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

[Jamon Camisso]

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