[kilps]

Richard Stallman's article (http://bostonreview.net/BR35.2/stallman.php) is definitely worth a read.

But I have a problem with the solution that he proposes, that software should be peer-to-peer capable to allow for collaboration, because that ignores all the other reasons why SaaS is so useful. I use Google Docs primarily because I can get at it anywhere.

The way I see it, the future lies in self-hosted web based software, or at least web interfaces to desktop software. Sure not everyone would use this (think wordpress.com vs. wordpress.org) but then at least you'd have the ability to control your own data.