The launch of a developers’ platform, called openKylin, for China’s first desktop operating system is expected to further bolster the innovative development of homegrown operating systems and provide reliable basic software services for the country’s industrial chain and global IT facilities, industry experts said. The openKylin platform is developed by a group of Chinese companies led by China Electronics Corp (CEC), the country’s largest state-owned electronics group. Other participants include the China Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, Kylin Software and more than 10 other software companies. The openKylin platform will allow more developers to participate in the innovation and development of homegrown open-sourced operating systems, according to CEC.
Domestic operating systems serve as an important pillar for driving construction of new infrastructure and boosting development of the digital economy, said Chen Ximing, Deputy General Manager of CEC. The openKylin platform aims to build a top-tier open-source community with global influence by attracting developers across the globe, he added. Currently, China’s software operating system industry is dominated by foreign brands, such as Microsoft’s Windows, Google’s Android and Apple’s Mac OS. CEC rolled out the self-developed software operating system Kylin V10 in August 2020, which is compatible with more than 10,000 hardware and software products, including central processing units.
“The establishment of a developer platform for the desktop operating system will significantly reduce the costs of software development and improve the operational efficiency of software services,” said Xiang Ligang, Director General of the Information Consumption Alliance. Industry experts said the proportion of homegrown operating systems is expected to increase along with the emergence of a variety of software and applications, and the advancement of emerging technologies like cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence. “The operating system is the core technology in the information security sector,” said Ni Guangnan, Academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE). Ni said more efforts should be made to accelerate independent innovations in core software technologies and encourage enterprises to increase research and development investment for higher innovative capacities. It still takes some time before domestic operating systems will be used on a large scale, he added, as reported by the China Daily.
The South China Morning Post adds that China’s quest for a competitive domestic operating system has been going on for decades, with some candidates already available in the market. Kylin was originally developed by the National University of Defense Technology of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which has been licensing Kylinsoft for commercial applications since 2014. However, those attempts have yet to result in any Chinese system capable of rivaling Microsoft Windows, which leads the market with an 85% share in mainland China. Globally, Windows also remains the dominant desktop operating system with a market share of just under 74% as of December. Apple’s MacOS, which has become more widely used over the years, holds a share of around 15%. Linux-based operating systems, which include most of China’s home-grown systems, retain a small but stable market share worldwide.
The first versions of Kylin included code from the Unix-like software FreeBSD, while later versions have been based on Linux, according to a report by research and consulting firm EqualOcean. As part of China’s efforts to reduce its dependency on Western technologies, the country runs its own open-source platform Gitee to counter Microsoft’s more well-known global site GitHub.
Kylinsoft currently has three operating systems on offer: V10, V4, and NeoKylin V7.0. Among them, V10 has been configured to be compatible with the widest range of central processing units (CPUs), including those from Huawei Technologies’ HiSilicon, Loongson, Sunway, Hygon and FeiTeng.
