about Nova (operating system)

Nova is a Cuban state-sponsored Linux distribution launched in February 2009. It is developed in Havana at the University of
Information Science (UCI) by students and professors to provide free/libre/open-source software (FLOSS) to inexperienced users and Cuban institutions. While the initial version was Gentoo-based, the developers switched to Ubuntu beginning with Version 2.1

Goal and adoption

The goal of Nova is to achieve "sovereignty and technological independence" and to have it installed on all computers in Cuba where Microsoft Windows still is the most widely used operating system. The system is central to the Cuban government's desire to replace Windows. Hector Rodriguez, Director of UCI, said that "[t]he free software movement is closer to the ideology of the Cuban people, above all for the independence and sovereignty." Other cited reasons to develop the system include the United States embargo against Cuba which has made it hard for Cubans to buy and update Windows, as well as potential security issues feared by the Cuban government because of the U.S. Government's alleged access to Microsoft's source code.

Cuba is planning to convert to Nova as its main operating system; once the migration is complete it will be installed in 90% of all work places. By early 2011 the UCI announced that they would migrate more than 8000 computers to the new operating system.Beginning in 2011, new computers will come installed with both Windows and Nova.

Software

The first version of Nova, called Baire, is based on Gentoo Linux, while Nova 2.1 Desktop Edition is based on Ubuntu. Nova Escritorio is UCI's office suite meant to replace Microsoft Office.

Versions

Currently the developers are working on Version 5.0 aka "Nova 2015", which will be a major update.

Version	Codename	Date
1.1.2	Baire	20 February 2009
2.0		2 December 2009
2.1		4 June 2010
2011-beta3		12 February 2011
3.0 (2011)		2011
4.0 (2013)		22 March 2013
Legend: Old version Latest version