China plans to drop Windows earlier than planned in favor of Linux for some government bodies. The move comes as part of China's broader push to reduce dependence on foreign products and services, especially those of US origin.
China already had their own operating system OpenKylin but low adaptation yet. There is a directive that for all government offices and public institutions, all foreign software has to be removed and replaced by local open source.
China government have been using their own local office suit WPS.
One of my favorite stories from last year was that during one of the biggest spats with the US, China banned the export of rare earth materials to the US. They released the document in WPS, which is completely incompatible with MS Word. It took the US state department days to work out how to open the document.
It took the US state department days to work out how to open the document.
My nieces school sent her mother (my sister) a WPS document “share” link. The website does not offer a download, but the link can be opened in the installed free version and from there the file can be obtained.
It wasn’t difficult or complicated, so I think this says something about the IT skills of the US state department…
For what should be fairly obvious reasons, officials at the US State Department aren’t able to easily download and install software from foreign governments. This is doubly true in file-formats that the security system isn’t equipped to screen and vet.
If you were working at a corporate office, you’d have likely run into the same set of hurdles.
Well, yes, but I would expect something time-senstive to be solved quickly be the State Department’s IT department.
They should have been able to do something like this in less time than “days”.
For what it’s worth, I think our State Department equivalent (I’m German) would have also struggled with something like this, but I am quite certain that they are extremely lacking in skilled IT workers lol
I would expect something time-senstive to be solved quickly be the State Department’s IT department.
I can’t imagine why. It’s a slow-moving ship with numerous levels of authorization between The Guy Hitting The Buttons and The Guy Making The Decisions.
They should have been able to do something like this in less time than “days”.
Again, I can’t imagine why. This information isn’t so time-sensitive that they need to respond to it in hours, much less minutes. And the cost of reacting swiftly but clumsily far exceeds the reward for opening a document in a weird format on a State Department computer.
I am quite certain that they are extremely lacking in skilled IT workers lol
I haven’t seen any evidence of this. Unskilled IT workers will just blindly click and install shit without any gatekeeping or cybersecurity. It’s the skilled ones that go slow and steady, verify within sandbox environments before taking any big risks, and deliver a product that isn’t going to blow up in your face after it’s been configured.
And DPRK has their own OS, it doesn’t mean it isn’t shit. Just because the CCP released a branch of Linux off open source software doesn’t mean it’s good or even innovative.
North Korea’s OS is Red Star, and I get the distinct impression you’ve never used it
I’ve used Red Star 2 and 3. It’s a perfectly adequate OS, and just comes off as any old Linux distro with slightly odd settings. Despite technically bring It’s own OS, I was able to use run pretty much anything built for Linux without issue
Anything North Korea does is default assumed incompetently executed, maliciously intentioned, and/or the result of stolen work from a more skilled (western) developer/designer. The American Brain cannot comprehend the existence of a Soviet computer science expert. Certainly not one from a country where the prevailing wisdom is “These stupid foreigners all believe the President has a perfect golf score and never poops. Everyone eats grass because they’re always starving. And their army feeds their Olympic Soccer Team to wild dogs every time a player misses a goal in a qualifying match”.
China already had their own operating system OpenKylin but low adaptation yet. There is a directive that for all government offices and public institutions, all foreign software has to be removed and replaced by local open source. China government have been using their own local office suit WPS.
One of my favorite stories from last year was that during one of the biggest spats with the US, China banned the export of rare earth materials to the US. They released the document in WPS, which is completely incompatible with MS Word. It took the US state department days to work out how to open the document.
https://www.chinastrategy.org/2025/10/13/sending-a-message-beijing-issues-documents-without-word-format-amid-us-tensions/
My nieces school sent her mother (my sister) a WPS document “share” link. The website does not offer a download, but the link can be opened in the installed free version and from there the file can be obtained.
It wasn’t difficult or complicated, so I think this says something about the IT skills of the US state department…
For what should be fairly obvious reasons, officials at the US State Department aren’t able to easily download and install software from foreign governments. This is doubly true in file-formats that the security system isn’t equipped to screen and vet.
If you were working at a corporate office, you’d have likely run into the same set of hurdles.
Well, yes, but I would expect something time-senstive to be solved quickly be the State Department’s IT department.
They should have been able to do something like this in less time than “days”.
For what it’s worth, I think our State Department equivalent (I’m German) would have also struggled with something like this, but I am quite certain that they are extremely lacking in skilled IT workers lol
I can’t imagine why. It’s a slow-moving ship with numerous levels of authorization between The Guy Hitting The Buttons and The Guy Making The Decisions.
Again, I can’t imagine why. This information isn’t so time-sensitive that they need to respond to it in hours, much less minutes. And the cost of reacting swiftly but clumsily far exceeds the reward for opening a document in a weird format on a State Department computer.
I haven’t seen any evidence of this. Unskilled IT workers will just blindly click and install shit without any gatekeeping or cybersecurity. It’s the skilled ones that go slow and steady, verify within sandbox environments before taking any big risks, and deliver a product that isn’t going to blow up in your face after it’s been configured.
Kylin is Linux based. Guess they are just doubling down on it now.
And DPRK has their own OS, it doesn’t mean it isn’t shit. Just because the CCP released a branch of Linux off open source software doesn’t mean it’s good or even innovative.
North Korea’s OS is Red Star, and I get the distinct impression you’ve never used it
I’ve used Red Star 2 and 3. It’s a perfectly adequate OS, and just comes off as any old Linux distro with slightly odd settings. Despite technically bring It’s own OS, I was able to use run pretty much anything built for Linux without issue
Calling it shit is reductive and inaccurate
Anything North Korea does is default assumed incompetently executed, maliciously intentioned, and/or the result of stolen work from a more skilled (western) developer/designer. The American Brain cannot comprehend the existence of a Soviet computer science expert. Certainly not one from a country where the prevailing wisdom is “These stupid foreigners all believe the President has a perfect golf score and never poops. Everyone eats grass because they’re always starving. And their army feeds their Olympic Soccer Team to wild dogs every time a player misses a goal in a qualifying match”.
Interesting, how come you’ve used it enough to have experience of two versions?
Curious if there is anything proprietary in it or if an audit has been run on the code.
given it marks every file and does a whole other bunch of tracking stuff it definitly has some proprietary additions