Nova (operating system)
Nova 7.0 | |
| Developer | University of Information Science |
|---|---|
| OS family | Linux (Unix-like) |
| Working state | Active |
| Source model | Closed source with some open-source components (5.0 and up) |
| Initial release | February 2009 |
| Latest release | 9.0 / 2 October 2023 |
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Platforms | x86-64 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic (Linux) |
| License | GNU GPL |
| Official website | https://www.nova.cu/ |
Nova is a Cuban state-sponsored Linux distribution launched in February 2009. 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. While the initial version was Gentoo-based, the developers switched to Ubuntu beginning with Version 2.1.
In May 2016, discussions about a new version 6.0 were underway. However, by 2016, Distrowatch had marked Nova as discontinued. 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.
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. As of February 2025, the distribution's website seems to be poorly maintained or abandoned, with web browsers displaying an alert to visitors about an expired TLS certificate from August 2024.