12 ms·
If they don't use Linux, I wonder how long it will take them to have something productive for the average worker. I mean, Android took a decade to be usable, w
by sametmax 7y ago
If they don't use Linux, I wonder how long it will take them to have something productive for the average worker.
I mean, Android took a decade to be usable, was built by one of the most talented and rich company on earth. Yet it is still limited in what it allows you to do: no office suite, limited driver support, weak multi-monitor, can use few FS formats, no RAID, etc. And that is despite Android actually wrapping a Linux Kernel.
Not to mentions they'll need to get so many basic tools ported.
No matter the high competence of the Chinese tech scene, their ability to brutally push an agenda and the number they can throw at it, I can't imagine a scenario where those resources wouldn't be better spent validating and customizing an existing distro.
However, I can imagine many reasons they would choose the harder road. And as a geek, I find it sane to remind myself that technical efficiency is not the goal of all entities.
- PhasmaFelis 7y ago> no office suite I'm nitpicking, I know, but do Google Docs/Sheets/Slides count? They're clearly inferior to MS Office, but they do exist.
- Bakary 7y agoI wonder what happened with Ubuntu Kylin. It seems they were on that path already.
- PatrolX 7y agoHuawei happened. Downloading from: https://mirrors.huaweicloud.com/ https://mirrors.huaweicloud.com/ Download cancelled.
- duxup 7y agoIt has to be some form of linux. For all the reasons you said, it would take so long to get something usable, let alone security....
- PatrolX 7y agoChinabuntu, coming soon.
- blacksmith_tb 7y agoNo need, we've already got Kylin[1]. 1: http://www.ubuntukylin.com/index.php?lang=en http://www.ubuntukylin.com/index.php?lang=en
- duxup 7y agoMakes sense. There had to be something that already has a head start, even if not for the given purpose, good place to begin.
- PatrolX 7y agoI've been testing the latest desktop editions all week so it would be rude of me not to try this one. Downloading.
- blacksmith_tb 7y agoThere's also Deepin[1] which is mainly developed in China, though it has pretty good internationalization. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepin
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- logfromblammo 7y agoQ: Whatever happened to Red Flag Linux? A: It shut down in 2014, after China refused to pay 40 million yuan to keep it going.
- neves 7y agoThese are features for a desktop computer, not for a mobile phone. That's why they were not priorized/implemented.
- jiveturkey 7y ago> If they don't use Linux, I wonder how long it will take them to have something productive for the average worker. If the do use Linux, I wonder that. Not being snarky. Linux is unusable for "the average worker".
- nicoburns 7y agoI think this is just a matter of familiarity. I've seen highly non-technical users find linux as easy if not easier than windows. The problems are mainly unsupported hardware and lack of software support. But if you stick with open alternatives then you can do just fine.
- PatrolX 7y agoI often test the latest Linux distros on crappy old hardware (and new hardware) just to see how compatible they are. I recently tested Kubuntu 19.04 on a 20 year old desktop, it works perfectly and even had third-party drivers for the video card.
- lolc 7y agoI find this hard to believe because a desktop of 1999 would only have around 256 MiB of RAM.
- officeplant 7y agoMy friends dual Pentium Pro system is capped out at 2GB of ram. Many older machines got maxed out ram wise if you bothered to upgrade them at all when previous gen ram goes super cheap.
- Wowfunhappy 7y agoMy experience has been that Linux works better on old hardware than new hardware.
- sametmax 7y agoMy 60 year old mother have been using Ubuntu every day for the last decade. It's just a matter of familiarity. She just want to check her mail et watch videos, after all.
- kazinator 7y agoAndroid took a couple of years to be usable, then the rest of the decade to be come unusable. I have one phone from 2012. Wow ... so easy to do everything. - no swipe first to unlock the screen: directly to pattern - input method switching easy and convenient - settings buried less deeply - ...
- kazinator 7y agoNo office suite: https://products.office.com/en-us/mobile/office-mobile-apps-for-android https://products.office.com/en-us/mobile/office-mobile-apps-... Limited driver support? Android devices are typically highly integrated: they use custom SoC's (that you've never heard of) with drivers developed specifically for those SoC's and their blocks. (Oh, your amazingly rare phone has a PCI slot, and your graphics card is not supported, bummer!)
- panpanna 7y agoSurprisingly, Hisilicon (Huaweis chip company) tries to use as many standard components as possible. Getting a hisilicon soc up and running is a joy compared to working on a qcom or Samsung soc. Upstream Linux often works out of the box.
- officeplant 7y agoDo you know of any SBC's running Hisilicon SOCs? I need more ARM variants to pile on my SBC tinkering hobby.
- panpanna 7y agoCheck out 96boards
- xbmcuser 7y agoUbuntu with wine now days works with 90%+ of legacy apps. And with Valve putting it's muscle behind it many older games are running well as well now. So I don't think Chinese goverment would have much of a problem moving off windows
- ksaj 7y agoDon't forget Red Star Linux is a thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Star_OS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Star_OS If North Korea can pull that off, you can be sure China is well on the way. I would be quite amazed if that wasn't in the works all along already.
- gscott 7y agoThey will probably use the Windows NT codebase that was leaked...
- panpanna 7y agoThere is already a Chinese version of Ubuntu. It allows they to use what everyone else are using which has certain benefits. I think Ubuntu founder is still barred from entering US so he probably doesn't care...