• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 02 / 13 / 2011

---

Havana, Feb 12 (Prensa Latina) More than 8,000 computers at the University of Computer Sciences (UCI) will be migrating to GNU/Linux open-source platforms, according to Abel Firvida, who is heading the open-source software project there.

The school will be the first in the country to migrate to open-source software for such a large number of computers, Firvida told Prensa Latina, after presenting NOVA 3.0, an operating system compatible with the Ubuntu community, the largest in the world.

That compatibility provides the school with a network of support on the Internet, creating a larger community, he said, adding that UCI's migration to the new software would begin next week.

Firvida lauded an agreement with the Cuban software factory that will make it possible to use the NOVA operating system and Windows in computers assembled in Cuba, easing the transition to the open-source platform.

At the national level, several million dollars would be saved, the professor added.

If that were not enough, Linux is more "beautiful," because it can do the same operations as other operating systems and can be improved, he noted.

The migration does not mean changing everything without thinking, but requires study, planning and training, said Firvida, adding that the General Customs Office and several polyclinics have already migrated to Linux.

Source: PL