The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

Fresh Jujube Classroom 2024/10/19 12:33:04 Editor: Mengze Comment: 17

In recent years, driven by the wave of innovation and entrepreneurship, domestic operating systems have achieved very good development results. Domestic operating system brands represented by Kirin, Tongxin, HarmonyOS, etc. are increasingly appearing in our field of vision.

So, when did research on operating systems start in China? What stages of development have domestic operating systems gone through in recent years? What is the current state of our domestic operating system?

Next, please follow Xiaozao Jun's words and review the ups and downs of domestic operating systems together.

1968-1982: budding stage

In the 1946's, the world's earliest general-purpose electronic computer ENIAC was born in the United States, marking the official entry of humanity into the computer age. However, at that time, computers did not have an operating system and could only rely on manual interaction through punched paper tape.

In the 1950s, with the development of technology, batch processing systems began to emerge. In 1956, the GM-NAAI/O single pass batch processing system equipped on the IBM 704 was considered the world's first computer operating system.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

IBM 704

Our country's computer research began in the 1950s.

In 1952, during the adjustment of universities and departments across the country, Hua Luogeng, a famous mathematician, established China's first electronic computer research group at the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At that time, the main focus in China was to learn Soviet computer technology and imitate it.

In August 1958 and September 1959, China's first small-scale electronic tube digital computer (103 computer) and the first large-scale general-purpose electronic tube digital computer (104 computer) were successfully developed, marking the official start of China's computer industry. However, at this time our operating system is still blank.

In the 1960s, commercial mainframe computers represented by IBM System/360 became widely used in various industries in the United States, bringing about significant efficiency improvements. This trend has been observed domestically and the pace of computer development has been accelerated.

In 1968, in order to meet the needs of oil exploration, the Ministry of Petroleum and the Ministry of Machinery Industry jointly established the 150 Project and decided to develop a large-scale computer.

On August 26, 1973, the 150 Project achieved a significant breakthrough. With the joint efforts of Peking University and 738 Factory, China's first million run integrated circuit computer DJS-11 machine (i.e. 150 machines) was successfully developed and delivered smoothly.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

150 machines

This 150 machine is equipped with China's first operating system. Let's call it the 150 machine system for now.

The 150 machine system is a multi pass batch processing system (as is the IBM System/360 system). Its developers are experts such as Yang Fuqing, Yu Shiwen, Xu Lianfang, and Chen Chengsen from Peking University. Yang Fuqing later became the head of the Department of Computer Science at Peking University and was successfully elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

Yang Fuqing

After the successful development of the 150 machine, it was delivered to the Ministry of Petroleum for use, making an important contribution to the national petroleum industry. It has also been applied in fields such as geology and meteorology (a total of 4 were built), and has played a significant role.

Later, Yang Fuqing and others continued to lead the development of operating systems for subsequent models such as the 240 aircraft, mainly used in the fields of national defense. It is worth mentioning that the system of the 240 machine is all written in high-level languages (called XCY language, where X represents Xu Jiafu from Nanjing University, Y represents Yang Fuqing from Peking University, and C may represent Zhong Cuihao from the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences).

In the 1970s, computer technology abroad was still developing rapidly. In 1973, when the 150 machine was born, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie from Bell Labs in the United States jointly developed the Unix operating system, bringing operating system technology into a new era.

In 1979, the Unix operating system was introduced in China and some analysis and research were conducted, but the results were limited.

█ 1983-1998: Initial stage

In the 1980s, there were new changes in the situation.

In 1981, IBM launched the IBM PC, which sparked a wave of miniaturization and popularization of computers. The operating system used by IBM PC is MS-DOS from Microsoft.

In February 1983, the National Computer Industry Administration of the Ministry of Electronics Industry held a national computer coordination work conference in Jiuxianqiao, preparing to refer to IBM PC, develop domestically produced PC, and name it Great Wall PC.

At that time, Yan Yuanchao from the Sixth Institute of the Ministry of Electronics was responsible for developing the operating system for the Great Wall PC.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

Yan Yuanchao (later became the Chief Engineer of Sina.com)

It is not very realistic to write a brand new operating system in the short term. The method adopted by Yan Yuanchao was based on the DOS kernel, which localized the input and output modules.

He led three college students and one vocational school student, and after several months of hard work (reportedly only eating one dinner a day and sleeping for 3-4 hours), finally came up with the first Chinese operating system compatible with PCs in China - CCDOS - at the end of August 1983.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

Installation disk and user manual for CCDOS

CC is an abbreviation of the pinyin letter ChangCheng for "Great Wall", which can also be understood as an abbreviation for "Chinese Characters". Because it expanded the BIOS functionality of DOS, it is also called CC-BIOS.

