Unified Software Wang Yaohua: What does the root community bring to the domestic operating system?

Author | Wang Xinxi

Source | Hot micro -reviews

The domestic operating system has new trends.

As early as May 18th, Tongxin Software released China's first desktop operating system root community- "Deep" root community. At the 2022 Open Atomic Global Open Source Summit's open source community special sub -forum, Wang Yaohua, general manager of the Congxin Software Open Source Community Center and the head of the in -depth community, talked about the construction plan of the deep root community. topic.

A few days ago, Wang Yaohua, the head of the community, accepted an exclusive interview with hot and micro -reviews, explaining the development process and future planning of the deep root community. At present, the root community is becoming a key development of the domestic operating system.

The root community has become a hot topic in the industry

Driven by policy and market promotion, domestic operating systems are developing rapidly. Data show that in 2021, China Linux desktop operating system shipments exceeded 5%for the first time. It is estimated that by 2025, China's Linux operating system shipments will exceed 20%, and the overall share of the Chinese market will exceed 10%.

At present, the domestic desktop operating system is based on open source Linux, but in recent years, the limitations have become increasingly obvious. The "disconnection" of the upstream open source community will affect the product experience and security of the downstream system, which will affect the sustainable development of the industry.

The reason is that the domestic root community based on the linux open source system is abroad.

The root community refers to the construction of the Linux Kernel and other open source components. It does not rely on the upstream distribution version. There are a large number of external personal contributors and enterprises participating in the open source community. Successful root communities will be recognized by developers worldwide, have a comprehensive community operating mechanism and positive community feedback capabilities, and derive different branches of distribution or downstream communities.

Most domestic Linux is developed based on the development of Debian, Fedora, and CentOS. In -depth creation of root communities is a process of water -to -channel success, and it is also related to the development experience influenced by the upstream community.

From Ubuntu to Debian to Deligen community, several depths cross the back of the upstream

Deepin community was initiated by Wuhan Shenzhi Technology, a wholly -owned subsidiary of Tongxin Software in 2008. According to the introduction of the in -depth community person, Wang Yaohua, more community -based operations before 2009. Based on Ubuntu for beautification and font configuration, some localized applications began to lay out, such as music players, video players, app stores, and app stores. Wait, this has brought many users to early development.

However, considering the core capacity building of the operating system, around 2011, it took a key step in depth, began to deploy the desktop environment DDE and its underlying development framework, and continued to polish products and iterative versions.

After 2015, in -depth communities gave up Ubuntu and turned to the upstream community based on Debian. "This transformation is a natural process." Wang Yaohua said, "When Ubuntu is used as a upstream community, we use its warehouse. We found that if it is not for a long time to support the version, it will delete the warehouse for a period of time. Drop, causing the software to be unable to download suddenly, which has a great impact on the user and customer experience. "

"On the one hand, we have to master the control of the system, and on the other hand, we also encountered some practical problems, so naturally turned to Debian.debian.

Along with the accumulation of the community's experience and ability, it is now depressed from Debian. Based on Linux Kernel, other open source projects and self -developed project components, the first Chinese desktop operating system root community is established.

In Wang Yaohua's view, this is also a natural process. "From our mission, we have always wanted to make a successful desktop system version. From the past desktop environment to the end of the warehouse, it is the guidance of this concept."

Over the past 15 years, Deepin operating systems have continued to update more than 200 times, more than 80 million downloads worldwide, more than 3 million overseas users, and submitted more than 1,000 contributions to 307 projects in international open source projects. More than 100 mirror sites, with Spanish, Czech, France, Brazil and other national user communities, and are derived from DEEPIN -based distribution versions such as Ubuntudde, Manjaro Deepin.

It won the first place in the most popular China open source software in 2019, 2020, and 2021. It is one of the largest in China with the largest open source operating system community in China.

