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Web services are NOT freeware.
de John Corliss 01/18/2007 02:55
Here's a scenario:
___________________________
Sam gets up in the morning and decides to check the weather and sports
on his computer. He fires it up and is immediately confronted with an
error messagee which announces:
"Your software rental fees are not paid up in full.
Internet connection disabled - web 2.0 unavailable."
He thinks to himself, "Well, I guess I'll just finish typing that letter
to my friend Mike," but then remembers that this is impossible to do
without an internet connection. All software is now only available by
subscription.
Disgustedly, he turns off his useless thin-client workstation, thinking
back fondly to when you could actually own a really-for-real personal
computer which was able to do things in a stand-alone fashion.
___________________________
Far fetched? Not if Bill Gates and Microsoft have their way with things.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/aa699384.aspx
As time goes by, it's becoming harder and harder for major software
companies to talk people into upgrading from software that does exactly
what they want to bloated garbage that is designed to force hardware
upgrades. As a result, "revenues" for such companies continue to decline
and a better method of parasitizing bank accounts and paychecks must be
found.
Thus, in marches the concept of RENTING SOFTWARE!
In order to accomplish this, several things must first be accomplished.
1. Marketing must employ euphemistic rationalizations so that consumers
can be duped into accepting something that isn't in their interests. To
accomplish this, terms and phrases like:
"Rich"
"Flexible"
"Simplified deployment"
"Reduced customer acquisition costs"
"Increased ability for applications to share data"
"Superior application functionality"
are continually used to describe "Software as as Service (SaaS)."
2. Free (for the time being) web services must be popularized. This
serves to get the general public used to the concept of *having to be
online* to accomplish tasks, task which can already be easily done
OFFLINE using hard-drive installed software.
3. Installation of software must become more problematic (eg. "Vista
compatible", "User Account Control")
Eventually, you are probably looking at the loss of your hard drive and
any other local storage capabilities. Excuses for this turnabout will
most likely be based on copyright issues.
In the long run, you're looking at:
1. always having to be online to use your computer
2. absolute and complete loss of privacy
3. continuously having to pay for everything you do on a computer
4. no local storage of any kind
5. certain types of programs simply no longer being available
etc.
This is why I, for one, am so down on people coming into this group and
recommending web services instead of FREEWARE.
Freeware refers to programs installed *ON YOUR COMPUTER*. You can start
such programs and use them *without having to be online*.
Hey it's your call but ask yourself, is a future where all you can own
and run is a *CONTINUOUSLY-ON*, thin-client web-appliance what you want?
Is PAYING a fee every single time you type a letter, print a photo or
play music what you want?
If so, then continue to promote "WEB SERVICES" as legitimate software in
this group. The future you create will be the one you deserve.
______________________________________________
"Smith!" screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. "6079 Smith
W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're
not trying. Lower, please!"
-1984 by George Orwell, chapt 3
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Regards from John Corliss. I don't reply to trolls like Andy Mabbett.
I'm filtering out all Google Groups posts. No ad, cd, commercial,
cripple, demo, nag, share, spy, time-limited or trial wares or warez for
me, please.