Homegrown openKylin 1.0 key to new infrastructure, digital economy

The launch of China's first open-source desktop operating system — openKylin 1.0 — will bolster the innovative development of homegrown operating systems and provide reliable basic software services for the country's IT industrial chains, experts said.

The move indicates that China has the ability to build its own self-developed operating system and fill gaps in this field, they added, while emphasizing that domestic operating systems serve as an important pillar for driving construction of new infrastructure and promoting the development of the digital economy.

The openKylin 1.0 system was developed by a group of Chinese companies led by China Electronics Corp, the country's largest State-owned comprehensive electronic information enterprise group.

Other participants include the China Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, Kylinsec Technology and more than 10 other software firms.

The rollout of openKylin 1.0 will help bolster the iteration and upgrade of homegrown operating systems and guarantee security in key fields such as government affairs, finance, communications, energy and transportation, CEC said.

The openKylin operating system can be compatible with hardware devices, such as computers and mobile phones, and can be applied in finance, Customs and the energy sector, among others.

"The operating system is the core technology in the whole information security sector," said Ni Guangnan, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, adding that the country's operating system has made progress by leaps and bounds after years of development.

Ni said more efforts should be made to accelerate independent innovations in core software technologies and encourage enterprises to step up investment in research and development to address bottlenecks. It will still take some time before domestic operating systems are used on a large scale, he added.

Currently, China's software operating system industry is dominated by foreign firms, such as Microsoft's Windows, Google's Android and Apple's Mac OS. Last year, CEC unveiled China's first desktop operating system developers' platform openKylin, which aims to build a top-tier open-source community with global influence by attracting developers across the globe.

The launch of an open-source desktop operating system is of great significance to enhance the competitiveness of homegrown operating systems, ensure the country's information security, and improve the resilience of industrial and supply chains, said Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, a telecom industry association.

As China has made great strides in improving the availability, reliability and security of operating systems, Xiang called for efforts to establish an ecosystem for a domestic operating system, and continuously expand the application scenarios of the operating system industry.

Industry insiders said the proportion of homegrown operating systems is expected to increase along with the emergence of a variety of software and applications, alongside advances in emerging technologies, such as cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence.

Gao Dan, general manager of the software and information services research center under CCID Consulting, said basic software is playing a vital role in bolstering the construction of digital infrastructure, and the compound annual growth rate of China's operating system market reached 6.7 percent over the past 10 years.

Moreover, Chinese operating system company UnionTech Software Technology Co Ltd is stepping up its efforts to develop an indigenous operating system and expand the application of its software solutions in the telecommunication, financial and postal services sectors.