CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Cuba Goes for Technological Independence and Sovereignty.

CUBA, February 16th, 2011.- The process of development and construction of the Cuban Nova Linux operating system aimed at achieving high standards of excellence in technological sovereignty and independence, will also progress in this area independently.

Héctor Rodríguez, vice rector of the University of Informatics Sciences (UCI), told AIN that work with a model of free software allowed participation in community development, adapted to national circumstances and to computerize the country with these solutions.

Rodriguez noted that the process has not been fast, but it represents a step toward the replacement of operating systems like Windows, which are very expensive.

Version 3.0 of the Cuban Nova Linux operating system, developed by youths from the UCI, is a project that achieved an operating system based on free technologies.

Alan Pierre, head of the national technical group for the migration to free software, stated that this system has been tested for two years in agencies including the Attorney General's Office and the Ministries of Communications and Information Technology and Higher Education.

He stressed that Nova is contributing to a status of technological independence in Cuba.

Pierra also pointed out that companies like Industrial Computing, Communications and Electronics (GEDEME) are assembling computers, to reach people in the country with Windows and Nova installed.

Orestes Chavez, head of the research and development GEDEME, said that thanks to open source operating systems such as Nova, we can talk about a tenth of the cost of a similar system in the international market.

At the 14th International Convention and Fair Informática 2011, which concluded Friday, three new versions of this system were presented: the Nova desktop, Nova servers and Nova Light. (Cubaminrex – Granma)