The first link gives me an 404 error.

I agree with you too. My data is my data, it's not theirs-- Who knows who could be looking at it? Or could ask to look at it? (FBI, etc.)

Besides, the Internet is far from secure. With various traffic snooping going on and patchy encryption methods available, the picture isn't too nice looking. Plus having your data stored in a cloud OS would be one hell of a 'honey pot' for hackers to target and they would certainly target it.

Lee said:

It is just not my thing; putting something of mine (music, pictures, documents, etc) on someone else network just isn't going to happen.

If your cloud gets infected how does the cloud get uninfected. Who and how does the infection get removed? How does one secure the clouds. We all have selected the protection we want on our computers. How does one select what protection is use in a cloud? Security is my concern.

The link to Softpedia as been repaired for those who want to read the article.

DMHolt57 said:

I really feel that this is how M$ wants to control their operating system in the future. With an annual fee of course, your Windows operating system will reside in the cloud, and update itself automatically...

It isn't just Microsoft that is getting into Cloud Computing. You need to read the article to see just what is happening and who is getting involved. This is the way companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple along with a cast of others are looking to go. So to specially say this is how Microsoft is trying to control the OS by moving to the Cloud is not reading and looking into what is going on in the world of computing.

Do a Google/Bing search for any one company such as say Apple, and you will see their stance on Cloud Computing. Almost all big tech companies are placing their bets on the Cloud. They see this as the wave of the future. So your statement is a little lame to say the least.

I posted this in another thread concerning cloud computing

Absolute Cloud Computing should be a choice not a standard. The reason why I say Absolute is because cloud computing does exist in many ways: torrents, p2p, ftp, file storage sites, software updates, home/business networking, remote desktop operations, gaming and I'm sure I'm missing some others. So it is here and many of us use some or many elements of it.

There is one stipulation to the current mode of handling our data - we choose what and what not we want to share, access, store, place out into the internet. I have no complaints about placing photos on the internet to share with friends and family, but do not want to place important financial documents out there.

We also know that the evolution of Cloud computing would be remote desktop operations - what would happen if the server went down? How many users would be affected simultaneously?!? Rather than just my computer going down because of my own stupidity - it would be left in the hands of individuals and technology I know very little of.

Absolute Cloud Computing would also open the floodgates for data miners as well, not to mention the questionable locations your information is stored.

This also raises the questions of bandwidth availability and cost - This would definitely create user tiers in the internet and prices would undoubtedly jump due to increased demand.

maybe I'm off the mark, but it feels like a racket and an opportunity to endanger user privacy.

How will ISP's help support this? Infrastructure would have to be there before this is implemented. Could this be somehow connected to Television OS improvement? Are they by any chance predicting or planning for television computing? You pay for the "Cable" tier you want which would include access to certain apps, storage, speed? What about having your choice of OS? Would there be an access OS to the Cloud OS? How about Cross-OS applications? How about redundancy in case of system/transmission failure? If a point of access is compromised who will be held responsible?

Will this diminish competition and diversity and create a homogenized computing environment?

I vote no (as if that matters...). Security & privacy seem to be insurmountable issues in this scenario, and I would think the liability factor for those 'running' the cloud would be high. Security compromised, identity stolen, bilked of funds? Who else should be held liable but those in charge of the given Cloud? But apparently, liability is not enough to deter.

James