Several years Cuba is "passively" submerged in a Total and Mass Migration towards the Free software.
A task that is carried out and can be seen in several institutions in the country, driven mainly by a discreet, but active, community of users who love the Free Technologiess. The process is slow, but it is already showing its fruits despite the dissimilar situations that stand in the way.
Knowing the causes.
From my point of view, the first factor that affects migration in our country is the lack of awareness on the part of users, who are increasingly immersed in the ease that "supposedly" provides Windows and who, adapted to cooperative piracy, are not suffer any sanction for the violation of laws and copyrights.
Faced with this situation, many people are skeptical and even defensive when it comes to using GNU / Linux, claiming as the main reason, the difficulty of working with any of its distributions, and thus using their fear of change as an excuse that, from my opinion, borders on the absurd.
The restricted bandwidth that the country has to access the internet, makes it difficult to obtaining repositories modeling and obtaining the .iso en DVD o CD. Access to forums or Communities sites that selflessly provide help and support is also affected by this cause.
This situation has been solved with the creation of the Free Technology User Group Portal (aka GUTL) which can be accessed by this url, and that it offers free support through its forum and recent news related to the Open Source y GNU / Linux This portal also offers other services, including its own Wiki and site FTP with scope for the entire national intranet.
But this is just one more step in a race of the titans. The sector Educational (by which everything should start, according to my personal criteria) y CORPORATE LAW , they are still greatly affected by the absence of accounting systems that work on open platforms, and therefore, migration takes longer since they need to use Windows on their computers.
Of course, you can start with simpler things, such as replacing proprietary applications with their free counterparts. I'm talking about replacing MS Office by LibreOffice, iExplorer by Firefox, Outlook by Thunderbird and so on, in this way the change for the user is less abrupt.
Another recurring theme is Video Games. The use of computers for entertainment is another cause that slows down migration to Free softwareespecially in the private sector. Whenever the topic is discussed within a group of people, someone asks the same question: Can NFS be played on Linux?
It is as if the computer had gone from being a work tool to an entertainment tool. The logical thing would be to think for what exists PlayStation, Xbox and other consoles? But I think we are all aware of the cost of acquiring this type of artifact.
More security and less cost.
Although many think not, two important reasons for carrying out this migration are undoubtedly the benefits it would bring us in terms of security and financial savings.
Many companies in the country spend thousands of dollars in acquiring corporate licenses for Antivirus y Softwares that with the use of GNU / Linux, they would not be necessary to use. Although GNU / Linux there are viruses (many think not), the amount of malware detected will never exceed the amount that Windows is exposed to.
There are many other benefits, ranging from customizing a layout to greater control over the Software that we run on the computer, but only on the go and daily use of GNU / Linux is that a user can realize it.
As support for migration The University of Computer Sciences (aka ICU), has been developing a distro (first based on Gentoo, and now based on Ubuntu) call NEW, which must provide the necessary resources for the use of it in State Institutions or in the same homes. This project is still ongoing and needs to mature, but it is a sign that the task of using it throughout the national territory is being taken seriously, Free software.
These examples and many other causes derived from them are the main barriers that impede the rapid process of migration to Free software. There is still much to do, but only with perseverance and the desire to achieve this goal, we can take such a great work forward
You have put some bold labels wrong, read it again, go ...
The Xbox serves to fry or toast, I have not tried it but they say
What you comment on "the lack of awareness of users" I think is a common problem in most of the countries.
The common user, at least in Latin American countries (and I do not doubt that also in other latitudes), does not pay for licenses of proprietary software and does not care about licenses or pirates; However, most of the institutions in these countries are legally obliged to pay for licenses.
In countries like mine (Mexico) very few institutions have migrated to free software and it is clear that the main reason for not doing so has to do with economic and political interests, because if this migration were to take place, it would be reduced significantly a part of public spending.
I agree that it is the education sector that should take this initiative, both in Cuba and in other countries.
Greetings and I hope it is achieved.
Yes, here in Spain everyone pirates the Hasefroch and everything for payment.
I see the education sector well on the one hand but on the other it seems a bit chorra because all the kids (as you call them in Mexico) of my age only use the computer for [hoygan mode on] er féisbuq, er tuenti er mesenller i laz nenas [hoygan mode off] tell them to get into the Ubuntu or Mandriva software center.
By the way, in my institute Max is implanted, the Madrid distro in the futuristic supercomputers that there are, although I do not like that distro
Precisely for that reason, because in schools they are not taught to have a culture of using the Internet and Technologies is that these things happen. The education sector has to be the main driver of knowledge towards Free Software.
Come on man, all the kids my age don't give a damn about everything they are told about using the internet. They will continue to post photos on Facebook of their snogging with the aunt they met while high while listening to reggaeton.
If they put this on little kids, it's okay, but the little kids screw up your computer haha or at least they don't have computers in class, come on, none of us have it, but there are libraries in some schools.
A good measure for the use of this type of software is the imposition,
youeach toyourYour children will put Linux in your house by erasing any trace of another system, so they get used to it and know how to handle it. I because I completely happen to have children sometime in my life if I would not do this to themIt is a very tough battle. Actually, I don't care who uses it and who doesn't, but money that a country saves in paying licenses is money that it can use for other public benefits.
In any case, in Spain the educational system in general is a shame compared to the Cuban one. The key is to implement the use of free software in schools and gradually raise awareness among the masses.
PS: I love the blog, great job guys!
Hello and welcome to our site 😉
Believe me ... I know more or less the Spanish education system, and incidentally that of other countries, ... believe me when I tell you that it is far superior to the Cuban, either because it has more resources, etc. etc. I will not go into details because this is not a political blog, but not all that glitters is gold friend 😉
Thanks for what you say about the blog, a pleasure to know that you like it 😀
It shows that you are Cuban and not Spanish. I do not say more because the blog is not about this
Without a doubt, the Cuban educational system of the last decades is exemplary in many aspects. Its literacy rate is 99.8% higher than that of many rich countries and it ranks first in the college enrollment rate globally.
The truth is one of the things that I most admire about that island, however I consider that many other countries also have their virtues and there are great universities in each of them.
regards
Could you comment on how to get an internet connection in Cuba and if there are any restrictions on its use?