Cuba Declares War on Windows
The land of Castro has gone open source.
In an effort to rid every computer in the country of the American-designed Windows OS, the Cuban government has banned the software and created its own Linux-based operating system.
The Communist country 90 miles off the coast of Florida calls the Linux OS "Nova", and the government considers it an integral piece in the fight against U.S. hegemony in Cuba. Shown at a Havana conference dedicated to "technological sovereignty", the goal is to have Nova replace Windows on computers all across the island.
While most of the world has enjoyed a consumer computer market for decades, the Cuban government only started allowing such a market last year. According to Cuba University's Information Sciences Director Hector Rodriguez, around 20 percent of computers on the island are already running some sort of Linux-based operating system.
"Private software can have black holes and malicious codes that one doesn't know about. That doesn't happen with free software," said Rodriguez. "I would like to think that in five years our country will have more than 50 percent migrated [to Linux]." The Linux movement may be in full swing for Cuban consumers, but many of the country's government agencies are resisting the change because of possible software compatibility issues.
While the netbook craze may see Linux become more popular with consumers in America, the percentage of Linux on PCs stateside is far below 20 percent.
The turn away from Windows is the latest move in Cuba's resistance to all things American, which has been ongoing since Fidel Castro took over the island nation in 1959. Rodriguez certainly sees a ideological link between Linux and Cuba, "The free software movement is closer to the ideology of the Cuban people, above all for the independence and sovereignty."
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As a general purpose operating environment, which operating system do you prefper to use and why?
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hop Or smoking some good cuban crack. Windows will dominate for many more years, yes it's buggy, yes it's not that great, but Microsoft's pocket is too deep.Reply -
PrangeWay Reply"Private software can have black holes and malicious codes that one doesn't know about. That doesn't happen with free software,"
Um... For a end user, who doesn't know anything about code, I don't think this could be anymore farther from the truth... I'm positive the government issued linux will have no malicious code, or monitoring software built in... right? right? -
badge Aiyiyi! Lucy...? You have a lot 'splainin' to do. The Qben leadership has no reason to live other than to demonstrate human stupidity and fail trying to spread 20th century communism. Cigar?Reply -
tenor77 Reply"Private software can have black holes and malicious codes that one doesn't know about. That doesn't happen with free software," said Rodriguez.
Umm sure okay if you say so. Let me give you some of my "Free" software. I promise I didn't give myself backdoor access to your network.
In related news MS anticpates a drop in pirated copies of Windows.
Folks US companies cannot sell to Cuba so they were getting this through other means so I'm not sure why this would be a big deal other than showing a trend for Linux and to show how little freedom some people still have in the world when they can't even choose for themselves what OS they use. -
p05esto Cuba who? Can't we just accidentially nuke them, make it an accident or something, who would complain?Reply -
frozenlead Americans use Windows, therefore Windows is evil. However, what the Cubans fail to realize is that Americans also eat, sleep, and live. By Cuba's logic, all Cuban people should stop eating, sleeping, and living, because it is most definitly American.Reply -
I remember they already tried this... a while ago :-\Reply
Either that or I've been dreaming of the future again *sigh* -
trevorvdw Ummm doesn't No Va in Spanish translate to "It does not go" ? Seems a fitting choice of name :)Reply