Remember we mentioned late last year that Cuba was talking about going open-source to guarantee their technological independence from the United States (and presumably everyone else as well)?

Well, it seems that Cuba has not only adopted Linux but started developing its own independent distribution:

Nova is Cuba’s own configuration of Linux and bundles various applications of the operating system.

Rodriguez said several government ministries and the Cuban university system have made the switch to Linux but there has been resistance from government companies concerned about its compatibility with their specialized applications.

“I would like to think that in five years our country will have more than 50 percent migrated (to Linux),” he said.

Unlike Microsoft, Linux is free and has open access that allows users to modify its code to fit their needs.

“Private software can have black holes and malicious codes that one doesn’t know about,” Rodriguez said. “That doesn’t happen with free software.”

As TechDirt points out, that last comment isn’t really true at all; whether it was included out of ignorance or for propaganda purposes will presumably remain a mystery.

I wonder if they’ll open up the repositories to non-Cuban users? It’s another great propaganda angle – stuffing the man pages with little homilies on object-orientated Communism from Castro and Guevara… [via SlashDot image by factor_]