"At present, the depth has also reached the stage of layout of the root community." Wang Yaohua believes that whether it is the relationship between the kernel system or the tens of thousands of components, the depth needs to be further conducted in depth. A community architecture that is in line with the development trend promotes the evolution of the domestic technical system.

Three -year planning for the problem of building a root community and a unified letter

"The trip to thousands of miles begins with the foot, and this step is always going." Wang Yaohua said that mature communities such as Debian in the world have been released based on Linux in 1991. The quantity and quality have reached a certain scale, and they are more challenging in a short time. Compared with mature communities such as Debian, the depth is currently facing the challenges of developer ecology and community governance. "The root community ecology is a long -term process. Fanxin has always adhered to a belief, that is, looking up at the starry sky and down -to -earth -seeing a beautiful goal, and being able to accumulate down to the ground. This requires long -term persistence, which is also difficult to be difficult part."

Regarding the development direction of the root community, Wang Yaohua believes that it will not innovate for innovation, nor will it be completely overturned. From the update of community system architecture to the entire ecological development model, we will have our own practice and ideas, but the mechanisms and processes of mature communities such as Debian still have places worth learning and reference.

Domestic community manufacturers are not in -depth, such as OpenUler (Euler) and Openanolis. In Wang Yaohua's view, OpenUler is a community that is preferred to the server and is more biased towards the B -side.

The deep community, as the roots of the desktop operating system, has B -end government -enterprise customers, as well as personal consumers on C -ends, and has a place where they cooperate and cooperate with each other. For example, in the field of server business, based on the Euler operating system, Tongxin has also made commercialized release versions.

In Wang Yaohua's view, many domestic companies are currently working on the community after the success of business, and the depth has always been a community model. After slowly growing, it has developed commercialized business. The background, development direction, and investment intensity of each other are different.

Regarding the future of the root community, Tongxin released three years of planning -in 20122 to complete the construction of in -depth community organizational structure to form a transparent environment; build a version open; try more community joint forms to cultivate talents; try joint construction overseas community construction.

In 2023, community management talents and expert consultants will be introduced to enhance the contribution of external developers and form a stronger influence through joint communities at home and abroad.

Wang Yaohua said that a mature and open -source community needs an open operating mechanism and environment to allow more external open source experts and users to participate, and promote an open and neutral long -term plan. It also iterates to attract customers and partners to promote community governance and enhance contributions.

According to the plan, in 2024, the in -depth community will form a mature community joint governance model. The number of foreign communities and foreign users will reach hundreds of thousands of scale, and strive to catch up with the level of international mainstream distribution communities in the number of developers and open source governance models.

In Wang Yaohua's view, today's environmental environment is favorable for the planning and progress of the community. At the policy level, the domestic open source was also written into the national "Fourteenth Five -Year Plan" for the first time, and enterprises' investment in open source continued to increase. "Internet companies such as Baidu, Tencent, Xiaomi, and other Internet companies have become increasingly large in open source, and even the open source components of many artificial intelligence in KOCS Fei and Baidu are gradually integrated into our system." Wang Yaohua said.

What does the root community bring to the domestic operating system?

The root community can help operating system manufacturers get rid of the influence of the upstream community and solve the problem of the card neck. It has better guarantee at the information security level. The security of the supply chain is an important goal of building a root community.

Wang Yaohua said: "The root community can better solve some problems at the level of security. The source code has a strong loophole management mechanism. At the security level, we are based on the source code of the supply party on the chain as a label for different categories of management. On the basis of the source code label, it forms an identification mechanism that depends on trees. Who depends on this component? Is there any security loophole in this component?

In addition, it is based on the tampering of the source code compilation process. It will introduce reconstructable technologies to ensure the security of the source code. The overall formation of a long chain, end -to -end management delivery model and chain -type security guarantee system.

