jarom_td posted:

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If Windows goes subscription, I'm going Linux. I haven't played many games on my PC in a while. And everything else I do on my computer I can do with Linux. I wouldn't miss the few games I do play on my computer. And now days most games on the PC also come out with a console version. So I can't say I'd miss Windows that much.

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Seffrid posted:

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Security is the big worry with the Cloud. I read a technical article recently which highlighted (1) the problem with the Cloud being hosted globally, no-one knows the national data protection system under which their data will be held as it will vary according to the laws of the host nation, (2) the inevitability of the Cloud being targetted by hackers much in the same way that IE is, and (3) the risk that with the amount of processing power required to run the Cloud it will be easy for criminal gangs renting the use of that processing power with stolen credit cards to use it to decrypt passwords and credit card etc details in a fraction of the time it would take them currently with home-based systems. The Cloud will transform cyber crime, and of course its military ramifications are frightening. Imagine the extent of the loss of data if a foreign power could take it down. As it is, the UK's Ministry of Defence already repels more than one cyber attack per day and I have no doubt it's at least as bad at the Pentagon.

In my view the internet is getting too big for its own good, its undoubted benefits are increasingly being outweighed by its bad points among which its anonymity and the ease with which it can be abused/exploited by organised criminals including financial and sexual predators together with enemies of the state mean that it's only a matter of time before all Western nations go the way of China in restricting its accessibility and use. At the very least it will have to be governed by strict international law in a way that simply isn't happening at present.

Seriously, when you see what a bunch of loonies at Wikileaks and a group of teenagers with learning difficulties can do with national defence and similar websites is it really going to be viable to maintain the present system for much longer in the face of co-ordinated attacks by our international enemies? Even the internet's educational benefits are trashed when Palin's supporters can edit Wiki to re-write history according to her misunderstanding of it.

Putting all your eggs in one basket has never been seen as a sensible way of conducting ones affairs, and that in essence is what the Cloud entails where global data is concerned. It will end in tears!

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