14 DAY TRIAL // More than 90 percent of the PCs in China run Windows, be it XP or 7, but it’s no secret that one of the reasons behind this absolute domination of Microsoft’s operating system is possible mostly because of the high level of software piracy in the country.
Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO, revealed a couple of years ago that 9 out of 10 Windows licenses in China were pirated, so it’s easy to see why Redmond’s OS continues to dominate the local market.
But the Chinese government is working to change that in the coming years and is now providing state departments and local consumers with an alternative that looks and feels just like Windows XP. At least, that’s what it is supposed to do.
Called NeoKylin, the Linux-based OS was developed by Shanghai’s China Standard Software and includes applications that can replace those on Windows, including a Media Center, a Start menu, an Office productivity suite and several others.
Not the first attempt to replace Windows
China isn’t quite the friendliest market for Microsoft and the Beijing government previously tried to get rid of Windows in 2013, when it joined forces with Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, to create Kylin, an operating system based on Linux that was supposed to replace Windows.
Most state departments installed Kylin, but adoption among consumers was extremely low, and living proof are the current market share stats which confirm Windows’ total domination.
NeoKylin, on the other hand, is just what its name suggests: an improved version of the original operating system that comes with more features to replace Windows.
And according to Quartz, it’s already more successful. The government already installed it on their computers, and consumers are also moving to it, with workers in the city of Siping running it on all PCs. What’s more, local manufacturers are also joining the migration effort and Dell, for instance, is installing NeoKylin on 40 percent of the commercial computers it sells locally.
Look and features
As you can see in the screenshots and video published by the aforementioned source, NeoKylin was designed from the very beginning to look just like Windows XP.
That was actually one of the priorities for the development team, as China believes that the transition to a Linux-based operating system would be easier this way.
NeoKylin has a desktop that looks almost identical to the one of Windows XP, as well as a Start menu and applications that work and feel the same way. Desktop icons are named the same with the same goal in mind. You have My Computer, My Documents, Recycle Bin, and Control Panel, all on the desktop.
On the other hand, just like any other Linux distribution, users need to find alternatives for their Windows software if emulating them with Wine isn’t possible. And the source says that there are a number of limitations and installing new apps is more difficult than initially believed. The default Linux repositories have been removed, so users need to add them manually and installing new apps takes more time because there are different sources and commands for each app.
Microsoft’s problems in China
One of the reasons China is trying to move away from Windows is that they’re trying to get rid of software manufactured by foreign companies because of security concerns.
With Microsoft, China has a long history of disputes and investigations.
In 2013, Microsoft worked with the Chinese government to move many of the local government computers, which were running pirated Windows and Microsoft apps, to legitimate software, including Windows XP licenses.
In April 2014, however, Microsoft ended support for Windows XP and stopped offering security updates and improvements. China asked Microsoft to make an exception in its case given the fact that Windows XP licenses were purchased only a few months before, but the software giant refused and explained that either the country pays for custom support or upgrades to a newer OS just like everyone else.
Last year, China banned Windows 8 on government computers amid claims that it contains code that might allow the United States to spy on them and steal state secrets. Microsoft obviously denied the claims and offered Windows 7 instead, but as it’s obvious now, China is ready to switch completely to a non-Windows operating system.
Microsoft has the huge advantage of having an operating system that everyone’s familiar with and it could take years until the Chinese actually get used to NeoKylin. But unless the new Linux-based OS runs all games and apps that Chinese are currently using, the pirated Windows works just fine.
