Yahoo! News Story - Cuba embraces open-source software - Yahoo! News

[Alfred]

Add to that France, Iceland?, some Latin American Countries as well!

Alfred! I'm poor, and this Linux is a GOD Send!

On Mon, 2007-19-02 at 12:54 -0500, Jamon Camisso wrote:
> On 2/19/07, Scott Blayney <scottblayney at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The story shows some hope for the people of Cuba.  But I worry that MS is
> > trying to take a new approach at fighting Linux.  MS has labelled Linux as
> > communism before.  Having communist Cuba adopt Linux isn't really going to
> > endear it to the American people.  Maybe this is why they are running the
> > story?  Just read how the story opens, "Cuba's communist government is
> > trying to shake off the yoke of at least one capitalist empire — Microsoft
> > Corp. — by joining with socialist Venezuela in converting its computers to
> > open-source software."
> >
> > Sounds like they're trying to turn a good technical choice into a decision
> > to join the Communist Party, at least in the minds of those who don't know
> > the real issues.  One more reason not to adopt Linux?  Am I just being
> > paranoid?
> 
> If "Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, South
> Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and ASEAN member countries"
> (http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=27371) think OSS is good for
> them, then why not Cuba too? It also means that for a developing
> economy, cost savings and decreased use of MS products may not be so
> good for America and Microsoft respectively.
> 
> Hardly communist, just practical and cost efficient. The AP journalist
> who wrote the original piece is also a part of the mainstream media
> such that anything having remotely to do with Cuba must must must
> involve highlighting some sort of ideological difference between Cuba
> and the U.S. It's hegemony at its best.
> 
> However, I don't think that most people are of the mindset that using
> software is a political or ideological choice, so I'm pretty sure
> GNU/Linux being used in a socialist state is irrelevant to most people
> who haven't even figured out what Linux is.
> 
> Jamon
>