China's Domestic Linux Tops Server Market at 20M: Ubuntu Migration Cost Analysis

Market Milestone: openEuler Reaches 20 Million Installations

At Huawei Connect 2024, openEuler announced surpassing 20 million installations, becoming the number one server operating system in China by market share. According to Sullivan's "2025 China Server Operating System Industry Development White Paper," openEuler-family distributions captured 57.3% of new server deployments in 2025, with absolute leadership in finance, telecommunications, and government sectors. This represents an industry-wide shift rather than enthusiast adoption.

Three Major Domestic Distributions and Their Focus Areas

openEuler (Euler) : Huawei's open-source community distribution targeting servers and cloud, filling the gap left by CentOS/RHEL end-of-life. Public data shows 4.16 million Kunpeng developers and 7,200 ecosystem partners.

UOS (UnionTech OS) : Focuses on government/enterprise desktop and server. Released desktop V25 in April 2024 and server V25 in September, using Linux 6.6 LTS kernel. Notably rewrote shell, sudo, pam, dnsmasq and over a dozen core components in Rust.

Kylin (Galaxy Kylin) : Long-standing desktop office leader with KylinBot AI agent, pursuing AI-native approach. Has maintained top-three position in China OS market since 2021 with 24 million cumulative deployments.

In summary: Euler for servers, UOS for government/enterprise, Kylin for desktop office. Together they cover the domestic substitution landscape.

Kernel Parity: The Real Surprise

openKylin 3.0, released late 2024, jumped from Linux 6.6 directly to Linux 7.0 — the same major version used by Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (confirmed in Ubuntu's official release notes). UOS V25 and Kylin V11 both use Linux 6.6 LTS, already modern mainstream kernels, not the outdated "ancestral kernels" of the past. Both UOS and openKylin are adopting Rust rewrites (wget, time, etc.), aligning with Ubuntu 26.10's replacement of cp, mv, rm with Rust implementations. The previous criticism of "reskinning with old kernels" is losing validity; the remaining gap lies in ecosystem, not technical foundation.

Migration Cost Breakdown for Ubuntu Users

Skills That Transfer Directly

More than expected. systemd is universal; systemctl commands are identical. Shell scripts, vim, Git, SSH, Docker, Kubernetes, Prometheus — the entire toolchain runs on openEuler with unchanged configuration files. The time invested in general Linux capabilities is largely preserved.

What Requires Relearning: Package Management and Ecosystem

openEuler follows RHEL lineage, using dnf for RPM packages versus Ubuntu's apt for DEB — two completely different systems. The core daily commands map as follows:

Install software: apt install nginx → dnf install nginx Update repositories: apt update → dnf makecache Upgrade system: apt upgrade → dnf upgrade Remove software: apt remove nginx → dnf remove nginx List installed packages: dpkg -l → rpm -qa Find package owning a file: dpkg -S → rpm -qf Repository configuration location: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ → /etc/yum.repos.d/ Adaptation period is roughly one to two weeks, mainly overcoming muscle memory of typing apt instinctively. Additional gaps: SELinux troubleshooting mindset (Ubuntu defaults to AppArmor), firewalld replacing ufw, and domestic-specific compliance (MLPS/equal protection) and national cryptographic algorithm configuration.

Where openEuler Is Stronger

Native optimization for Kunpeng ARM64; on x86 the same workloads offer larger performance tuning headroom.

A-Tune intelligent tuning engine automatically adjusts kernel parameters based on workload — no direct equivalent in Ubuntu.

Real-time kernel branch available out-of-the-box; Ubuntu only merged PREEMPT_RT into main repositories starting with 26.04.

Enterprise LTS support up to 10 years, versus Ubuntu's standard 5-year support.

Should Ubuntu Users Panic? It Depends on Role

Server operations engineers in companies handling government, finance, or telecom projects: seriously learn openEuler and UOS. Not because Ubuntu is inadequate, but because new projects in these sectors often mandate Xinchuang (domestic substitution) compliance. Ability to install, tune, and troubleshoot domestic OS is a concrete advantage, sometimes a prerequisite.

Individual developers earning a living writing code: no short-term urgency. VSCode, Docker, Python, Node run unchanged on Ubuntu. Domestic OS affects which companies hire you, not whether you must switch your personal machine.

Linux enthusiasts : gain a new playground. openKylin offers RISC-V edition, UOS has personal edition — low cost to experiment.

Dismissing domestic Linux as mere "reskins" in 2026 is stubbornness, not skepticism. Kernels have caught up, installation base has grown, AI is moving into system layers. You may choose not to use it, but you should know where it stands.

Low-Cost Trial Approaches

Spin up a VM (VirtualBox or KVM) with 2 vCPU/4GB RAM; download ISO from openEuler official site. Run your usual Docker, systemd, systemctl workflows and observe differences.

UOS personal edition and Kylin desktop can be installed on spare hardware for true bare-metal experience.

For developers, the fastest path: run an openEuler container on existing Ubuntu, port deployment scripts to dnf — quicker than full OS installation to grasp differences.

The goal isn't immediate adoption but preparedness; when a project mandates it, you won't start from zero.

Prioritized Learning Path for Xinchuang Projects

Package management and repositories : Master common dnf subcommands and .repo file syntax under /etc/yum.repos.d/. This is the daily touchpoint and highest migration cost concentration — half a day suffices.

Security subsystem : SELinux troubleshooting differs from AppArmor; domestic compliance requires it enabled. Learn to read audit logs and temporarily allow access, otherwise service startup failures will cause long delays.

National cryptographic suite : Understand where SM2, SM3, SM4 are mandated and how to configure them. This is compliance knowledge, not deep technical difficulty, but appears in project requirements.

Distribution-specific tools : openEuler's A-Tune, UOS and Kylin management utilities. Learn on demand when actually using them.

Conversely, no need to relearn: systemd, containers/Kubernetes, Shell/Python, network troubleshooting — these are fully portable across both ecosystems. The migration cost concentrates in package management and compliance, totaling about one to two weeks of adaptation, not a full Linux relearning.

Author's Personal Plan

Start with dnf: after VM setup, translate daily apt commands to dnf until finger memory forms. This unlocks the rest.

Investigate UOS V25's Rust-rewritten shell and compare with Ubuntu 26.10's Rust coreutils direction — separate deep-dive planned.

Publish hands-on notes after practical validation; theoretical reading alone doesn't reveal the pitfalls.

Has your company or industry started adopting domestic Linux? Which distribution — Euler, UOS, or Kylin — and what has the experience been?