Cloud Computing is the fashion of the season. And I say this without scorn or skepticism. Google has hurled it at the world in a big way and the rest of the world has caught on. Most of all, Microsoft. In a press conference, Steve Ballmer announced that

Microsoft is working on a new operating system, "Windows Cloud," aimed at developers working on cloud-computing applications, and expected to launch at the end of the month…

If you want to jibe Microsoft, you can say Windows Cloud is an oxymoron: there’s Windows (OS) and then there’s Cloud (computing), the twain shall ne’er meet. I admit that was wicked. But it’ll be interesting to watch how Microsoft will build an OS that resides in (on?) the Cloud. The least we can hope for is to not having to restart your computer. Sounds stupid, I know but with Microsoft you never know.

Other giants like IBM and Intel have begun to invest aggressively in Cloud computing research.

IBM has assigned more than 200 full-time researchers and has announced plans to invest $100 million in cloud computing.

The world of open source software is not only not amused but alarmed and indignant.

…Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and creator of the computer operating system GNU, said that cloud computing was simply a trap aimed at forcing more people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that would cost them more and more over time.

"It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign," he told The Guardian.

"Somebody is saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it’s very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true."

The 55-year-old New Yorker said that computer users should be keen to keep their information in their own hands, rather than hand it over to a third party.

Which makes sense. Yet, if there are aspects of the cloud that actually deliver value to users, there’s no harm in fully harnessing them instead of dismissing it entirely. Interestingly, Larry Ellison joins Stalman in dissing cloud computing as

…"fashion-driven" and "complete gibberish".

"The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do," he said. "The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?"

Yet, this didn’t stop Oracle from hopping on for the ride on the cloud.

Intel and Oracle also announced a push into cloud computing and collaboration at Oracle’s OpenWorld 2008 conference.

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