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Cuba launches its own Linux variant, Fidel reportedly cool with it
It hasn't been a year since Cuba lifted the ban on PCs for the majority of its citizens, and now it looks like ou neighbor to the south has been giving some serious thought to the implications of open source operating systems. To this end, the nation has recently announced Nova -- its own Linux variant -- at a conference on technological sovereignty in Havana. Not only does the nation see reliance on Microsoft Windows a security threat, but the U.S. trade embargo makes it virtually impossible for folks on the island to get the software legally. According to Hector Rodriguez of Cuba's University of Information Sciences, about twenty percent of machines in Cuba are using Linux -- a number he would like to see climb as high as fifty percent in five years. "The free software movement," he says, "is closer to the ideology of the Cuban people, above all for the independence and sovereignty." Be sure to check out the video of this latest weapon in the battle against U.S. software hegemony after the break (music by Jaco Pastorius and The Weather Report).
