This is my limited memory of the post which Blogger lost.
Google have just launched an online spreadsheet application, Google Spreadsheets. It’s all over the Blogosphere, so I thought I’d add my two penn’orth of limited viewpoints.
My first problem with the application is right there in the middle: Formulas. Is that a word? Formulae, please.
I also have another problem with this idea, of streaming applications off the web.
The Free Software Foundation was founded on the principal of software freedom. “Open-source” is a derivative of this freedom. Basically, the principal is that you can download the source code of any application, and edit it to suit your needs. You don’t like the way your word processor does tabs? Reprogram it, and publish your work so that other people can use your modification.
Most current desktop software, such as the MS Office suite is not free. Open-source software is spreading, however, with products such as GNU/Linux gaining ground. One day, perhaps, all software will be free.
Online software is not free. It can never be free, as its source code never leaves the server. The server handles your requests, and gives you an output. Nobody can reprogram it. I see all the progress in software freedom being dashed to shreds by the one company which might have helped push it – Google.
Do no evil? If only.
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