News

China inks a deal with Ubuntu makers for their own OS


The Chinese government is looking forward to have their own version of an open source operating system as they’ve signed a 5 year contract with the company that made Ubuntu, Canonical. The new open source operating system for China is based on Ubuntu’s reference design, technically a chinese version of Ubuntu. The “Ubuntu Kylin” is all set to be released next month during Ubuntu’s usual release cycle. There will also be a version of Kylin specifically for servers as hosting companies and online shops can adopt it.

Kylin is made for both desktop and notebook users, Chinese characters will be integrated with features such as Baidu maps, Taobao shopping and various office programs. It will be created in Beijing with a combination of Canonical and Chinese R&D engineers.

Mark Shuttlework, founder of Canonical and Ubuntu said, “The release of Ubuntu Kylin brings the Chinese open source community into the global Ubuntu community. With Ubuntu Kylin, China now has its own secure and stable desktop operating system, produced alongside Ubuntu’s global community. Ubuntu combines proven technology with a mature ecosystem and strong OEM and ISV partners, and this initiative allows the Joint Lab to bring those strengths to China across the full range of platforms: desktop, server, cloud, tablet and phone.”

It could also be a sign that the Chinese government wants to be free of proprietary operating systems owned by Microsoft and Apple. If that’s the case, jumping onboard with Canonical would make sense. However, how China plans to make this as a common choice remains to be seen, it should also be noted that China has a lot of mobile users as well, including iPhones. As of now, Windows has a huge market share in China, followed by Mac OSX and then open source OS.

Source: Canonical

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Electronic Arts Titles Played for Over 11 Billion Hours in 2024

Electronic Arts (EA) announced today that its games were played for over 11 billion hours…

2 days ago

Just 15% of Steam Gaming Time in 2024 Was Spent on New Releases

Steam's annual end-of-year recap, Steam Replay, provides fascinating insights into gamer habits by comparing individual…

2 days ago

STALKER 2 Gets Massive 110GB Patch With 1800+ Fixes

GSC GameWorld released a major title update for STALKER 2 this seeking, bringing the game…

3 days ago

Intel Unveils Core 200H Processors Based on the Previous Raptor Lake Refresh

Without any formal announcement, Intel appears to have revealed its new Core 200H series processors…

3 days ago

Ubisoft Reportedly Developing a New Quadruple A Game

Ubisoft is not having the best of times, but despite recent flops, the company still…

3 days ago

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl Update 1.1 Fixes 1,800 Issues and Revamps A-Life 2.0

If you haven’t started playing STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl yet, now might be the…

3 days ago