Nova (operating system)

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Nova
Logo-nova.png
Nova Linux Screenshot - desktop2.png
Nova 7.0
Developer University of Information Science
Written in C
OS family Unix-like: Linux
Working stateActive
Source model proprietary with some open-source components (5.0 and up)
Initial releaseFebruary 2009;17 years ago (2009-02)
Latest release 9.0 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 2 October 2023;3 years ago (2 October 2023)
Marketing targetnew users, Cuban institutions
Available inMultilingual
Supported platforms x86-64
Kernel type Monolithic: Linux
License GNU GPL
Official website www.nova.cu

Nova is a Cuban state-sponsored Linux distribution launched in February 2009. [2] [3] It was developed in Havana at the University of Information Science (UCI) by students and professors to provide free and open-source software (FOSS) to inexperienced users and Cuban institutions. The first version was based on Gentoo Linux, but starting with version 2.1, the developers switched to Ubuntu. [4]

Contents

In May 2016, discussions about a new version 6.0 were underway. [5] However, by 2016, Distrowatch had marked Nova as discontinued, [6] and its website, www.nova.cu had been taken down. Nova re-entered development later, and version 8.0 was released in January-March 2022. [6]

In early 2018, its repositories and download server (repo.nova.cu) was shut down temporarily, with users being told to switch to CentOS, after which Nova resumed development a couple months later. By early 2019, the distribution website was again active and DistroWatch listed it as under active development. [6] As of February 2026, the distribution's website seems to be abandoned, with web browsers displaying an alert to visitors about an expired TLS certificate from August 2024.

Goal and adoption

The goal of Nova was to achieve "sovereignty and technological independence" [4] and to have it installed on all computers in Cuba where Microsoft Windows is still the most widely used operating system. [7] [8] The system was central to the Cuban government's desire to replace Windows. [2] 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." [7] Other cited reasons to develop the system include the United States embargo against Cuba which made it hard for Cubans to buy and update Windows, and potential security issues feared by the Cuban government because of the U.S. government's access to Microsoft's source code. [2] [8]

Cuba was planning to convert to Nova as its main operating system; once the migration is complete it is intended to be installed in 90% of all work places. [9] [10] In early 2011, the UCI announced that they would migrate more than 8,000 computers to the new operating system. [11] Beginning in 2011, new computers were intended to come installed with both Windows and Nova. [10]

As of 2026, Microsoft Windows remains the dominant desktop operating system on almost every Cuban computer, either government or privately owned.[ citation needed ]

Software

The first version of Nova, called Baire, was based on Gentoo Linux, while Nova 2.1 Desktop Edition was based on Ubuntu. [2] [12] Nova Escritorio is UCI's office suite meant to replace Microsoft Office. [10]

Version history

Nova 1.1.2 (Baire)
  1. It uses GNOME, version 2.22.
  2. Entropy as package manager
  3. Compatible with Gentoo and Portage.
  4. Integrated with Windows Active Directory.
Nova 2.1 Desktop Edition

General features

Main applications:

  1. Web browser Mozilla Firefox.
  2. Instant messaging client Empathy.
  3. E-mail client Mozilla Thunderbird.
  4. Multimedia player Totem.
  5. Music player Rhythmbox.
  6. Video editing software Pitivi.
  7. Images editing program F-Spot.
  8. Torrent client Transmission.
  9. Disk burning program Brasero.
  10. OpenOffice as office suite.

System requirements

The minimal system requirements are recommended to allow you to install and run Nova Linux with good performance, even if it is possible to install it on worse hardware, with worse performance.

Nova 3.0

For the first time, Nova Linux has been released in two versions: Nova Desktop for standard computers and Nova Ligero for older computers.

Nova 4.0

Nova 5.0

Versions

As of 4 September 2026 [6]
VersionCodenameDate
Unsupported: 1.1.2Baire20 February 2009
Unsupported: 2.02 December 2009
Unsupported: 2.14 June 2010
Unsupported: 2011-beta312 February 2011
Unsupported: 3.0 (2011)2011
Unsupported: 4.0 (2013, long term support)7 May 2014
Unsupported: 5.0 (2015)22 September 2015
Unsupported: 5.1 (2017)21 September 2017
Unsupported: 6.0 (2018)20 March 2018
Unsupported: 7.0 (2020)20 June 2020
Unsupported: 8.0 (2021)1 March 2022
Latest version:9.0 (2022)2 October 2023

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Nova". 2 October 2023. Retrieved 4 September 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Israel, Esteban (11 February 2009). "Cuba launches own Linux variant to counter U.S." Reuters . Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  3. ↑ Prickett Morgan, Timothy (12 February 2009). "Cuba crafts extra-communist Linux distro: Down with the Microsoft bourgeoisie". The Register . Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  4. 1 2 "Who are we?". Nova – Distribución Cubana de GNU/Linux. n.d. Retrieved 24 May 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  5. ↑ UCI. "Se ultiman detalles para migración a Nova 5.0 en la UCI". Archived from the original on 4 October 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Nova". DistroWatch.com. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  7. 1 2 Connors, Devin (17 February 2009). "Cuba Declares War on Windows: The land of Castro has gone open source". Tom's Hardware . Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  8. 1 2 Brown, Eric. "Cuba launches Gentoo Linux distro". Archived from the original on 27 May 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  9. ↑ "Cuba sets to migrate to free, open-source software". Xinhua News Agency . 29 December 1010. Archived from the original on 1 January 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  10. 1 2 3 "Cuba presents Linux-based operating system". Cuba Standard. 10 February 2011. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  11. ↑ "Cuba: 8000 computadoras de la Universidad de Ciencias Informáticas migraran a Nova GNU/Linux" (in Spanish). Somos Libres. 11 February 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  12. ↑ "Productos" (in Spanish). Nova – Distribución Cubana de GNU/Linux. n.d. Retrieved 24 May 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
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