“Supercomputers” like clouds are just cheaper, more flexible and better for the environment (due to renting and elasticity) than individual servers. Some of these clouds are even build environment or Co2 neutral. That those who own accounts there are just users, is true, but on individual servers physical access also equals root access. The problem with clouds is that they’re nearly all American companies, which fall under American jurisdiction. I don’t want my government to host their data there. There are European alternatives though.
We’ve gone a bit offtopic, I tend to go off on tangents… sorry
Ethical and truly reputable clouds would be great, it isn’t the case except for small OpenCloud and similar operations. Regarding CO2 neutral, well, 100% of my energy consumption in France is from a CO2 neutral plan, so no problems here! And I avoid the economic overload and wast of connecting all across the globe when I’m just a few meters away from my server. So no thanks, I’m a bit digitally paranoid and I’ll stick to my guns…
