A New Homegrown OS For China Could Arrive By October 93
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.
heard this for years now (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