In late June, two major domestic operating system manufacturers started new actions respectively. First of all, on June 23, the experimenter of Tongxin UOS Home Edition opened the public beta, promoted the domestic operating system in the form of official virtual machine, and reduced the trial cost for new users. Subsequently, on June 30th, the first domestic desktop operating system developer platform "Open Kirin" was officially released, which will let more developers participate in the development of domestic open source operating systems by opening the operating system source code.
The actions of the two vendors are one to attract more users and the other to attract more developers, both of which are aimed at crossing the most difficult step in the success of domestic operating systems-ecologicalization. Because only more users can have more developers; Only when more developers adapt to common software and continue to develop more new applications can we attract more users and form a perfect closed loop of operating system development.
For individual users, a computer generally only installs dozens of software. If the user's personalized software requirements are superimposed, the number of software at the system level will often reach one million or more. For a niche operating system that wants to seize the market from Windows and MacOS, there is no ecology without millions of application adaptations.
Let everyone use it first, and gradually move from "available" to "easy to use". In fact, since the 1990s, domestic operating systems have experienced many years of application and promotion, and also experienced numerous twists and turns. What is the reference value of past failures for today? Can the domestic operating system really be "easy to use" by virtue of the advantages of China's local market?
"failed" operating system
At present, foreign operating system brands almost monopolize the huge China market. The 20021Operating System Commercial Application Report shows that the market share of foreign operating systems in China's desktop and mobile terminals exceeds 94.75% and 98.86% respectively.
This model is not achieved overnight. For a long time, on a global scale, many manufacturers have taken turns to compete for the big "cake" of operating system. Even though most vendors are defeated in the brutal market competition, it is undeniable that they have contributed a lot of experience and technology accumulation to the operating system that is active in the market today.
Although Microsoft Windows system almost monopolized the China market now, through a long lifeline, from Windows XP, Windows7, Windows8, Windows 10 to Windows 1 1 now, the Windows system has experienced a long-term continuous iteration to continuously adapt to the market demand.
As a matter of fact, the domestic operating system has already charged the Windows system.
From 65438 to 0999, NATO, led by the United States, launched the Kosovo War, and successfully defeated the Yugoslav army's air defense system in the war, which made Chinese people experience the power of information warfare for the first time, and at the same time they were worried about Microsoft's monopoly. This year, the domestic operating system really launched a counterattack.
Xu Guanhua, then Minister of Science and Technology, hit the nail on the head and pointed out that China was in an environment of "lack of core and soul" (core is chip and soul is operating system). If they are not independent, once "water" and "electricity" are cut off, history will inevitably repeat itself, repeating the mistakes of Yugoslavia.
Therefore, with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, under the leadership of Sun Yufang, deputy director of the Institute of Software of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the "father of Linux in China", in 2000, the Institute of Software of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Lianchuang jointly funded the establishment of Zhongke Hongqi Company, and the company's development goal was clear: "Challenge Microsoft and be China's own operating system".
Among cheap pirated Windows and expensive domestic operating systems, many computer dealers prefer the former.
In addition, many users are used to using Microsoft Office software, and the Red Flag system is not compatible with Microsoft Office, which leads to the inefficiency of the Red Flag system.
In 2005, Pinggu District of Beijing also tried to fully adopt domestic Linux. In order to urge all units to use the domestic operating system, 33 self-inspection teams were set up to check the use of more than 0/00 units in the whole region.
At that time, the domestic operating system was far from Windows in terms of ease of use and compatibility, and many units still preferred Microsoft operating system. The first charge of domestic operating system to Windows system ended in failure.
Evolution history of domestic operating system
"People in China won't pay for software, but they will one day. Since they want to steal, let them steal ours. They will be addicted to it, so we will find ways to make them pay for it in the next ten years. "
From 65438 to 0995, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett made the above remarks in a conversation organized by Fortune magazine.