In December 1983, the Sixth Institute of the Ministry of Electronics successfully developed a microcomputer - the Great Wall 100 (DJS-0520 microcomputer, specifically the 0520B and A-type machines).

In June 1985, Lu Ming and others from the Sixth Institute of the Ministry of Electronics successfully developed the first domestically produced microcomputer with the ability to display Chinese characters using a character generator and complete Chinese information processing capabilities - the Great Wall 0520CH.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

Great Wall 0520CH

The Great Wall 0520CH has a milestone significance in the history of Chinese IT and has also been rated as one of the top 10 global meritorious computers by the industry. Later on, due to institutional reforms, many key personnel from the six institutes left and established the China Computer Development Corporation, which later became the Great Wall Group.

In November 1985, the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully developed the Lenovo style Chinese character microcomputer LX-PC system. This system can support Chinese language on IBM-PC and compatible computers by installing Lenovo style Han card and Chinese operating system. Later, the computing company that mainly sold Lenovo Hanka became the predecessor of Lenovo Group.

The above is the conclusion, let's return to CCDOS.

After the launch of CCDOS, there was a wave of software localization. Many popular software programs internationally, such as BASIC, DBase, AutoCAD, WordStar, etc., have also been translated into Chinese. This has to some extent promoted the popularity of PCs in China.

Later, Wu Xiaojun from Beijing Third Chemical Plant transformed CCDOS and launched the famous CCDOS 2.13. Beijing Hope Group's Baoyue Bridge developed UCDOS in the 1990s. These various Chinese versions of DOS have occupied the vast majority of the domestic market and played an important role in the widespread adoption of PCs.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

UCDOS version 3.1

Sinicizing DOS, although convenient to use, has issues from a copyright perspective. During that period, China was also exploring how to develop a truly domestically produced operating system with independent copyright.

In 1989, Zeng Peiyan, then Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, visited Brazil. During his visit, he accidentally learned that Brazil had invested $30 million to develop a Unix based operating system called COBRA.

Since Brazil can do it, why can't we do it? "- After returning to China, Zeng Peiyan immediately applied for a research project on China's independent copyright operating system and included it in the Eighth Five Year Plan for Science and Technology.

The research project was undertaken by China Computer Services Corporation, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and China Software Technology Corporation (later merged into China Computer Software and Technology Services Corporation).

They purchased the kernel source code of Unix System V R4.0, localized it, added enhanced security mechanisms, and revamped it to release COSIX V1.0.

COSIX， C "stands for Chinese, OS stands for Open System or Operating System, and IX stands for UNIX based. Overall, it is a Chinese open operating system based on UNIX.

In April 1993, COSIX V1.0 passed the mid-term evaluation organized by the Ministry of Electronics Industry and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Experts believe that the system is a "commercially available universal multi-user operating system that meets international standards", "has 66 operating system commands with independent copyright in China", and "partially achieves or exceeds the performance of similar foreign products".

In 1994-95, COSIX V1.1 and COSIX V2.0 were also launched successively and passed national acceptance.

COSIX's technology is constantly improving. Unfortunately, in the ecosystem, COSIX did not receive sufficient software and hardware support, and therefore was not accepted by the market, resulting in low sales and usage.

More importantly, in the 1990s, Microsoft's Windows graphical operating system gradually became popular, eroding the market for Chinese versions of DOS and COSIX.

In 1991, Wang Zhidong graduated from the Department of Radio Electronics at Peking University and worked at Peking University Founder (later founded Sina.com). After more than a year of closed door development, he created the first practical Windows 3.0 Chinese environment in China - BDWin3.0.

In April 1994, Microsoft launched a Chinese version of Windows 3.2 specifically for the Chinese market. In 1995, Microsoft also launched the classic Windows 95 operating system (supporting Chinese).

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

Chinese version of Windows 3.2

This series of changes basically declared the end of the fate of the Chinese version of DOS and COSIX. A brand new era has arrived.

From 1999 to 2008: The First Wave

In 1999, the Kosovo War broke out. NATO used information warfare methods such as cyber attacks during the war, which dealt devastating blows to the military and civilian systems of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, causing great shock to the country. The bombing of the Chinese Embassy by NATO completely angered countrymen and brought Sino US relations to a freezing point.

