Richard Stallman <[email protected]> wrote: > The nebulous term "cloud computing" refers to many different > scenarios, and they raise different issues. Thus, attempting > to discuss "the issue of cloud computing" is an invitation > to go astray. It is setting out on the wrong path. > > One specific case, which is specific enough to say something about, is > SaaS (software as a service). The article > http://wiki.debian.org/Cloud/www.d.o-draft/philoshphy compares SaaS to > various things, but I think those comparisons are all mistaken. > > A library is nothing like SaaS. A library is, traditionally, a place > where you look at others' publications. The Internet analogue of a > library is a ordinary web site such as gnu.org. > > The postal system is nothing like SaaS. The post office is a system > of communication. The Internet analogue of the post office is email, > or the Internet itself, used in the end-to-end form that it was > designed for. > > A restaurant is nothing like SaaS. A restaurant sells a product that > you consume, and that's not much like any digital activity. > > Food varies in regard to nutrition and taste, but it always goes in > the same opening and gets digested the same way. Food is consumed; > using digital data does not consume it, and doing computational > activity is not consuming anything except electricity. > > Computing carries out a wide variety of activities, nothing like the > uniformity of eating. Food can be unhealthy, but it can't be used to > spy on you or manipulate you in subtle ways, not even if it is > drugged. Thus, food is not comparable to software. The analogy is > misleading. > > What is SaaS? SaaS means doing your own computing on a server run by > someone else. It means losing control over your computing. A better > term for it could be SaaSS: Service as a Software Substitute. It > means that instead of doing your computing the right way -- by running > your copy of a free program -- you hand your computing over to someone > else, who has total control over it. > > Usimg SaaSS is equivalent to running a nonfree program with spyware > and a universal back door (capable of forcible remote installation of > software changes). There is no way to make SaaSS ok. > > However, other network services are a totally different issue. For > instance, the Debian servers distribute copies of software. That's a > different kind of activity, and raises different issues. The only > thing that can be bad about this is if the software is nonfree. > > "Cloud computing" is the wrong kind of generalization -- it includes > cases that raise totally different issues. To have a sensible > discussion we should focus first on the different kinds of network > services, to see which of them are inherently bad and find the ethical > rules for the other kinds. > > -- > Dr Richard Stallman > President, Free Software Foundation > 51 Franklin St > Boston MA 02110 > USA > www.fsf.org www.gnu.org > Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. > Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact > [email protected] > Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected] > > -- *Chris Fordham* *Cloud Solutions Engineer* RightScale Inc. Direct: +61 2 9037 2780 US Callers: +1 805 243 0252 Cell: +61 423 003 417 Skype: chris.fordham.rs Email: [email protected]