However, this seemingly "arrogant" remark is gradually becoming a reality. Today, 27 years later, it is really difficult for China market to leave Windows system, which has become the standard of many brand computers.
The deep dependence on foreign systems such as Windows has also attracted the attention of China academic circles. Ni Guangnan, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, once said publicly: "Aviation planes are monopolized by Boeing and Airbus, and the total number may be several hundred thousand. However, there are only three operating systems for billions of smart terminals in the world: Apple, Android and Windows. This kind of monopoly is not found in the world. "
At the same time, as a link between software and hardware, operating system plays a core role in the security field, and it is extremely risky for foreign enterprises to firmly control the dominant position. Microsoft's black screen incident in 2008, Stuxnet earthquake virus incident in 20 10, Prism Gate incident in 20 13, and Intel chip Minix leakage risk incident in 20 17 all show that Microsoft's Windows system is not solid and reliable, and once a network security accident occurs, the consequences are unimaginable.
Therefore, the development of localized operating system is a problem that the country needs to face directly to prevent network attacks and threats, and it is also the main trend of the future development of operating system in China.
In fact, China explored the operating system very early.
As early as the mid-1960s, China began to develop operating systems. Professor Sun Zhongxiu of Nanjing University and Academician Yang Fuqing of Peking University are pioneers of operating system in China. However, at that time, the operating system was mainly used in industry. The earliest operating system "150 Machine" in China was designed to improve the calculation of oil exploration data and increase the oil production rate of drilling.
Starting from 1999, Red Flag Linux was developed by Zhongke Hongqi Company, and a series of domestic operating systems such as Blue Point Linux, Deep Linux, neokylin, You Qilin, Zhongke Fangde, Puhua, StartOS and Alibaba Cloud OS also appeared one after another.
However, the talent and industry siphon effect of Microsoft Windows is too strong, which also makes it difficult for domestic systems to obtain enough industrial chain resources. After the first round of counterattack failed, domestic operating system enterprises even fell into an unsustainable situation.
On February 20 14 10, zhongke hongqi posted a liquidation announcement, announcing that the company was officially dissolved, and even the wages owed to employees could not be paid. Blue Point Linux also encountered an internet bubble after it went public in 2000. By 2002, the company's share price had been as low as 0.08 cents. After only two years in the capital market, the system stopped operating and suddenly withdrew from the American market.
"It is impossible to develop only the Linux platform. It must be pre-installed on the hardware architecture and equipped with external driving devices. Many application software should be transplanted to the Linux platform, thus establishing a Linux ecosystem. " Lu Shouqun, chairman of the China Open Source Software Promotion Alliance, once said, "Without the support of industry giants and enterprises, and without the support of the open source community, it is impossible for China Linux to develop."
However, just as the domestic operating systems have "fallen" and are about to fade out of public view, Huawei's HarmonyOS system finally broke out on 20 19, holding the domestic operating system, which should not be discarded.
Different from the pioneers of operating system, HarmonyOS system is compatible with Android software as much as possible on the basis of adopting Linux open source kernel, which continues some operating features of customized version of Android system EMUI and attracts developers to create applications for HarmonyOS system ecology.
Based on the strong substitution of HarmonyOS system, in 2022, the number of users of the system has reached 300 million, including more than 220 million mobile phone users and more than 654.38 billion Internet of Things devices. Moreover, there are more and more connected devices in HarmonyOS system, and it may really become a first-line operating system alongside Windows, IOS and Android in the future.
Even as a "spare tire", it needs ecology.
Operating systems can be divided into four types according to application fields: desktop operating system, server operating system, mobile operating system and other operating systems (cloud, embedded, Internet of Things operating system, etc. ). Huawei's HarmonyOS system positioning is a full-scene distributed operating system for the Internet of Everything, but people are more exposed to the HarmonyOS system as a mobile operating system.
However, mobile terminals and mobile operating systems are not suitable for office work, and personal office relies more on desktop operating system.
