I recently heard that Cuba had created their own Linux distribution, Nova. Like many other countries with a rocky relationship with the USA (Russia, China, Iran), Cuba is wary of running their entire computer infrastructure on software developed in the USA.

The Cuban government has launched its own version of Gentoo Linux, dubbed "Nova." The distribution was developed in response to embargo hassles in updating and acquiring Windows, as well as concerns over U.S. government spying via the OS, says an industry report.

"About a year ago, we had spoken with Richard Stallman about the free software movement in Latin America and he said something which was surprising: even though free software was extremely popular in Cuba, it was receiving heavy resistance from Cuban academics and the university system in Cuba. Well, an announcement this week indicates that this has finally changed: ..."

"Without «pushing the boat out», the gradual introduction of free software in Cuba becomes significant to go ahead in the process of incorporating informatics into society. [...] For Free software to be truly free, it has to have an open code, but not necessarily the other way around. To use open code technology does not mean we collaborate with the ideals of technological justice. Open code use can make people become more dependent. Microsoft, just to mention a name, presents the world two very clear licences that meet the requirements of the Open Source Initiative..."

It’s a measure aimed at breaking the dependence on programs that are under the control of US owners and also anticipating any claims by the patent’s owners for the use of this system in Cuba.