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A New Homegrown OS For China Could Arrive By October

Posted by timothy on from the which-governement-holds-your-data? dept.

According to a Reuters report, China could have a new homegrown operating system by October to take on imported rivals such as Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Apple Inc, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. Computer technology became an area of tension between China and the United States after a number of run-ins over cyber security. China is now looking to help its domestic industry catch up with imported systems such as Microsoft's Windows and Google's mobile operating system Android. The operating system would first appear on desktop devices and later extend to smartphone and other mobile devices, Xinhua said, citing Ni Guangnan who heads an official OS development alliance established in March. It would make sense for even a "homegrown" operating system to be based on existing ones, in the way Red Flag Linux is. Conceptually related: Earlier this year, Chinese company Coship Electronics announced (and demonstrated) a mobile OS called 960 OS.

4 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. i'm thinking yet another linux distro by 0xdeaddead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    that'll be abandoned in 2-3 years.

    Just what we need, more fragmentation. And zero innovation.

  2. China Has Been Trying To Dump Windows for Years by rssrss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Information Warfare: Running For Linux January 9, 2011

    For a decade now, China has been trying to get business and government users to adopt Unix (and later Linux) as their operating system. Yet most Chinese businesses, and many government departments, continue to use Microsoft operating systems. They do this because Microsoft Windows is widely pirated in China, and there's a large amount of pirated software you can use only on Windows systems. Another critical reason is that more games run on Windows machines, and that is important, even in China. Finally, the Chinese government is more resistant to complaints from Microsoft than Russia.

    * * *

    China has tried to get around this by subsidizing Linux training for Chinese engineers and computer technicians. The government also subsidized the development of the Kylin Unix based server software. Kylin is shareware, and anyone can download it. Kylin is also designed to be very secure, much more secure than Microsoft server software, and most other similar products. China has had more success in getting users to adopt non-Microsoft server software, but the real battleground is PCs.

    --
    In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
  3. heard this for years now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've heard variations of this story come up on slashdot since I started reading back in 2000. It seems like China is always starting some government mandated homegrown operating system... None of them ever seem to become successful. Here is what I could find just on the first page of a google search:

    http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/01/17/194245/chinas-government-unveils-china-operating-system-to-great-skepticism
    http://linux-beta.slashdot.org/story/99/11/10/1457205/linux-to-be-official-os-of-peoples-republic-of-china
    http://beta.slashdot.org/submission/3273261/china-gets-government-backed-operating-system-cos
    http://bsd-beta.slashdot.org/submission/1010903/china-chooses-freebsd-as-basis-for-secure-os
    http://beta.slashdot.org/submission/3279227/china-shows-off-its-own-smartphone-operating-system
    http://linux.slashdot.org/story/08/12/03/2033243/red-flag-linux-forced-on-chinese-internet-cafes

  4. Why Bother? by rssrss · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the lead article:

    "In May, China banned government use of Windows 8, Microsoft's latest operating system"

    It seems to be a needless gesture. Even in the US, no one uses Windows 8.

    --
    In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.