China DOS Union

Ni Guangnan: China Must Have an Independent Operating System

In early July, the "Research Report on the Development Strategy of China's Software Industry," which Microsoft had hired McKinsey at a high price to write, was disclosed. In this report, Microsoft set out "vision goals," "development stages," and many "measures" for China's software industry. According to the "development strategy" in the report, making operating systems is not something for Chinese people to do; China only needs to use Windows directly, and at most do some "localization" of Windows.

　　By coincidence, Microsoft CEO Mr. Ballmer also proposed a "technology ecosystem." In this "ecosystem," Microsoft is upstream, controlling platform software such as Windows; China's software industry is downstream, developing application software for Windows, or doing "software exports" for Microsoft.

　　This happens to coincide with some domestic views. After joining the WTO, some people proposed that, relying on international division of labor, our country could make only certain software and not have to establish its own software system. And Microsoft's Windows is the best software product in the world; it is unrealistic for us to catch up with them, so we can just take it and use it. According to this logic, the cooperation between Microsoft and the State Planning Commission this time can really be considered mutually beneficial, with each getting what it wants.

　　However, behind this "everyone is happy" situation, there is an embarrassment we have to face: in this "technology ecosystem," China's software industry is at the end of the food chain. And establishing our country's independent software system will therefore become even more difficult.

　　We must have an independent operating system

　　For national security and the national economy, software has special significance, so we absolutely cannot give up the initiative in this field. In order to ensure the country's information security, meet the needs of national informatization, and adapt to the situation after joining the WTO, China must establish an independent and complete software system.

　　For example, governments of various countries, especially certain important departments, before adopting an operating system from a foreign company, will repeatedly assess: "Does this software have the danger of information leakage, does it have dangerous back doors. In extraordinary times, will we be controlled by others because of this software." Therefore, government departments often require these companies to open the source code and make a public filing.

　　However, Microsoft firmly opposes such requirements. It claims that opening source code will turn software into a kind of "viral" software. And as long as open-source software is used, all related software will also become source-code-open software. In this way, Microsoft would lose its intellectual property and commercial interests.

　　Microsoft's refusal to open source code has made Germany, France, Britain, South Korea, Peru and other countries, and even certain government departments in the United States, choose non-Windows operating systems. China must also take the path of developing an independent operating system.

　　However, to develop an independent operating system, the first challenge is the monopoly of Windows. At present, most application software is developed and used on the Windows platform, and the "platform dependence" of these software programs makes switching operating systems very difficult. In addition, Microsoft's large-scale investment in advertising, publicity, and so on; today's education and training systems mostly teach around Microsoft's products, and people have already become accustomed to using Microsoft's products. In this way, Windows' position in the software market is almost unshakable, and challenging it requires enormous courage and strength.

　　For example, when developing application software under the Windows platform, if Microsoft also makes the same application software, then this competition cannot be equal. Because Microsoft makes both the OS (Operation System, operating system) and application programs, and the interface (API) between application programs and the OS is set by it. In this sense, it is both the "athlete" and the "referee." In this field, all other companies are in a disadvantaged competitive position. In 2001, the total revenue of the world's top 100 PC software companies was 31.8 billion US dollars, of which Microsoft alone accounted for 69% (21.8 billion US dollars), while the other 99 companies combined had only 31%! This is the difference between upstream software and downstream software. What's more, this is not just a matter of economic interest. Software depends on the platform, and downstream software is controlled by upstream software; this is an indisputable fact.

　　The failure of Netscape's browser a few years ago made us understand this truth: defeating any company that makes Windows application software is, for Microsoft, no more than a simple matter. Not long ago, Microsoft also bought Hanwang's handwritten Chinese character recognition technology. If one day Microsoft no longer wants Hanwang, it only has to bundle another company's similar technology into the operating system, and Hanwang likewise would have no way to fight back. So this kind of "technology ecosystem" is in fact controlled by Microsoft. Now, under the circumstances where Microsoft has gained a strong position through an investment of 6.2 billion yuan, establishing China's independent operating system has become even more difficult.

　　However, no matter how difficult the future is, we cannot give up. Anyone who understands market rules even a little knows that if we give up an independent operating system, then Windows without competition will become a rare commodity, and we will have to pay a more expensive price to buy it.

　　There is an old saying in China: "In all affairs under heaven and all human feelings, it is easy to bend down and take, but hard to look up and beg." Mastering basic technology and having an independent operating system means occupying the initiative; it is "bending down and taking." Conversely, developing software on someone else's platform and being controlled by upstream software is naturally "looking up and begging." What we have to do now is establish China's independent operating system, changing "looking up and begging" into "bending down and taking."

