Cuba announced that it would be moving to free software back in 2005 but after years of procrastination, the University of Havanna (in Spanish, Universidad de La Habana) has finally decided to flip the switch. At the moment virtually all the computer’s on its network run Microsoft Windows.
“The plan, which was approved by the University Council, envisages the intensive training of professors and computer personnel this year, followed in 2009 by the broad installation of the GNU/Linux operating system”
The plan will proceed in multiple stages, going from replacing specific programs (such as from Internet Explorer to Firefox and from MS Office to OpenOffice) to replacing all non-free software.
Until now, despite Cuba’s 2005 endorsement of free software, only the customs service has adopted Linux. The overwhelming majority of the island nation’s 380,000 computers run pirated copies of Windows. This is easily traced to the U.S. embargo against Cuba (which has been in place since 1958) and to the fact that a single copy of Windows costs as much as an average Cuban earns in a month.
For more in-depth coverage on the issue, see this Linux Insider article.
Tags: Cuba