More and more Chinese people are beginning to realize that the key technologies of IT software and hardware must be in their own hands. No matter how good someone else's things are, they are also theirs. If you say you won't use them, you won't use them, and there may be Trojan horses, backdoors, and viruses hidden inside.

In addition to safety, the high prices brought by monopolies are also one of the reasons why China is considering independent research and development. Taking Windows as an example, Microsoft's pre installed system quotation to the government is 4000 yuan per set and refuses to lower the price.

At that time, Xu Guanhua, the Minister of Science and Technology of China, pointed out bluntly that the domestic technology industry lacked chips and soul. The chip is the core, and the soul is the operating system.

Academician Ni Guangnan also wrote in the People's Daily that "as a country with a population of 1.2 billion, autonomous operating systems cannot be neglected or delayed. We should demonstrate the spirit of developing 'two bombs and one satellite' in the past to do this.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

Ni Guangnan

Countrymen's enthusiasm for independent research and development of operating systems has been completely ignited. Relevant units have taken action and invested in the path of independent research and development.

In this wave, almost all enterprises chose the Linux route, which was then in the stage of rapid rise.

In 1991, 21-year-old college student Linus Torvalds from Helsinki, Finland, developed a Linux kernel with 10000 lines of code. Later, global developers made extensive modifications and additions to the kernel code, including the addition of graphical interfaces, applications, and other components, resulting in a large number of Linux operating system distributions.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

In 1994, Gong Min, who was studying for a PhD at Helsinki University of Technology in Finland, returned to his home country for vacation. He carried back 20 disks and stored 80GB of free software. This includes Linux. This is the first time Linux has arrived in China.

The Linux kernel is open source, following the GPL (General Public License) license and the GNU principles of the free software system. All content is open and can be freely copied, modified, and sold. So, from a domestic perspective, it has transparent code, a basic ecosystem, no copyright fees, and is not controlled by the United States, making it the best platform for secondary development.

In 1999, domestic operating systems experienced their first true explosion. Many domestic operating systems, represented by Xteam Linux, Blue Dot Linux, Red Flag Linux, and Zhongruan Linux, have entered the historical stage.

Next, Xiaozao Jun will introduce these systems separately (let's call them "domestic Linux" for now, sorted by release time).

Xteam Linux (Surfing Linux)

On April 8, 1999, Xteam Linux 1.0, China's first domestically produced operating system based on Linux/Fedora, was officially released at a price of 48 yuan per set, attracting market attention.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

Xteam Linux is developed by the private enterprise Beijing Surfing Platform Software Technology Co., Ltd. At the end of 2000, Beijing Surfing Software was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and rose 265.79% in 24 trading days.

Red Flag Linux

I believe many people have heard of the name Red Flag Linux. One of its driving forces is the aforementioned academician Ni Guangnan.

In 1999, Ni Guangnan left Lenovo and returned to the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At that time, he did not give up his dream and still hoped to establish China's own software and hardware industry system.

Shortly after, a person named Li Delei came to the door to discuss cooperation. Li Delei studied in Canada and also worked at Motorola and Hitachi Semiconductor. At that time, he founded a company called Ark Technology, which had certain chip technology and talent reserves.

After communication, Ni Guangnan had a preliminary idea - to develop the "Ark CPU+Linux system" to counter the Wintel architecture.

In August 1999, under the guidance and promotion of experts such as Ni Guangnan, and with the support of Sun Yufang, Deputy Director of the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Software successfully developed a Linux based autonomous operating system - Red Flag Linux 1.0 version.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

In June 2000, the Software Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Lianchuang jointly invested 960000 US dollars to establish Beijing Zhongke Hongqi, and released the desktop version, workstation version, data center server version, HA cluster version, and embedded Hongqi Linux.

BluePoint Linux

On September 7, 1999, several members of the well-known kernel hacking group OpenUnix Network Studio initiated the establishment of Shenzhen Xinkesi Company (Blue Dot). On October 1st, the company released Blue Dot Linux 1.0 based on Red Hat Linux.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

The blue dot chooses the OEM route, which means providing pre installation for PC manufacturers. Their partners include large enterprises such as TCL.

After its establishment, they quickly won three OEM orders, with monthly shipments exceeding 150000 sets, and became the largest supplier of Chinese Linux, accounting for over 80% of the domestic market share.

On March 7, 2000, BluePoint Linux Software (BLPT) successfully went public on NASDAQ in the United States through a backdoor listing, with its stock price rising 400% on the first day and a market value exceeding $400 million.

