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Is cloud computing a threat to open source?
April 14, 2009
Will we break a software stranglehold, only to fall back into the arms of hardware providers?
Posted by: John Spencer
Why the demise of proprietary software is creating a vacuum which is about to be filled... and we may not like it.
The PC Arrives on the Desktop
When I was at college the PC or personal computer had not arrived. We bought computing time (at great expense) on the 'mainframe', and a friend of mine made a good living selling computing-time to companies in need of computation.
After college in my first job with a multi-national company, we saw our first PCs, and true to all apocrypha my boss brought his into the office to use SuperCalc (on which he built his subsequent promotion).
The IT admins hated it of course, they liked the terminals with their distinctly unfunky apps, they had control because they controlled the server. They wanted control; the PC was too clearly freedom writ large.
The Network arrives... along with a loss of freedom
The PC revolution ushered in an explosion of possibilities and freedoms but it was not long before these freedoms were eroded. 'Networking' was the first step. The price paid for access to a file-share area and the ability to use any PC in the building and still see the same desktop was... membership of the dreaded 'Domain'. Combine the restrictions of the Domain with the quickly rising cost of (desirable) proprietary software and the shine was going off the PC revolution. Just ask anyone in corporate network how free they feel.
The second wave of freedom arrives
The second wave of freedom arrived as a package. The Word Wide Web and Linux are roughly contemporaneous. It is hard to over emphasise the liberating effect of open access to the web and free, open source software. At a stroke proprietary software and network-related strangleholds were rendered irrelevant. Once again an explosion of possibilities and freedoms has occurred and is occurring at a considerable rate.
Today I own my own hardware (actually I have quite a lot of it), no-one person or company owns or controls my software and I have the Web to play in. We are living in an unprecedented era of freedom. Thanks guys, thanks Tim B-L, thanks Linus T, thanks Richard S.
I think this freedom is under threat
My fear is that the web will be subsumed by the 'Clouds' servers and it will be controlled by hardware vendors.
The recent Cloud Computing Manifesto was weird. Signatories Cisco, AT&T, IBM and Sun account for an awful lot of the hardware on which 'Cloud' computing occurs so it makes sense that they would be keen on it. Red Hat and SAP are keen too but why? SAP is shedding jobs like dandruff and Red Hat still wants a seat at the top table as neo-mini Microsoft but what attracts these wannabes? Who knows?
What I do know is that unexpectedly two of the signatories, namely the mighty Microsoft and Google announced that they were unhappy with the level of transparency behind the scenes in the drawing up of the manifesto (ironic isn't it?). As a result they very publicly withdrew.
This must be significant, so significant that it warrants some speculation in the absence of any real hard facts.
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About the author
John Spencer Written by staff at Sirius Corporation, the Open Source services group, this blog seeks to dispel any FUD around the use of Open Source software in the Enterprise and provide perspectives on business, economics, politics, philosophy and the environment.
Comments received
James Dixon said on Tuesday, 14 April 2009
I don't follow you.
You have the choice to run your application in the cloud or run it locally. How is having a choice a bad thing? Also, the hardware I am using (whether locally or remotely) can run either proprietary software or open source software. Open source has a much better cost profile for cloud deployment, but again you still have the choice.
Cloud computing is not a threat to open source.
James
jean said on Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Mandriva a quite well known distribution editor, is member of a group called XtreemOS.
The aim of the project is to create an Open Source grid computing OS.
example of an app that can come up, grid computing with cell phones:
while you talk with someone, the grid is working and after the call, you recieve the text of your conversation via SMS
http://www.xtreemos.org/
Ron Burkey said on Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Regarding James Dixon's comment that you always have a choice:
What I understood the concern to be is this: Suppose that cloud computing becomes so popular that it's the only thing the average person uses? Then there's no need to manufacture ever-cheaper ever-more powerful readily-available computers. Then you can't just pop down to the local budget computer store to get an affordable general-purpose computer. Then you no longer have a choice, because any computer available to you has only "cloud" functionality rather than the capability of running the local software you want it to run.
As to whether that's likely or not, I don't care to venture an opinion.
Kevin said on Tuesday, 14 April 2009
I think you are paranoid beyond control. Thin client is nothing new. It is just like what Web 2.0 means to the public. Web 2.0 is web apps with the user content generation. Cloud computing is nothing but a graphical dumb terminal computing. Most new enterprise apps will be developed into a web interface, so the client machines can go thinner. This creates an easier management of user's workstation or node. The need for Desktop admins will be dead within five years, but we will be needing more server and network admins to overcome the workloads. Cloud computing trend doesn't mean all the applications will be offloaded into the insecure networks that local and security admins have no control. Still today, all the apps in the enterprise aren't ran from corporate headquarters. Some apps and servers are ran in the local branches. Cloud computing is nothing, but a born again thin client computing.
John said on Tuesday, 14 April 2009
re kevin your quote: 'Cloud computing is nothing, but a born again thin client computing.'..the point indeed. Thin Client computing is someone else's computing, not yours..if it belongs to someone else you have no control. If you wan't to use that web app in the future then jump through this hoop..dependent boy :)
Kevin said on Wednesday, 15 April 2009
quoting john, "Thin Client computing is someone else's computing, not yours..if it belongs to someone else you have no control. If you wan't to use that web app in the future then jump through this hoop..dependent boy :)" I think you are way too young to understand this has been done before. Cloud computing is nothing, but an opposite reaction to Windows bloated clients. Cloud computing doesn't mean every dumb stupid paranoid IT workers will fear Amazon and Google. Maybe, some of you bloggers/reporters should ask the people who work in IT what these new technology means to enterprise. Cloud computing is born again, less kill the client server app computing of bloated Desktop OS and stop relying on Desktop OSes to accomplish Enterprise technology goals. The client libraries are out of control. The current Netframe lib is over 300 megs. More codes on the dekstop, costs keep on going up. Next time, ask the IT Pros what these definitions mean.
john said on Wednesday, 15 April 2009
to Kevin above, I'll stop the flaming bit now..after one more comment :). I am 55 years old and remember only too well when IT belonged to the IT pros, so I would be unhappy to leave it to them again. BTW, I love thin-client computing. all the best John
Cloud computing freedom is what the AGPL stands fo said on Wednesday, 15 April 2009
I am surprised that no one brought up the AGPL. At the moment, it looks like our best defense to make sure that software in the cloud remains Free - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGPL
W said on Friday, 24 April 2009
Cloud computing is an inevitable future. It's already making an impact in HPC (high performance computing) applications, such as Matlab or Abaqus. Desktop applications, such as Office are not threaten now, because it is not very convenient to use them from some server in a cloud (google docs are far from being comfortable).
Daniel Escasa said on Saturday, 25 April 2009
To paraphrase Spiderman, with great freedom comes great responsibility. I've worked as an IT "high priest" while still believing in "power to the people", which required training in responsible computing. Unfortunately, hardly anyone paid attention to the latter, as a result of which I spent countless hours fighting fires in the form of viruses.