　　The role of the government is crucial

　　When an operating system has already formed a monopoly, only special means can break the monopoly. This is also the fundamental reason why Microsoft constantly faces monopoly lawsuits and investigations around the world. Consumer groups in the United States have even asked the U.S. government to use its huge procurement budget to solve the "security and competition" issues in the software market, rather than wasting time in court. In the United States, apart from Microsoft there are many powerful multinational software companies, and they still have to do this; then under the circumstances where Chinese software companies are very weak, of course this should be done even more.

　　It is precisely because of the many difficulties faced that, at present, government procurement plays a crucial role in establishing China's independent operating system. On the one hand, to develop China's independent operating system, basic research must be carried out. This requires national policy support and funding input, and it must be input in the form of a cause closely combined with industrialization; on the other hand, through government procurement, our country's huge domestic demand market can be stimulated, providing a practical driving force for the development of the software industry. Therefore, government procurement behavior should be standardized, so that domestic software can get open, fair, and just opportunities to compete. At the same time, through the formulation of various standards, domestic software can also be reasonably supported.

　　The advantages of domestic software, such as better security, better support services, and low prices, can currently be fully reflected only in government procurement. Moreover, only through actual use can their shortcomings be quickly improved and perfected. At the beginning of this year, the Beijing municipal government's software procurement played a very good demonstration role. In the future, starting from applications such as e-government, enterprise informatization, and campus networks, domestic software will gradually move toward practical use, and gradually form our country's independent and complete software system.

　　"Independent" and "complete" are the two fundamental characteristics of a software system, and the two complement each other. If we cannot be independent in operating systems, our country's companies can only make downstream software on other people's platforms, and it will be impossible to establish a complete software system; only by having domestic basic software, middleware, large-scale application software, and so on, forming a complete software system, can we avoid being controlled by others and ensure the independence of our country's software industry. Only "independence" can make it "complete," and "completeness" ensures "independence."

　　In short, as a sovereign major country, China must establish an independent and complete software industry, and such a software industry must be built on an independent operating system. This is the historical mission of China's software industry in the new century.

Will FREE-DOS become one of our country's important independent operating systems? I believe it will. Comrades, work hard!

Fully support it! I hope everyone will work hard together!

FREE-DOS has its roots abroad, so I guess the possibility is not great.
It cannot be denied that graphical operating systems will be the mainstream of operating systems in the future. If WINDOW is replaced one day, it can only be by LINUX or some graphical DOS or the like.
But DOS has its important value: although LINUX and others can rival WINDOWS in function and use, incompatibility with WINDOWS is always a fatal weakness. It is unrealistic to ask a newbie to immediately learn and use LINUX. DOS, however, can coexist with WINDOWS. Moreover, it is not too difficult for people familiar with DOS to learn other operating systems, because DOS was originally established with reference to operating systems such as CP/M and UNIX.

I am optimistic about Linux. Maybe it is because what I studied in university was all UNIX. I feel Linux is much, much better than DOS both in popularity and in development strength. But DOS has its technical characteristics. I think as a supplement in the OS world, DOS is already quite good if it plays the role it should, right?!

No matter how you put it, Linux is not as good as DOS as a personal computer desktop operating system, so DOS should continue to be developed.

I think operating systems each have their own merits. Windows is the most popular, Linux has the most potential, Unix is the most powerful, FreeBSD is the most romantic, Apple's is the most aesthetic, and DOS is my favorite.... We need to look at OS development comprehensively, so I usually use all these systems. When discussing DOS, everyone should also look at both sides. DOS itself has fatal flaws, and also has a bright future; it needs more of our care In the words of Cantonese people, "different flowers appeal to different eyes." Love what you love, with no regrets, haha

I agree with what the 7th floor said. DOS does not equal line commands; it can also have a graphical interface. Isn't WINDOWS3.2 also a large, good quasi-graphical interface (system) for DOS?

Only with independence can we avoid being controlled by others. I do not want to see Microsoft alone dominate; a world dominated by one company is not wonderful.

After reading Teacher Mo's repost, it is really shocking. Think about it: if the beer cap opens a big back hole in our computers, what security do we have left to speak of? No matter how good a firewall is, no matter how good antivirus software is, it is all built on the foundation of the ms platform. This is like gambling in a casino: whether you win or lose, it is the casino owner who makes money. Think about it: if China and the United States come into confrontation, which side will Microsoft stand on?

Without an independent CPU there will be no truly independent OS. Fortunately, China's own general-purpose CPU "Loongson" series — GODSON (gou sheng) — has already been released. Although its performance is still not good now, after all this is a cpu that truly belongs to China. I believe that within 20 years China's own os will also be born, and then we will no longer have to worry about the Americans leaving back doors in our machines.

China's several thousand years of history has been a history of taking things in, not of being assimilated. This can be seen from the development of religion. Taking in is a way of learning and absorbing, and then producing something new. I believe a brand-new, Chinese, graphical dos will appear before our eyes in the near future!

China seems to have an os already

I think we can start from freedos and slowly develop a windos, as our country's own operating system!!