Canaima GNU/Linux is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

that is based on the architecture of

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

. It was created as a solution to cover the needs of the

Venezuelan Government Venezuela is a federal presidential republic. The chief executive is the President of Venezuela who is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President. Legislative power is vested in the National Assembl ...

as a response to presidential decree 3,390 that prioritizes the use of free and open source technologies in the public administration. On 14 March 2011, Canaima was officially established as the default operating system for the Venezuelan public administration. The operating system has gained a strong foothold and is one of the most used

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

distributions in Venezuela, largely because of its incorporation in public schools. It is being used in large scale projects as "Canaima Educativo", a project aimed at providing school children with a basic laptop computer with educational software nicknamed Magallanes. Use of Canaima has been presented on international congresses about the use of open standards, Despite being a young development, it has been used on the Festival Latinoamericano de Instalación de Software Libre (FLISOL).

Features

Some of the major features of Canaima GNU/Linux are: # Easy installation. # Software license cost is free. #

Free Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, the ability to act or change without constraint or restriction * Emancipate, attaining civil and political rights or equality * Free (''gratis''), free of charge * Gratis versus libre, the difference betw ...

distribution and use. The

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...

(FSF) states that Canaima GNU/Linux is not 100% free software. This is because some of its components are non-free software, in particular some firmware that may be needed for some graphic cards, sound cards, printers, etc. Canaima creators opted to include these non-free drivers in order to support as many computers being used by the Venezuelan government as possible, and to facilitate the migration from a closed source operating system to an open-source one (although including non-free software). It is expected that Canaima, in its upcoming releases, offers an option in the installation process for non-free drivers to be optional, being able to install a 100% free software image of the distribution if the user choose to.

Included software

Canaima includes applications for training, development and system configuration. The

Graphical User Interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

(GUI) and

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphi ...

by default is

GNOME A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

. There are other desktop environments and GUIs maintained by the community for the system, like

KDE Plasma KDE Plasma is a Shell (computing), graphical shell developed by the KDE community for Unix-like operating systems. It serves as the interface layer between the user and the operating system, providing a graphical user interface (GUI) and workspa ...

and

Xfce Xfce or XFCE (pronounced as four individual letters, ) is a Free and open-source software, free and open-source desktop environment for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. Xfce aims to be fast and Lightweight software, lightweight whil ...

. Productivity: The office software suite LibreOffice, with

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word ...

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

presentation program In computing, a presentation program (also called presentation software) is a software package used to display information in the form of a slide show. It has three major functions: * an editor that allows text to be inserted and formatted * ...

, it includes other more specific programs like project management software Planner and a HTML editor. Internet: Includes th
Cunaguaro browser
a

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

based on Iceweasel and adapted especially for Canaima 3.0 and onwards
Canaima Curiara
is a light web browser based on Cunaguaro, developed in python-webkit for specific applications on the distribution. Graphics: Includes

GIMP Gimp or GIMP may refer to: Clothing * Bondage suit, also called a gimp suit, a type of suit used in BDSM * Bondage mask, also called a gimp mask, often worn in conjunction with a gimp suit Embroidery and crafts * Gimp (thread), an ornamental tr ...

Inkscape Inkscape is a vector graphics editor. It is used for both artistic and technical illustrations such as cartoons, clip art, logos, typography, diagrams, and flowcharts. It uses vector graphics to allow for sharp printouts and renderings at ...

, desktop publishing software Scribus an
gLabels
labels designer. The full list of included software can be found a
here

Releases

Canaima has been releasing stable versions periodically since the last couple of years.