Solving the security of the supply chain is one aspect, and the domestic operating system is also facing the problem of software and hardware ecology. As far as the industry is concerned, although there are more than a dozen domestic operating systems, how to compete with first -class international manufacturers such as Windows and MacOS, there are still realistic gaps and ecological construction, software and hardware adaptation levels.

In the opinion of Wang Yaohua, the person in charge of the community, international manufacturers and domestic operating system manufacturers are at different stages. The former has sufficient funds to try and error innovation, and the future trend will be better.

Wang Yaohua analyzed the current direction of the international factory: first, interactive innovation; second, multi -end integration, including PC, mobile phones, tablet terminals to achieve linkage and integration; third, ecological compatibility, such as Microsoft is already compatible with Android ecology; in addition It is a great investment at the safety level.

Due to the huge ecological scale of the international operating system, the current international operating system can be targeted for innovation based on market demand. The software and hardware adaptation level can have a better user experience. Due to the lack of unified development standards in China, the system version, too many technical routes, and high debugging costs have affected ecological development to a certain extent.

"At present, the domestic operating system is adapted. After the operating system comes out, the software and hardware will be tested again. If you have any problems, it will be modified. To complete the adaptation of the machine. "Wang Yaohua said." Whether it is Windows or Mac, the new version is open in advance. The developer moves the application first. After iterates for a period of time, the system official version will be released. In fact, in the process, development and adaptation have formed a benign software and hardware adaptation mode. "

In Wang Yaohua's view, the problem of improving the software and hardware adaptation of the operating system is an important goal of the root community.

"At present, the mainstream distribution version is actually a bit conservative in the design of the underlying core and architecture. It is more inclined to make some innovations The community has done a series of cooperation mechanisms and standards and standards in terms of firmware, drivers, etc., so that the work that adapts to the community will be completed to complete, driving upstream and downstream manufacturers to participate in development and innovation in accordance with the unified standards. "

The essence of this practice is to unify the software and hardware interfaces, specifications, and standards of different operating systems to reduce the cost of adaptation. Wang Yaohua's thinking is how to turn the later adaptation into a pre -development, which has high requirements for the root community. The in -depth direction is to develop its own development kit for ecological manufacturers to use, and to promote more developers to participate in the development of domestic open source operating systems.

Is there a domestic operating system?

For the future development of the domestic operating system, Wang Yaohua has remained optimistic: "It can't afford to be early, many domestic manufacturers have been investing in native adaptation. After all, from the perspective of domestic PC shipments and domestic operating system installations, the trend of upward trend is very very trendy. obvious."

"At present, China's PC shipments are nearly 50 million units each year, and the installation volume of domestic operating systems is about 5%. In the next three or five years, under the market promotion, our installation volume can reach 10 million yuan each year. Such a large market is a large market. The scale of magnitude and users will allow more manufacturers to participate. "

In the past, the domestic "root community" based on Linux is Debian, Fedora, etc., and upstream changes will cause the strategic adjustment of multiple system companies in the downstream. At present, the deep effort to build a root community has given the domestic operating system with its own roots, and the product experience is more autonomous and controllable with the underlying security. This is also a key step for domestic operating system manufacturers.

At present, domestic chips and software applications are sufficient to form a combined promotion situation. The domestic operating system is also actively embracing open source technology, and the number and contribution of China's participation in open source are getting larger and larger.

Data show that there are tens of millions of open source contributors in China, and Chinese open source contributors have reached 7.5 million. The scale of R & D personnel of China's main Linux operating system company has exceeded Ubuntu and SUSE, ranking among the top three in the world.

As domestic PC shipments continue to rise in the future, the deep roots community may be expected to promote the formation of joint efforts in the domestic operating system industry chain to help the operating system independent ecology accelerate.

Some opinion believes that the operating system will have a leapfrog development opportunity every ten years or so, and now the internal and external environment will also be in the drama cycle. The domestic operating system is also ushered in a new round of development. What changes will the community bring to the domestic operating system ecology are worth looking forward to.

- END -