Cuba Embraces Open-Source Software

[roody]

Cuba Embraces Open-Source Software

Feb 16, 3:42 PM (ET)
By JOHN RICE


(AP) Richard Stallman, President and founder of the Free Software Foundation, speaks during the...
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HAVANA (AP) - Cuba's communist government is trying to shake off the yoke of at least one capitalist empire - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) - by joining with socialist Venezuela in converting its computers to open-source software.

Both governments say they are trying to wean state agencies from Microsoft's proprietary Windows to the open-source Linux operating system, which is developed by a global community of programmers who freely share their code.

"It's basically a problem of technological sovereignty, a problem of ideology," said Hector Rodriguez, who oversees a Cuban university department of 1,000 students dedicated to developing open-source programs.

Other countries have tried similar moves. China, Brazil and Norway have encouraged the development of Linux for a variety of reasons: Microsoft's near-monopoly over operating systems, the high cost of proprietary software and security problems.

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http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20070216/D8NB1EK05.html

[RC]

1. Good for Cuba.

[Redstone]

2. Well, why not? It's not like they have ANY money. And they're pretty well-educated people;

they ought to be able to make it work.

Redstone

[Ignacio Upton]

3. Oh great, now you'll have Microsoft et al. saying "Linux is for commies"

and try to stigmatize anything that's open source. However, while I don't like Castro and Chavez, broken clocks are right twice a day.