Kylin () is an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

developed by academics at the

National University of Defense Technology The National University of Defense Technology (NUDT; ) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Changsha, Hunan, China. Founded in 1953 as the People's Liberation Army Military Academy of Engineering, ...

in the People's Republic of China since 2001. It is named after the mythical beast ''

qilin The qilin (; ) is a legendary hooved chimerical creature that appears in Chinese mythology, and is said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a sage or illustrious ruler. Qilin are a specific type of the mythological family of on ...

''. The first versions were based on

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...

and were intended for use by the Chinese military and other government organizations. With version 3.0 Kylin became

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

-based, and there is a version called NeoKylin which was announced in 2010. By 2019 NeoKylin variant is compatible with more than 4,000 software and hardware products and it ships pre-installed on most computers sold in China. Together, Kylin and Neokylin have 90% market share of the government sector. A separate project using

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...

as the base Linux operating system was announced in 2013. The first version of

Ubuntu Kylin Ubuntu Kylin () is the official Chinese version of the Ubuntu computer operating system. It is intended for desktop and laptop computers, and has been described as a "loose continuation of the Chinese Kylin OS". In 2013, Canonical Ltd. reached a ...

was released in April 2013. In August 2020, v10 of Kylin OS was launched. It is compatible with 10,000 hardware and software products and it "supports Google's Android ecosystem". In July 2022, an open-source version of Kylin, titled openKylin was released.

FreeBSD version

Development of Kylin began in 2001, when the

was assigned the mission of developing an operating system under the

863 Program The 863 program () or State High-Tech Development Plan () was a program funded and administered by the government of the People's Republic of China intended to stimulate the development of advanced technologies in a wide range of fields for th ...

intended to make China independent of foreign technology. The aim was "to support several kinds of server platforms, to achieve high performance, high availability and high security, as well as conforming to international standards of

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

and

operating systems". It was created using a hierarchy model, including "the basic kernel layer which is similar to Mach, the system service layer which is similar to

BSD The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...

and the desktop environment which is similar to

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

". It was designed to comply with the UNIX standards and to be compatible with Linux applications. In February 2006, "China Military Online" (a website sponsored by

PLA Daily The ''People's Liberation Army Daily'' (), or ''PLA Daily'' for short, is the official newspaper of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). Institutionally, the ''PLA Daily'' is the mouthpiece of and speaks for the Central Military Commission ...

of the Chinese People's Liberation Army) reported the "successful development of the Kylin server operating system", which it said was "the first 64-bit operating system with high security level (B2 class)" and "also the first operating system without Linux kernel that has obtained Linux global standard authentification by the international Free Standards Group". In April 2006, it was said that the Kylin operating system was largely based on

5.3. An anonymous Chinese student in Australia, who used the pseudonym "Dancefire", carried out a kernel similarity analysis and showed that the similarities between the two operating systems reached 99.45 percent. One of Kylin's developers confirmed that Kylin was based on FreeBSD during a speech at the international conference EuroBSDCon 2006. In 2009, a report presented to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated that the purpose of Kylin is to make Chinese computers impenetrable to competing countries in the cyberwarfare arena. The ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' reported that:

China has developed more secure operating software for its tens of millions of computers and is already installing it on government and military systems, hoping to make Beijing’s networks impenetrable to U.S. military and intelligence agencies.

The deployment of Kylin was said to have "hardened key Chinese servers".

Kylin Linux (NeoKylin)

With the advent of version 3.0, Kylin has used the Linux kernel. In December 2010, it was announced that China Standard Software and the National University of Defense Technology had signed a strategic partnership to launch a version called NeoKylin. China Standard Software is the maker of the "NeoShine Linux" desktop series. NeoKylin is intended for use by government offices, national defense, energy and other sectors of the Chinese economy. In 2014,

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...

reported that the northeastern city of Siping had migrated its computers from Microsoft Windows to NeoKylin, as part of a government effort to shift computer technology to Chinese suppliers. In September 2015 US computer maker

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

reported that 42% of personal computers they sold in China were now running NeoKylin. The operating system of the

Tianhe-1 Tianhe-I, Tianhe-1, or TH-1 (, ; '' Sky River Number One'') is a supercomputer capable of an Rmax (maximum range) of 2.5 peta FLOPS. Located at the National Supercomputing Center of Tianjin, China, it was the fastest computer in the world fro ...

supercomputer is 64-bit Kylin Linux, which is oriented to high-performance parallel computing optimization, and supports power management and high-performance virtual computing. The newer

Tianhe-2 Tianhe-2 or TH-2 (, i.e. 'Milky Way 2') is a 33.86-petaflops supercomputer located in the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou, China. It was developed by a team of 1,300 scientists and engineers. It was the world's fastest supercomputer ac ...

also uses Kylin Linux.

Ubuntu Kylin

In 2013,

Canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical example ...

reached an agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China to release an

-based Linux OS with features targeted at the Chinese market."Chinese government builds national OS around Ubuntu."
ZDNet, 22 March 2013 Ubuntu Kylin has been described as "a loose continuation of China's Kylin OS".Chinese Linux Distro Seeks Place in Ubuntu Family
www.omgubuntu.co.uk, 27 February 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013 It is intended for desktop and laptop computers.China to create home-grown operating system
BBC News, 22 March 2013 The first official release, Ubuntu Kylin 13.04, was on 25 April 2013.The Final Release of Ubuntu Kylin 13.04 Is Now Available for Download
news.softpedia.com, retrieved 26 April 2013

References

External links

Kylin Official Website
(Chinese)
What is Kylin
Project Mission Statement, September 2004, at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

(English)
Official Kylin website
April 2006, on the

(Chinese)
NeoKylin
(Chinese)

at China Aid Software Service Center (English)
openKylin Official Website
{{FreeBSD Chinese-language Linux distributions Computing platforms FreeBSD Supercomputing in China Unix variants State-sponsored Linux distributions Linux distributions

FreeBSD version

Kylin Linux (NeoKylin)

Ubuntu Kylin

See also

References

External links