China will launch Windows competitor in October

China is expected to release its own operating system in October. The software, which is currently only intended for desktops, should be able to compete with Windows in particular within one to two years.

That writes the state news agency Xinhua based on statements by Ni Guangnan in a government newspaper. He was appointed by the Chinese government in March to work on an operating system that should conquer the position of Windows in particular on the domestic market within a few years.

It is a new operating system, which will have app stores. It is not the first operating system of the Chinese. The Chinese business community was already working on ‘own’ systems based on Linux, such as Kylin. The success of the latter is still limited, although companies such as HP provide the software as standard on PCs.

The system, whose name is not yet known, will appear first on desktop systems for the time being. Later, according to Xinhua, it will also run on other devices, such as smartphones. The Chinese hope to be able to completely replace existing desktop operating systems such as Windows and OS X with ‘own’ software within one to two years. For smartphones, they extend one to two years.

By working on a complete operating system single-handedly, China hopes to keep its technology in-house. China says it has enough developers, but is limited in the development of the technology because studies are based on existing software such as Android, which in this case Google has rights.

China has been trying for some time to become less dependent on Western software. In May, the government banned the use of Windows 8 on new government computers for ‘security reasons’. This, and the end of support for Windows XP, would now open the door for programmers to work on a ‘real’ Chinese alternative.