Cuba crafts extra-communist Linux distro

Total Information Awareness

No rational government can employ windows in sensitive applications, for there is no way of knowing if the BUSH Government hasn't issued some secret finding that demands that Microsoft insert code and backdoors into the OS in order to faciliate Government and Corporate espionage.

How do you know that the NSA wasn't running a key logging application on your PC last week? Or right now? And as a result the U.S. government - which has proven itself to be both corrupt and completely untrustworthy, doesn't have the keys to your bank accounts, stock portfolios, adn encrypted drive volumes?

With Linux. many eyes will keep the source reasonably clean. On the other hand adding malicous code in the LinTard OS is significantly easier.

Can't trust the failed American state? Well then you can't trust any software that not open source, and which is produced by an American Company.

My vote goes to...

Castrix

or maybe

Cubix

:oD

cubix

why on earth did they not call it cubix ?? :-)

it would have been the perfect name.

this would be funny

if it wasn't so sad. what i don't get it why don't they just use one of the many distros already available? personally, i'm against artificial barriers between people. we lose and they lose. FWIW, linux rocks!!!

penguin because i'm typing this out in elinks.

HavanOS/HabanOS

Surely a better name should follow Cuba's success in the cigar industry and call it HabanOS

Implied, but not spoken.....

"Private software can have black holes and malicious codes that one doesn't know about,"

Whereas with our software we know *exactly* where all the black holes and malicious codes are and our Secret Police have all the backdoors they'll ever need to deal with those pesky journalists and capitalist running-dog dissidents.

not down, just poorly connected

Looks from here as if the UCI site is running Red Hat, and is currently connected to the rest of the world via a Verizon 492Kbps satellite link.

the icon should really be an animated gif -- stop,stop,go,stopstop...

Western knockoffs

When the West starts knocking off localized versions of these national Linuxes (China, Russia, Cuba for instance) then we'll know Windows has had it. Or even (given the usually free provision of Windows there) when the locals start using their own Linuxes in preference to Windoze. The abiltiy of Linux to run on legacy computers indicates that this might be sooner than later, especially if the Western free source community gives these distributions the attention and support they deserve.

(Paris cos the French are moving the way she likes too...)

@Need to work on their database too

Hmmm, there's a lot of useful information in those error messages.

Free Software never has malicious code!?

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

What an ignorant twat.

Raulix and Fidelix is....

...the funniest thing I have read in a long time.

Just been to Cuba, and can vouch that the internet PCs (at least in the hotels) were Windows, which I did find surprising. Although the connection did feel slower than a 56k modem!

The Cuban regime will use this to control IT

The Cuban administration will use a custom made version of Linux not to improve the liberties of the Cuban people.

They will produce a customized OS full of government controlled trojans and spyware so they can control what any citizen running a computer does with it.

They should have called it GNU/Guevara, of course

Sheeshh

Linux "a natural fit with communism" is ignorance or misinformation

To equate free software with communism is something tat might be encouraged by the entrenched commercial software companies, but is at best a sign of ignorance and at worst deliberate misinformation.

In truth, free software world is based on the same principles as the academic world and is politically agnostic in capitalist/communist terms. The free software model encourages competition with a very low threshold to entry, leading to rapid and continuous evolution. It does not favour monopolies of any sort, neither commercial nor state sponsored.

Stallman went to Cuba ?

I'm intrigued by this, I thought that US citizens weren't supposed to go there. I realise that many Americans DO go to Cuba, but i'm reliably informed that it isn't a good idea to publicise the fact that you have done so when you return. Yes officer, I had a great time in MEXICO.......

Hang on...

Doesn't "No va" mean "doesn't go", in Spanish, and hence why the tiny chav chariot was called the Corsa in Europe?

I'm only sayin. Not like I've had horrendous upgrade experiences with Linux or anything.

Mines the one with the Novell badge.

Re: Stallman went to Cuba?

Here, let me google that for you.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1097.html

No, it's not illegal for a US citizen to go to Cuba.

However, there are no direct flights from any US city, so you have to travel through, e.g. Canada or Mexico.

Re: Hang on...

The "No va" Chevy Nova would have been the Chevy badged incarnation of the 60s and 70s GM X body cars.

Later the Nova was built by NUMMI and was the same car as a Toyota Corolla if I'm not mistaken.

Vauxhaul/Opel/Holden Corsas look to be unrelated.

Viva la (Linux) revolucion!

Nice! Hopefully they'll eventually share fixes and patches for Spanish language packs: that could benefit the rest of Latin America (and a large part of North America) quite a lot! The Linux community should welcome this new distro into the fold and give them as much help as they can.

@Re: Hang on...

Vauxhall Nova and Astra were the same as the continental Opel Corsa and Kadett until they rebadged both models a few years ago so that we now have the Vauxhall/Opel Corsa and Astra. I clearly remember the first time I visited England, saw a Vauxhall Nova on the road and though "hang on, isn't that the same as an Opel Corsa?"

@Vendicar Decarian

"for there is no way of knowing if the BUSH Government hasn't issued some secret finding that demands that Microsoft insert code and backdoors into the OS in order to faciliate Government and Corporate espionage"

There is no proof, but it's generally thought the NSA have worked with Microsoft to ensure they can easily get access to data protected by Bitlocker. In fact, they seem to endorse using it:

http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/factsheets/I731-020R-2007.pdf

More silly names...

How about MARiX, or my favourite, Lenix?

What's in a name

When I read "Cuban Linux" my first thought was to name it "Cunux". Alas, too bad that won't go.

Paris, for reasons that are self-evident.

A tangential observation

"Despite trade embargoes, Windows still runs on most of the computers on the island nation"

This doesn't, of course, necessarily imply that Microsoft made much, or any, profit out of that fact, if the number of, um, installation discs of less than authentic pedigree on the net is any guide.

Having said which, good luck Cuba, and I'd have called it Cubix.

Re the GM Nova/Corsa

The Corsa as it was called in Europe, for the first couple of generations, was actually a rebodied Nova, which was about fifteen years old at the time, and it wasn't exactly at the top of it's game when it was released.

It was widely slated by almost every publication at the time [even local newspaper 'motoring' sections FFS] as it's only positive attribute was that it was cheap.

Until the Nissan Micra came along and made it look positively archaic in most respects - and then the Ford Ka came along and made both the Micra and Corsa look like dynamic throwbacks by being a small car that was decently built, stylish, and an utter hoot to drive.

So, the Nova/Corsa, in the UK = steaming pile of shit. The latest Corsa has caught up with the competition these days though, and apparently is really not bad at all. Lucky for the nurses who have these things foisted upon them as runabouts, eh?

As for state sponsored Linux...I'm not a fan of state sponsored *anything*, because someone, at some point along the line would have suggested that it could be used for something subversive, and chances are it will have been included at some point....."just in case we need it".

Not that I'm paranoid. Oooh no...

Steven R

[Fire, because the best way to improve a Corsa/Nova involves a jerrycan of unleaded and a box of Swan Vestas]

FOSS and communism

Those saying that FOSS isn't representative of communism are confusing it with socialism(what the Ruskies practiced). Communism(at least as espoused by Marx) was idealistic, with the workers(users) controlling the means of production(source code). So FOSS is communism that _works_, which is the big difference(well, that and the lack of a bloody revolution). The Soviets were just a little early, that's all.

Posted anonymously for the obvious reason that the mere utterance of "communism" is enough to turn event the best people into slobbering idiots.

Finally, just because somebody has to say it: The folks at Microsoft "are a bunch of jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."