The goal of this post is not to make a political statement but rather a financial one.
The law of unintended consequences seems to have a way of really stinging those of us in the tech space. For example, in the late nineties Napster was a single place where the world shared music illegally. The record companies closed down Napster as an illegal file sharing company and as a result a number of music sharing networks took off which became impossible or near-impossible to control.
The effects of the US embargo on Cuba are similar. The country has difficulty getting access to Microsoft products so it is focusing its resources on building its own OS based on Linux called Nova. The concern US taxpayers should have is what if this project turns out to be good and becomes accepted by more Spanish-speaking countries? This could erode Microsoft's revenues and with the spending our politicians have been doing this past year, we need as much revenue as possible so that taxes can start to pay this debt down.
Of greater concern is the potential loss of US tech dominance. Sure, open source is continually eroding Microsoft's share but do we want the US government setting up policies which hamper US corporations and moreover cost US jobs and increase our deficit?
Putting on my citizen hat, I say that as long as there are no national security implications, I don't want the US government doing anything that hampers the financial future of my fellow citizens and their descendants.
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check out "linux Nova" at this link:
http://my.opera.com/ubuntunerd1/blog/how-to-install-linux-nova