Development Cycle

Canaima GNU / Linux has a development model based on Debian but with some modifications to adapt it to the specific needs of Venezuela; In this sense, a development cycle has been defined as follows: The rolling release development model is used. 1. The socio-productive Community, APN and Universities: They provide packages, proposals or, failing that, the corrections of some flaws (bugs), in order to raise the community requirements for the next version of the distribution. 2. Building your own packages: For building packages, the debmake and debuild tools native to Debian are used. 3. Alpha Version: It is built and subjected to tests where the correct interaction between the Canaima repository and the distribution is evaluated. The theming of the new version is displayed, performance tests are carried out on high, medium and low-end machines, the performance and management of the most used applications in the National Public Administration (APN) are evaluated. 4. Evaluation: The Alpha version is evaluated by a group of workers from Venezuelan public institutions, related to the area of Science and Technology and some members of the Venezuelan Free Software Community. In parallel, the socio-productive community will carry out the packaging of its own packages to be added within the Beta 1 version. 5. Beta version 1: The previously selected packages are added to the system directly or to the repository together with the project packages. At this stage of the development cycle, the distribution is published for Project users. 6. Beta version 2: At this stage of the development cycle, more packages are added and errors are corrected, resulting in the correction of bugs previously reported during the community review of the Beta 1 version. 7. Publication: At this stage, after the evaluation and corrections of errors found, the new version is published for the use of the Canaima Project community.

Cayapa Canaima

One of the community activities that has been generated around Canaima is the Cayapa. Cayapa is a Venezuelan term that stands as a form of cooperative work made by several people to reach one goal. On these meetings, free software developers get together to propose upgrades and fix bugs among other things; this activity is called a Bug Squash Party in other projects. The 6th Cayapa was conducted from 14 May until 15 May 2012 in the city of Barinas. The last Cayapa was conducted from 12 November until 14 November 2014 in the city of Mérida, Venezuela.

OEMs

Being a distribution promoted by the Venezuelan Government, a certain number of strategic agreements have been generated with several countries and manufacturing hardware companies: * Portugal: Agreement for the manufacturing of 250,000 "Magalhães" computers to be distributed on public schools *

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

: for the certification of Canaima devices from this manufacturer. * VIT, C.A.: Venezolana de Industria Tecnológica, mixed-enterprise between the Venezuelan state and Chinese entrepreneurs in which it established the use of Canaima on the devices that are manufactured. *

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, trading as Lenovo ( , zh, c=联想, p=Liánxiǎng), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, servers, conv ...

: For the certification of devices from the manufacturer for the use of Canaima. * Siragon, C.A.: Venezuelan manufacturer of computer equipment, an agreement from which Canaima is certified for use on their devices.

Use of Canaima

The most successful instances of the use and adoption of Canaima:

Canaima Educativo

It is a project initiated in 2009 by the Venezuelan Ministry of Education (Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Educación) that provides students in primary education with a laptop computer, known as Canaimitas, with free software, using the Canaima operating system and a series of educational content created by the Ministry of Education. In 2017, 6,000,000 laptops were acknowledged as being delivered.

CANTV

The national telephone company,

CANTV CANTV () is the state-run telephone and internet service provider in Venezuela. It was one of the first telephone service enterprises in the country, founded in 1930. The largest telecommunications provider in Venezuela, it was privatized in 19 ...

, uses the operating system to a certain extent according to thei
Equipped Internet Plan

Variants

There are a number of Canaima editions, maintained and recognized by community activists, that are not released at the same time as the official distribution and do not take part in the project schedule. The most significant ones are:
Canaima Colibri
a Venezuelan distribution with the goals of being friendly, light and functional for computers with low resources.
Canaima Comunal
the idea behind this edition is that it can be extended by community councils, a form of community government called "Consejos Comunales". The main aim is to deliver an operating system to the people in these councils for their everyday work, including tools for surveys among others.
Canaima Caribay
aimed at community media that has flourished because of government support, since the Venezuelan government sees most private media outlets as being heavily biased.
GeoCanaima
contains free Geomatics applications and data to perform various practices and interact with desktop applications, web servers and mapping generators.
Canaima Forense
a new user-friendly environment containing a variety of useful tools for computer forensics.

References

External links

* * {{DistroWatch, canaima, NAME=Canaima GNU/Linux
Decree 3.390

VIT computers preloaded with Canaima

DistroWatch popularity rankings
Debian-based distributions Government of Venezuela State-sponsored Linux distributions History of computing in South America Linux distributions Rolling release Linux distributions