In order to reduce its dependence on American operating systems which dominate the world market, Windows and macOS not to mention them, China has decided to accelerate in the design of its own OS.
In its effort to limit China’s dependence on American software, Beijing decided to create an open source platform to help develop a Chinese operating system. An approach which is not new, but which the government wishes to implement as quickly as possible.
Overwhelming dominance of American operating systems
Windows alone powers approximately 75% of personal computers worldwide. An impressive figure if compared to the competition. The second step is occupied by macOS which weighs approximately 15% of the market. Other operating systems like Linux or Chrome OS pick up the crumbs. A situation similar to that known on smartphones equipped with Android and iOS that the Chinese government had tried to counter by creating its China Operating System.
It is in a similar approach around the OS equipping our PCs that the Chinese government has commissioned the National University of Defense Technologies of the People’s Liberation Army to develop a Chinese operating system for computers.
A Chinese operating system, a long-standing quest for Beijing
The approach is not new insofar as such an initiative was carried out in 2001 with Kylin, an OS which was used by the military and government computer systems of the Middle Kingdom, without ever going so far as to be used by the Chinese population.
Today, the South China Morning Post highlights the government’s desire to generalize Kylin by creating an open-source version called openKylin. Originally developed on a FreeBSD base, the new version is now based on Linux.
“This effort comes amid growing tensions between the United States and China. The latter has tried to stimulate local production of key technologies ranging from semiconductors to software. »
This will obviously recall other much older attempts, such as Red Flag, which were launched at the end of the 90s with the same ambitions. A task far from easy, because an operating system is only worth the richness of its ecosystem. This is often where the shoe pinches. Impossible, therefore, not to mention the American sanctions which affect Chinese companies, such as the giant Huawei, which has been able to bounce back by developing HarmonyOS, its own operating system, to replace Android on its smartphones and tablets. If the OS is there, it is the applications, these programs which ensure the uses, which are still lacking.
In its attempts to control operating systems, the Chinese government also managed to obtain a very special version of Windows 10 from Microsoft.
Source :
South China Morning Post