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Cuba Launches Own Linux Variation

Posted by samzenpus on from the the-people's-OS dept.

willclem writes "According to Reuters, it seems that Cuba has launched its own variation of Linux in order to fulfill its government's desire to replace Microsoft operating systems. 'Getting greater control over the informatic process is an important issue,' said Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes, who heads a commission pushing Cuba's migration to free software."

3 of 494 comments (clear)

  1. Fidel Penguin? by jtara · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd love to see the logo be an image of Fidel dressed-up as a penguin.

    I'm pretty sure the guy has a sense of humor. When I was a kid, I was a "shortwave listener" (before I got my ham license) and sent of to Radio Havana (among others) for a "QSL" card, confirming that I had heard their station.

    Besides the card, I got other periodic mailings, including a Christmxxxx New Year card one year, bearing the cartoon likeness of Fidel Castro, laid-out on the dining-room table as a pig, complete with an apple in his mouth. I kid you not. I'll bet he had a big laugh.

    Wish I still had it - could probably sell it for a bundle on eBay!

    (Other "interesting" material I received included a copy of the Little Red Book from Radio Peking, and a subscription to China Pictorial - a beautifully-printed bled-to-edge full color magazine with gorgeous pictures of fields and tractors...)

  2. Re:Tux cant handle the Cuban heat. by Ian+Alexander · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hey, Americans are dumb (and really, the only place where being "socialist" is something you have to worry about really would be the US). Many probably still associate Russia with communism, even though it was socialist when it was Soviet and hasn't been Soviet for ~20ish years now.

  3. lowering the expectations by JoeZ99 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I've been living in cuba for the last 6 years. I've been using linux since the slackware 100 diskettes era (about 12 years ago).
    • cuba is absolutely windows friendly. everybody in everywhere uses windows. The goverment itself announced a few years ago it was going to migrate to linux. So far nothing yet.
    • cuba works around the embargo thing by means of massive pirate copies (I'm perfectly OK with that).
    • it's a usual thing to announce something with great fireworks that ends up in nothing, so I would have not so many expectations on this .