Operating system as the soul of the information industry, whether from the perspective of information security or from the perspective of industrial development, need to be in their own hands. Recently, Sina Technology talked to Wang Yaohua, general manager of Unisys desktop operating system product line and head of the open source community center, who said that independent controllable looks official, but in fact represents a capability, and the realization of independent controllable needs a long time of technical accumulation and precipitation.
Data show that in 2021, China’s Linux desktop operating system shipments, then the proportion of just over 5%. The development of the replacement of domestic operating systems, both pressure, but also full of opportunities. Wang Yaohua expects that by 2025, China’s PC shipments will exceed 50 million units per year, the market share of domestic operating systems will exceed 20%, China will also become the largest Linux desktop market, with the development of an independent ecological base, the ability to lead the development of Linux desktop systems.
Autonomous control represents a capability that requires a long period of precipitation
In mid-August, TUNISoft Deep Open Source Community officially released deepin V23 Preview, a deep operating system. according to Wang Yaohua, the release of deepin V23 Preview contains three main core features: a new V23 repository, which will be gradually aligned with the top international mainstream distributions such as Debian and Arch Linux in the future; atomic updates, which can guarantee the integrity of the operating system upgrades; and the ability to provide a more efficient and more reliable operating system. V23 Preview is a new repository for V23, which can guarantee the integrity of operating system upgrades; and the self-developed package format “Linglong”, which can effectively manage various compatibility problems caused by the complex dependencies of traditional package formats under Linux systems.
In Wang Yaohua’s view, at present, most enterprises in the domestic IT industry are mentioning independent and controllable, which seems very official, but in fact, independent and controllable represents a capability. “All involved in the operating system kernel, system components, technical architecture, the association between the components and desktop environment of each technical link, you can skillfully control, when the system security vulnerabilities after you can go to quickly repair, then the problem also becomes no longer terrible, the supply chain security issues are also guaranteed.”
According to Wang Yaohua, the operating system based on “root community” means that it is built directly from the Linux kernel and source code without relying on upstream distributions, and has its own concept and innovation in system architecture. At the same time, we hope that based on this operating system, more developers can participate in it to build a broader community influence and prosper the operating system ecology.
Up to now, deepin OS (deepin) has been continuously updated more than 200 times, with more than 80 million downloads worldwide and more than 3 million overseas users all over the world. In Wang Yaohua’s view, due to different user attributes, different people want to achieve different purposes in the open source community. However, as a community form evolved from a community of programmers, open source communities naturally have a tendency to pursue technological innovation and technical ideas. Therefore, it is crucial for the development of open source communities to continuously promote technological innovation and at the same time build an open and transparent community ecology that is easy to collaborate.
“We hope a large number of developers will participate together to sustainably energize.” Wang Yaohua said.
Domestic OS shipments to reach 20% by 2025
At present, the market share of domestic desktop operating systems, Windows and macOS are in the absolute dominant position, with a market share of up to 90%, while the Linux-based domestic operating systems, roughly at about 5%. The market share gap makes it difficult for the formation of domestic operating system ecology and the increase of market share.
Wang Yaohua expects that by 2025 China’s Linux OS shipments will account for 20% of the overall market shipments, reaching 10 million units per year, and will have an overall share of more than 10% in China’s desktop OS market. By then, China will become the largest Linux desktop market and the domestic operating system will have the foundation to develop an independent ecology and thus begin to lead the development of the global Linux desktop system.
“With shipments exceeding 20%, a new plateau will be reached, and at this time, whether it is the business model or the construction of the whole ecology, the support of each enterprise may not be quite the same.” Wang Yaohua said. According to him, based on industry survey data and the results of communication with the competent authorities and other units, “we are still optimistic about this estimate of reaching an annual shipment of 10 million units in 2025.”
On the general trend, as the policy level attaches more and more importance to information security, network security, etc., as well as some foreign countries and regions when there are events such as Win7 discontinuation and security vulnerabilities, although there are limitations in the user experience of domestic operating systems, but with the ecological development to a certain stage, it will eventually become better. “Under such a trend, there will always be vendors who can see the opportunities in the market, and there will be people who will invest and participate in the industry.”
Wang Yaohua saw that the current development of the domestic desktop operating system industry, still facing problems such as the scarcity of talent, the domestic operating system from good to first-class and then to super-class, there is still a long way to go. And Unisys is also vigorously promoting open source culture and cultivating open source talents, accelerating the cultivation of open source communities, open source foundations, open source protocols and open source projects, and building a secure base for basic software from the source.
