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Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power - Benito Mussolini
Cuba launches Linux revolution
"VIVA LA REVOLUCION" has long been a rallying cry for tiny Cuba, valiantly standing up to its giant US neighbor for the past 50 years, but it would appear the call now applies to the island's software usage too.
Cuba plans to launch its own computer revolution, using homegrown Linux-flavoured 'Nova' to overthrow the entrenched Microsoft software hegemony.
The open sauced Nova software was lapped up by bearded, scruffy-looking intellectuals at a recent Havana computer conference on 'technological sovereignty'.
Paranoid (or should that be 'perceptive'?) Cubans reckon the big, bad US government is still out to get them and is using Microsoft software to spy on them. Cigar-smoking Cuban officiados say the CIA and other shady characters hailing from various US security agencies, could tap into Microsoft codes and cause McCarthyist mischief for the communist state... something most Cubans aren't keen on.
Hector Rodriguez, dean of the School of Free Software at Cuba's University of Information Sciences says approximately 20 per cent of Cuba's computers already sport Linux.
The Cuban public was only officially able to start buying PCs last year after longtime ruler, Fidel Castro, handed the reigns over to his brother Raul who promptly ordered toasters, microwaves and other electronic goodies for all.
But despite the lifting of the ban, the continuing US embargo doesn't make it at all easy for Cubanos to get their hands on a computer, or for the legal software to go with it for that matter. Much of the Volish software installed on Cuban PCs is pirated, but that doesn't allay suspicions.
"I would like to think that in five years our country will have more than 50 per cent migrated [to Linux]," noted Rodriguez, who explained this might be difficult as some organisations were resisting the move over application compatibility concerns.
Openly saucy Cuban Nova bundles various applications into its operating system and, of course, it's free, which Rodriguez admits better suits Cuba's world view.
It better suits Cubans' very thin wallets too, we imagine. µ
L'Inq
Reuters
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The only people in US who give a thought at all about Cuba are the supporters of the previous dictator Bautista, and their descendants, who all live, thank God, in the Miama/South Florida area. They were the people who made their fortunes stealing from the poor of Cuba, and they have harboured hatred for the Castro regime for taking away their easy pickings.
As far as I am concerned, the whole embargo was just a political sop to those people to get their votes.
Quite frankly, if it was so bad to be dealing with a Communist regime, why were we dealing with the Soviets and Chinese, and now the Vietnamese and other totalitarian regimes. The whole embargo nonsense smells quite fishy.
We should just lift the embargo and just ignore Cuba instead of continuing this useless, nonsensical, shallowly political trick.
The homos in South Florida will just have to get over it. Cuba is just not important enough for the rest of us to care.
Concerns about backdoors in Microsoft products are not new.
"These are just used to ensure that we're compliant with US export regulations," said Scott Culp, Microsoft's security manager for its Windows NT Server software. (BBC, 3.9.1999)
Cuba is being very wise
They have learnt from past dealings with the USA, was Guantanamo bay not given to the USA while they got rid of the Spanish, and when the spanish were gone the USA decided to stay, indefinitely?
Did Cuba not open its shores up for USA tourism, but in the end the women became whores and the rest were slaves.
Linux is a good option, their state allows that the schools have to use Linux only. In time that will be the only software commonly known, and thus supported.
I went with using a PC over Apple because there were people in my street who had PCs, I didn't know anyone with an Apple. It all boils down to how much support you can get, what software you can bludge (borrow/get/steal).
Every bit of software has a backdoor, we use it all the same because we think we can trust the writer.
I wish Cuba had an address, both physical or cyber where interested parties could send hardware and or software - bypassing the direct export from the USA.
Hey, Rich Wargo - I bet the USA have a Tunnel or bridge planned, so that the can link Cuba onto Florida, then another bridge across to Haiti.
"Free as in beer" - "Free as in freedom" - "Free as in 1984"