The Cloud - Return of the Mainframes!

[Ancient Gamer]

In the olden days everyone worked on thin clients, basically keyboards and screens connected to a central computer running the software and storing the data.

Then came the PC and everything got local.

The next big thing is "The Cloud", which is an internet thingie being created simultanously by several big corporations, like Google.

The Cloud will let you play games, run applications and store data... online.

Gawd d**n, this sounds familiar!

[Chaosmark]

Honestly, I see it as just an extension of the thin-client model. Mainframes went out of usage because personal worskstations were better for most purposes. Now, the centralized model is being trotted out again, because technology allows it to work better for some things, such as universal data access.

[Ancient Gamer]

Yes, fine enough, but they present it like its a new shiny invention, when it is in fact the same s**t we saw yesterday, only in a new wrapping.

[Ancient Gamer]

Besides, I'm betting the real reason for the cloud is software piracy. With centralized data storage and applications, cracking and piracy related activities becomes much, much harder.

Crackers would need to hack the cloud servers, download the software and crack a local copy.

[manfred]

In the end though, many services are not so much about the software itself, it is the people connected to them, that make them desirable. Sure there will be crackers, but building the next Facebook, even if shinier, is not enough. Then there is experience with the software and the related support.

So I guess there will be more types of platforms and software, open and commercial, hacked and cracked even. The times they are a-changing.

[Chaosmark]

Personally, I'm waiting for the day when I get a true VR web experience. An interactive web, glorious vistas of code, sweeping and swirling in front of my eyes. Not quite the Matrix, where everything is seen as code, but a mixture of solid objects and the underlying code.

So...Awesome...

[dark_dragon]

Not only is it the same as before, but we have an added problem. Mainframes used to be used pretty much exclusively for work/study, and more often than not, the employer/university also ran the mainframe.

But now the usage model is completely different. From online banking to social applications, the data stored is far more sensitive and personal, (In effect, you entire life can now be traced from your laptop) and with cloud applications, you lose data ownership. Serious problem. until that is reliably addressed, "the Cloud" seems like a very bad idea if you care about privacy.

And with the EULA you have to sign, if something goes wrong, you are completely S.C.R.E.W.E.D.^(TM)

It's why I'm still lukewarm about Google Wave. Instead of storing the emails locally, they're stored on your wave provider's network. (which isn't necessarily bad. it is the same as a conventional gmail account) but for some situations, you really want to preserve data ownership. (Which means that you have to run your own *something* server, and more often than not, that simply isn't allowed by the providers, so you have to build from scratch (At least google got that right. open sourcing the protovol makes the thing paranoid-friendly))

[Ancient Gamer]

Hear, hear!

Google's entire suite of applications, from gmail to Google docs to Google Wave is in "the cloud", so in a way the cloud is already here.

Just some examples for the uninitiated to relate the word "the Cloud" to something specific.

[dark_dragon]

I found an interesting article on the subject of web apps, thought I'd post it here, since it is kind-of relevent.

http://benward.me/blog/understand-the-web

[Strolen]

All I know is I thought Ubuntu One would be the shiznit, but it sucked ass. Not a fault of the cloud (guess it uses Amazon's) but because the sync sucks bad. So I installed dropbox. So now the files I like to update a lot are easily shared between computers and I can sneak to them through work all because of this fabulous cloud thing you speak of.