Without ecological support, even the best system can't succeed. The mainstream software in the world, such as business, industry, art design, film editing, etc., are mainly Windows and MacOS. Although the domestic desktop operating system can also be supported by domestic office software such as WPS, and can also adapt to mainstream browsers such as Firefox and Chrome, Office is not just a browser plus WPS.
Thousands of industries will have tens of millions of segmentation software. Without these softwares, people in related industries can't work normally. It is precisely because people can't live without all kinds of adaptation software that Windows and MacOS are in an absolute dominant position.
At present, Windows and MacOS account for about 95% of the market, while domestic operating systems account for less than 5%.
This is less than 5% of the market share of desktop operating system, which is composed of more than a dozen domestic operating systems. According to statistics, at present, the domestic mainstream desktop operating systems exceed 15, including UOS (Unified Communication Software), Kirin OS, Puhua Software, Zhongxing New Pivot, Ningsi, Zhongke Fangde, Huawei Euler OpenEuler and so on.
For so many distributions of Linux desktop operating system, we need to consider how to realize the interconnection between software and avoid the dispersion of resources. However, the centralization and merger of domestic operating systems will ultimately be decided by the market. After all, there is competition among different enterprises, and only when users experience and use the best system can they finally win.
At the beginning of 20021,six manufacturers including Kirin, Tongxin, zhongke fangde, zhongke hongqi, puhua basic software and zhongxing new fulcrum were shortlisted for the supply and purchase of Linux desktop operating system in the national mining center. The government's support for domestic operating systems is also a screening. Under this screening, domestic operating systems are showing a stronger Matthew effect, especially Kirin and Tongxin, which are located at the head of desktop operating systems.
However, compared with foreign operating system giants, the cooperation between domestic operating systems and mainstream processor manufacturers has not reached the level of "alliance".
The ecosystem of operating system is not only in software application, but also in software and hardware cooperation. For example, Microsoft and Intel form Wintel (Windows-Intel Architecture) alliance, and NVIDIA GPU and game developers.
Didn't Microsoft and Intel form a software-hardware alliance for ecological strength? Interestingly, Intel's high-performance processors are inseparable from us, but we don't seem to be afraid that Microsoft will stop supplying Windows. Why?
After all, chips are still more difficult than operating systems. Huawei's case also just shows that if Android is cut off, Huawei can immediately take out the "spare tire" of HarmonyOS system; However, without the advanced technology OEM of 5G chip and processor manufacturers, it is difficult for Huawei to come up with a "spare tire".
This actually shows that the technical threshold of the operating system is far below the ecological threshold.
Not every generation of Microsoft operating system can succeed. Microsoft's operating system is criticized by many users, and it will always fail after a successful generation. For example, Vista after Windows XP and Win8 after Win7 are not as good as the previous generation in terms of system praise and installation rate. Although the current Win 1 1 is better than the previous two failed systems, it still faces many criticisms. Many users are still using Win 10 and are unwilling to upgrade to Win 1 1.
Originally, when Microsoft launched the unpopular generation system, the domestic operating system actually had a better chance to get more installation attempts in the user base. But even if Microsoft fails, it is difficult for domestic operating systems to find the weakness of the attack.
For example, in April of 20 14, Microsoft stopped providing service support for the Windows XP operating system, which not only made the majority of users dissatisfied, but also made the China government, which bought Windows XP in large quantities, aware of the risk of operating system being manipulated.
Eight years later, after a series of elimination and integration, the market share of domestic operating systems is still around 5%, and there is no leap. Fortunately, the strength of domestic operating system is stronger than that of eight years ago, and it is more compatible with different processor hardware.
For example, Tongxin UOS supports four architectures (AMD64, AMR64, MIPS64 and SW64) in hardware, and supports six mainstream domestic chips, including Godson, Kunpeng, Tengfei, Zhao Xin, Shenwei and Guang Hai. Compared with the past, it has made great progress in compatibility and openness.