Zhongruan Linux

Zhongruan Linux comes from China Software Corporation. That's right, it's the China Computer Software and Technology Services Corporation that started COSIX earlier.

China Software Corporation was originally under the Ministry of Electronics Industry and was transferred to China Electronics Information Industry Corporation (CEC) in 1994. After COSIX couldn't continue, they also set their sights on Linux and began to focus on researching COSIX based on Linux. In 1999, China Software Corporation launched the "COSIX Linux" V1.0 version based on the Linux kernel.

The ups and downs of domestic operating systems (Part 1)

In 2002, Zhongsoft released version 4.0 of Zhongsoft Linux, which supported the first domestically produced CPU chip - Loongson 1.

The above four companies were representatives of the domestic Linux operating system at that time. In fact, there are dozens of similar products. These domestically produced Linux systems have created an unprecedentedly lively scene, as if overnight, domestic operating systems have risen to prominence.

Faced with such a scene, the government is also quite excited and agitated.

In the first round of genuine procurement by the Chinese government in 2001, Yu Cisheng, director of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, led a sensational move by kicking Microsoft out and choosing domestically produced software such as Zhongruan Linux, Hongqi Linux, Yongzhong Office, and Kingsoft WPS. (Shortly after, Microsoft China President Gao Qunyao resigned, reportedly related to this matter. There are also claims that former US Secretary of State Kissinger specifically called to plead for mercy over this matter.)

At the civilian market level, PC manufacturers (whether domestic or foreign) also welcome domestic and foreign Linux distributions. Because the pre installation cost of Windows is too high, pre installing Linux system can effectively reduce the factory price.

The trend of domestic Linux is becoming increasingly fierce. According to Liu Bo, the president of Zhongke Hongqi at the time, the usage of Linux in China increased 3-4 times in 2000 compared to 1999, reaching 1 million sets.

However, the story that followed greatly exceeded people's expectations. Domestic Linux not only failed to rise, but also rapidly declined and entered a decline.

The main reasons come from two aspects:

One reason is that the domestic Linux operating system is really poorly developed (released so quickly, I don't think it will be too good), with severe lag and not in line with traditional Windows usage habits, resulting in a poor user experience.

Secondly, the ecosystem of domestic Linux has not been established at all, and many software cannot be installed and hardware cannot be used, seriously affecting the normal use of users.

So many users uninstalled domestic Linux and replaced it with pirated Windows. The usage of domestic Linux has significantly decreased, and its reputation has rapidly collapsed.

The four major domestic Linux mentioned above did not have a good ending.

Firstly, Xteam Linux.

In 2003, Xteam Linux announced the cessation of updates, causing its stock price to plummet by 90%. Later, the company withdrew from the operating system field and its stock price remained below 0.10 yuan for a long time.

Red Flag Linux on this side.

In 2001, under the leadership and support of Ni Guangnan, Ark Technology manufactured the first embedded chip - Ark One. Later, due to a lack of business philosophy, Ni Guangnan quickly withdrew from Ark Technology. (Regarding this past event, in 2018, Ni Guangnan's assistant Liang Ning wrote a special article titled "A History of Domestic Chips and Operating Systems," which caused a sensation.)

Zhongke Hongqi persisted for several years. At the end of 2013, Zhongke Hongqi exposed issues of broken funding chains and workers' wage demands. In 2014, the company underwent dissolution and liquidation. Subsequently, in August, the company was acquired by Wujia Wanjing Information Industry Group.

Fortunately, the red flag has not fallen. The acquirer retains the Red Flag Linux brand and continues to undertake product research and development, sales, and services related to Red Flag Linux.

Blue Dot Linux failed earliest and most thoroughly.

At the end of 2001, Deng Yu, the president of Blue Dot Company, sold the company's shares at a low price. Shortly thereafter, other founders of the company also sold their shares. The company is undergoing a transformation to develop application equipment and systems related to the automotive industry.

In 2002, under the impact of the collapse of the Internet foam, Blue Dot's share price fell to 0.08 cents, leaving the US market sadly.

The fate of Zhongruan Linux is quite unique. In 2003, the Linux operating system research and development division of Zhongruan became independent and established Zhongbiao Software. Later, we will talk about its story again.

The first wave of domestic operating systems failed. So, where should we go next? When will the second wave arrive? Can it succeed?

This article is from WeChat official account: WeChat official account (ID: null), by Xiao Zaojun

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国产操作系统的沉浮往事（上）

鲜枣课堂 2024/10/19 12:33:04 责编：梦泽

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