China
is looking to launch its own operating system, an initiative that the
government reportedly hopes will make its information systems more
secure.
According
to a report in the Xinhua news, Ni Guangnan, of the Chinese Academy of
Engineering, the country's state-run engineering arm, says the new
Chinese operating system could be launched as early as October.
Details
regarding the underpinnings of the operating system have yet to be
revealed, but the move was reportedly spurred by the end of support of
Windows XP and the ban on Windows 8 in China. The government also
launched an anti-monopoly probe against Microsoft earlier this year.
This
isn't the first major push from China to shake off ties to Western
operating systems in favor of a locally developed operating system that
might be more easily secured in the face of the ongoing international
Internet intelligence skirmishes.
Over
a decade ago, China launched an effort to develop Kylin, a
FreeBSD-based operating system. And just last year, Ubuntu Kylin was
announced, an operating system developed as a possible successor to the
original Kylin.
And
back in 2003, a consortium of Asian nations, including China, Japan and
South Korea, announced an effort to develop an Asia-centric operating
system based on Lunix. That project, which eventually came to include
Vietnam, Thailand and Sri Lanka, was dubbed Asianux.
Additionally,
as recent as 2012, another Asian concern, India's Defense Research and
Development Organization (DRDO), announced that it was developing the
India Operating System.
"To
secure our cyber network, our own OS for computers is highly
essential", DRDO director-general V K Saraswat told The Times of India.
The
afore-mentioned projects are either languishing in various stages of
low popularity, shelved or still gestating. But the trend in the last
decade is clear: Asia wants to control its own operating system destiny.
In
the wake of recent of revelations brought to light by former NSA
contractor Edward Snowden, international interest in developing more
secure operating systems, created under the watchful eyes of local
governments, has become an even more serious issue.
Whether
this latest Chinese effort will truly result in erasing Western
operating systems from the country remains to be seen. According to
recent reports, roughly 70% of desktop users in China are still using
Windows XP.
What
was unclear in the Xinhua report is whether this new operating system
will be limited to Chinese users, or be offered internationally. Based
on the comments from Ni, it seems, at least in the short-term, the
former is more likely.
"Our key to success lies in an environment that can help us compete with Google, Apple and Microsoft," Ni told Xinhua.
The report also says that the operating system will first be rolled out on desktop computers and later on mobile devices.
Posted by : Gizmeon
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