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Cuba puts first computers on sale to the public


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HAVANA (AP) — Cubans are getting wired. The island's communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time Friday, ending a ban on PC sales as another despised restriction on daily life fell away under new President Raul Castro.

A tower-style QTECH PC and monitor costs nearly US$780 (euro505). While few Cubans can afford that, dozens still gawked outside a tiny Havana electronics store, crowding every inch of its large glass windows and leaving finger and nose prints behind.

Inside, four clerks tore open boxes, hastily assembling display computers. By the time a sign went up listing the PCs specifications, more than a dozen shoppers were lined up to get in.

"Look at that!" murmured Armando Batista as he pressed against the window. Although he can't afford to buy one, he said, "these are good for a start."

The gray and black QTECHs, complete with DVD players, bulky CRT monitors and standard-issue black mice and keyboards, are the only model available.

The Cuban PCs have Intel Celeron processors with 80 gigabytes of memory and 512 RAM and are equipped with Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. Both could be violations of a U.S. trade embargo, but not something Washington can do anything about in the absence of diplomatic relations with Havana.

Clerks said the PCs were assembled by Cuban companies using parts imported from China. For about $80 (euro52) less, buyers in the U.S. can get a desktop with more than twice the memory, a 80GB SATA hard drive and 22-inch LCD flat screen monitor.

The crowded store in central Havana's Carlos III shopping center is the only outlet in the country now selling the PCs. Clerks at a few other government-run stores — where Cubans must buy everything — said they expect to receive deliveries sometime after next week.
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20 responses // Cuba puts first computers on sale to the public

  • I glad they are finally moving ahead.
    Ice_cream_Man
  • finally we will be trading with them soon. I just find it a big contridiction that we trade with Communist china and not cuba.
    muckraker
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here, here and here
    It will be interesting to see if this eventually leads to Castro lifting his ban on the internet. Currently only a few selected workplaces and educational institutes have access to the web in Cuba.

    Cuban officials say that the US trade embargo prevents them from connecting to under-sea fiber optic cables, which would bring cheap broadband to the country that currently accesses the internet using expensive and slow satellite connections.
    Pardon
  • This is definitely a glimpse of hope for the people of Cuba. I just hope that progress continues to be made.
    jnetgarcia
  • It seems like a reluctant start, but it is a start nontheless.
    phillyharper
  • Bienvenidos! Ahora tiene que poner sus noticicas en Current Cuba.
    derk
  • estoy de acuerdo derk...Current Cuba
    keeshii768
  • Quick send them Vista, that will shut them down.
    eldamon
  • @eldamon... Vista is product of Capitalistic Pigs, no?

    The Castro Brothers would only allow populist OS like Linux, eh? Profit = Bad Thing....

    :)


    actually, when Cuba starts exporting their 1950s Chevvies to our Mainland, they will probably triple their gross national product that year....

    still waiting for sanity there, and yes, i oppose embargos.... the best way to show them how bad communism is, is to show them what capitalism can deliver... cars newer than 1954-56...

    who knows, they might like some of our newer, advance technologies, like disk brakes and seatbelts...
    plusaf
  • Why would anyone want to force Vista on Cuba? Their just getting computers give them something that actually works to start them out.
    Yoshi1
  • cubans will finally be one step above the amish.
    kingtsohg
  • Damn the people,let's just make sure that we starve Fidel Castro out.When wil American people accept the fact that the U.S. embargo played a bigger part in the demise of the Cuban economy than what Castro himself did?Now let's make a better impression on Raul than what Hugo Chavez does.Love thy neighbors as thyself is a biblical fairy tale.How can a poor man watch a rich man and throw away his leftovers,without getting angry. HOW CAN WE DISCUSS THE LIBERATION OF THE MIDDLE EAST,WHEN WE DON'T EVEN GIVE A DAMN ABOUT HAITI ? HYPOCRISY IN IT'S FINEST FORM IS WHAT IT IS.
    keithponder
  • keithponder, i totally agree
    most people have never even heard of haiti or of it's extreme poverty.
    the embargo on cuba seems extremely out dated to me. we really have made it worse for cuba.
    blue_blooded
  • @keithponder and @blue-blooded, are you calling for "regime change" ..... like in Iraq?

    history shows that countries with the most open trade between them go to war the least.

    the embargo against Cuba was an ego-trip power play by administrations long past.

    Haiti is not too different. their leaders keep their people in poverty, and if the US were to try to change that, you and probably a few hundred thousand others would decry America's "involvement in foreign governments' policies..."

    please explain where the middle ground is and how we can be there? and if you think Haiti is bad, it PALES next to Darfur!
    plusaf
  • No, I'm not calling for a regime change, especially when every Haitian leader from Papa Doc, to Baby Doc Duva, to Aristide were pretty much been put in place by our government. Yes Haiti does pale in comparison next to Darfur,but remember, Haiti is our neighbor that is only a few hundred miles away from us. It's just like the ghettos across the tracks from the mansions here in America.
    Haitian leaders are not the ones that are starving their own people out.The U.S. forces Haiti to import
    all of it's rice from, while we allow Haiti to no longer export anything because of it's debts to the World Bank and the IMF. Our monetary foriegn policy has turned Haiti into a Slave nation in the western hemiphere,so yes,Darfur is worst,but Haiti is our neighbor in the 21st. century modern world and is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. This is a shame and definately is a "CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY". We should not even be debating this, however, I do thank you for asking me.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20293963/
    Poor Haitians Forced To Eat Mud Cookies, then click on the link: How Is U.S. Food Policy Staving Hati ?
    http://democracynow.org? ( watch in: Real Video )2008/4/24the_us_role_in_haitis_food
    keithponder
  • @keithponder, thank you for the reply... yes, i understand and believe that many of the ills that have inflicted Hatians have been due to US government stupidity.

    i also believe [correct me if you think i'm wrong] that when we ship food or medicine there, a lot of it is stolen or otherwise taken by the government people.

    i have no power over this, but my personal suggestion is that any country which offers aid to the people of any other country should do it under one condition: that the "delivering" country shall control the flow of the aid COMPLETELY UNTIL IT REACHES THE INTENDED RECIPIENTS.

    would you support that? i would. maybe we can help educate some of our "leaders" as to that idea....

    also, if you take what i, unfortunately, would call an "objective look" at the economics of the World Bank and IMF, most of their "helpful" rules and regulations and conditions have seriously damaged virtually every country they've been there to "help."

    Reason magazine has described and documented this for years and years.

    unfortunately, i consider you, me and reason magazine to have failed completely in stopping that stupidity.

    one way to make a lot of money is to watch what the WB and IMF are doing to "help" a country. as soon as they move in, sell the currency short or make any possible investment bet AGAINST the country for at least a few years. when they move out, reverse your bets. the countries will recover wonderfully.

    happened every time.

    VERY sad. but not a reason to stop trying to educate people about it. one reason i'm here.
    plusaf
  • hmm, hope Cuba gets wired soon.
    localsly
  • Cuba has been deprived for so long, I am so lucky my family made it out before castro's rule and before it was illegal to fly to america. It makes me happy every time i hear about something positive happening there. they have a very long way to go, but these past few months have been huge steps forward for them.
    alman365
  • I am surprised that Cuba has allowed a MS environment on their first workstations and not regulated towards an open source solution.
    Purdey
  • I'm glad that the Cubans have finally got to move ahead
    aditijjoshi

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