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Fabulous-Possible758 t1_iz1oge7 wrote

In all of these cases you're actually running code on someone else's hardware, not just using software that they or other people have written and distributed. I think there's an argument that once software is written the ultimate cost and benefit of open sourcing it can be a net positive but in these instances you're literally asking someone else to the pay the electricity bill for you. And a lot of these platforms *do* actually offer some level of free compute resources or will give them to you if you can write a convincing grant.

I could see an argument for cloud storage and computing provided as a public service but that's also a big can of worms and I don't see the societal need yet in the same way that say, Internet should be.

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