Cuba plumps for state-sponsored Linux

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 13 Feb 2009 at 11:07

Cuba is determined to throw off the manacles of Microsoft's software hegemony with its own Linux distro, dubbed Nova.

The communist country only dropped its ban on citizens owning PCs a year ago, but is already looking to replace the Microsoft software that runs on the majority of the nation's computers.

To that end, the Cuban Government has crafted Nova, a spin on the Gentoo Linux distro. According to Cuban officials, Nova is intended to lead the way towards the country's "technological sovereignty."

"Private software can have black holes and malicious codes that one doesn't know about," says Hector Rodriguez, dean of the School of Free Software at Cuba's University of Information Sciences. "That doesn't happen with free software."

"The free software movement is closer to the ideology of the Cuban people, above all for the independence and sovereignty."

According to Rodriguez, about 20% of computers in Cuba run on Linux. A figure the Government wants to nudge up to 50% within five years.

The Government also claims that systems running Microsoft are a security threat, as US Government agencies have access to Microsoft encryption codes.