The problem with Software as a Service is you don’t own it.
You get it for free, but you don’t have a stake and you don’t have negotiating power. Â Instead, try to work with services that give you an exit plan or that have the safety stamp of an aGPL license. 1
Who cares?
Let me back up and tell you a story about a social network I created. Â Two big-time development bloggers, Jeff and Scott, were writing posts back and forth about how what colors they liked in their text editors and what fonts they used.
I’m not kidding, this is important in a job where most of what you do is sip coffee and type.  I’ve certainly killed some time messing about with how I color my  source code. Continue reading How Ning made me a chump and how you can avoid it
- The Autonomo.us project has a great list of alternatives that either AGPL or CC or something you can use. Â Check out this guide to replacing what you are using now with services that keep you free. (back)