Several Cuban government ministers backed the move to open-source software, and away from U.S.-based Microsoft, at a technology conference held late last week. Communications minister Ramiro Valdes gave an opening keynote that advocated open source, while head of the Free Software Foundation Richard Stallman, told the conference that proprietary software is inherently insecure. Cuba"s customs service has already migrated to Linux, while the ministries of culture, higher education and communications are planning to do so. Cuban academic, Hector Rodriguez, declined to say how long it would take for the Cuban government to migrate most of its systems to Linux. "It would be tough for me to say that we would migrate half the public administration in three years," he told the conference. The number of Cuban open-source users is growing fast, with around 3,000 in a communist country that struggles with outdated PCs and slow Internet links.