I was listening to Going Linux #262 · Computer America #79 and the topic was cloud computing and how it is independent of the operating system. All u need is a fast connection to the internet and a good web browser. He also claims that many local tasks we do on our computers can now be done on the cloud.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't work on a confidential document or on a sensitive spreadsheet on the cloud much less save it there too.

I do use the web for many things but to make cloud computing my main platform and save stuff there too is not for me. What about you?

Or just buy a phone or tablet?

File storage is only one application of cloud computing.

And yeah, I'm okay with the idea.

Yes, they're also mentioned in the podcast including the chromebooks.

I don't know, many associate the cloud for senior citizens and the novice users eg. chrome books.

No way. Never. My data stays with me where it belongs, same goes for my OS. I don't want any chance of anyone snooping around my stuff or cutting me off from my OS and data for whatever reason is buried deep in the EULA. If you like to gamble, roll the dice, I don't.

What metaschima said.

To be quite honest, "cloud computing" is mostly an advertising-term. It has been bastardized abused to refer to a great many technologies, and in all cases, the pundits/salesmen coated the whole thing with a pretty heavy layer of "shiny gloss."

Yes, the combination of a high-speed network and massively-parallel cluster computing have created viable commercial opportunities for third-party vendors. But, of course, none of them are silver bullets, and all of them have potentially-fatal drawbacks to go with their potentially-wonderful gains. Thus, you really can't answer the OP's question either way. "It's just not that simple in real life."

I use Dropbox but was stung by it this last June. I always keep copies of everything I have in dropbox on a flash drive just incase. Other than that I don't put personal things into dropbox and wouldn't do it with any so called 3rd party "cloud" service. I may finish setting up my "owncloud" system oneday but I will still keep a local copy and will never put personal information in it.

I have nothing against using internet-based ("cloud") services when there is a compelling reason to do so, such as collaborating on documents.

I have everything against using them as my primary platform just because they are the shiny tech toy. I learned when I was teen-aged boy that doing things just because I can seldom turns out well . . . .

As long as they aren't important or classified documents (within an organization or business).

If I do backup anything to the cloud, it will be non-critical and encrypted.

I like spideroak cloud storage. I've heard they're quite secure because they don't keep the encryption key on there servers and if forget your password, you're out of luck as well. SpiderOak also has a linux client to do file transfers. I'm using the free 2GB plan because it's enough for me. I don't store much stuff on the cloud except for junk miscellaneous stuff.

Well, that was more of a for instance.

Personally, I wouldn't do it on a bet. Had I such documents, I'd opt for a VPN. Maybe recording a podcast on Google hangouts (which I also wouldn't do) might be a better for instance.

I suppose my question is...why? Disk space is cheap as chips, easy to either plug in one of more USB HDDs for backups.

Your ISP goes down for a few hours, your cloud provider ups their costs, you get hacked...

NAY!

It's my data, & I intend on keeping it.

If you are interested in being able to access your data, why not just set up a server for yourself, a personal 'cloud'.
If you want to share data, tell the other person how to access your servers data.

(Might be OK for putting a copy of your recorded music/movies up there for accessing on the go, but not data.)