Galaxy Kirin desktop operating system V 10 is the six domestic CPU platforms supporting four technical routes: Tengfei, Kunpeng, Zhao Xin, Guang Hai, Godson and Shenwei. The graphical interface takes into account the user's existing operating habits of Windows system. The distribution of desktop icons, taskbar and start menu is close to that of Windows operating system. It also has a highly compatible Android operating environment and natively supports Android applications.
In terms of ecology, it is reported that in 2020, the total number of compatible software and hardware adaptations of Galaxy Kirin V 10 is only over 30,000, but it is developing rapidly. 202 1, reaching more than 290,000; In May 2022, it exceeded 420,000.
According to the data released by Microsoft in 20 18, Windows 10 alone has more than 35 million applications, more than 654.38+75 million software versions, and it also supports160,000 hardware/driver combinations. The number of applications of the Apple system also exceeds one million.
There is a big gap between the number of applications of Kirin and Microsoft, but not far from the number of applications of Apple.
"Our goal is to make the total number of adapted software and hardware reach one million in two to three years, which is the scale of today's Apple system." Wei, deputy general manager of Kirin Software, put forward Kirin's goal of benchmarking Apple's millions of applications in an interview with the media.
In fact, Kirin and Tongxin themselves also support the installation of Android applications through Kydroid, deepin-wine and other technologies, and Windows applications can also be installed through virtual machines, which can also make up for the shortcomings of system applications to some extent.
For domestic operating systems, it is not a problem for domestic government procurement to maintain the survival of enterprises. In order to have a better development, we need to enter a broader field of business and personal use. This requires not only an ecological increase in the number of applications, but also a "clean break" between China and the United States in the operating system.
But obviously, unless there is an irreconcilable conflict between China and the United States, it is impossible for American technology companies to "break up" with China on their own initiative. Without extreme environment, the domestic operating system can only be used as a substitute and prevention at most, but not as a substitute for Windows.
Write it at the end
Whether a domestic operating system is good or not depends not only on the promotion of the manufacturer, but also on the actual experience of the user.
In order to experience the real effect of domestic operating system, we installed Tongxin and Kirin desktop operating systems on the virtual machine, and tested simple web browsing and WPS office. Although the bottom layer of the system is completely different from Windows, the operating experience of the above two systems is not much different from Windows in the light office environment.
But this is just a few pieces of software. Everyone has some special office needs. In addition to common software, several minority softwares are often installed. With more than 35 million applications, Windows is still an unattainable goal in the short term or even in the long term.
But we should not only see the success of Microsoft, but also see its failure. In order to promote the popularity of Windows system on PC and mobile, and strengthen Microsoft's control over applications, Microsoft launched the UWP App Store on 20 16. All the permissions of UWP applications can be controlled by the system, and the data will only be stored in some directories designated by the system. However, at present, tens of thousands of UWP applications can not meet the needs of a complete ecological construction. Although Microsoft did not give up UWP like giving up Windows Phone, UWP is definitely another failed project of Microsoft.
Failure is not terrible. Microsoft will fail, and the domestic operating system can't replace Microsoft for the time being, let alone terrible. At least, we still have a "spare tire" and the possibility of becoming a full member.
China is training far more software engineers than the United States. According to statistics, in 20 18, the number of students enrolled in computer major nationwide reached 293,500, and in 20 19, the number of students enrolled reached 324,600. In 2020 and 20021year, the annual enrollment will increase by nearly 30,000, and it is estimated that the enrollment scale will reach about 400,000 in 2022. If we consider the freshmen majoring in computer science who will enter the university in 2022, the number of undergraduates majoring in computer science in China will exceed 6.5438+0.4 million.
With the help of China's share in the world's largest Linux market and many software engineers trained by China's computer education system, a virtuous circle of building a domestic operating system ecology has actually taken place in a small scale.
This article is from Yiou.com.