China's Domestic OS Landscape: Billions Spent, Dozens of Distros, Still Need Wine

Overview

China's domestic operating system sector has consumed billions of yuan yet produced dozens of mutually incompatible distributions. The author surveys the major players, noting that each claims "self-controllability" but all are built on Linux kernels, and the de facto competitive advantage for most is the ability to run Windows software via Wine.

Major Distributions

1. Galaxy Kylin (银河麒麟)

Dominates party and government desktop procurement with roughly 70% market share, certified at Security Level 4 and Military B+. Reported installations exceed 20 million units. A separate Kylin Security line serves the power grid (200,000 units) and has been used on Shenzhou missions 12 through 22. However, the desktop version is rarely chosen by individual users; deployments are driven by bulk procurement. Daily use typically reduces to WPS Office and a browser, with the application store offering very few native programs.

2. UnionTech UOS (统信UOS)

Commercial counterpart of deepin, both from UnionTech Software. deepin claims 8 million global community users; UOS reports over 50 million installations. The new V25 "Agent OS" includes an AI assistant and advertises "Windows migration in four hours of training" — a figure the author argues proves the system is not intuitively usable. The claimed 10 million ecosystem adaptations largely count individual printer drivers, USB drivers, and input methods rather than end-user applications.

3. openEuler

Huawei-backed server OS with 16 million cumulative installations and 57.3% market share in telecom, finance, and energy. Open source with 23,000 community contributors. Focuses on containerization, cloud-native, and virtualization; not intended for desktop use.

4. Dragon Lizard Anolis (龙蜥Anolis)

Alibaba-backed server distribution with 10 million installations, targeting cloud-native and data-center workloads. Competes directly with openEuler. The author notes a perception that Alibaba Cloud optimizations may not transfer smoothly to on-premises deployments.

5. deepin

Perhaps the only domestic desktop OS voluntarily adopted by individual users. Based on Debian with the DDE desktop environment; praised for aesthetics. Community reports 8 million global users. deepin 25.1 recently fixed numerous bugs. Yet the first post-install step for most users is installing Wine to run Windows applications — an irony the author highlights: a domestic OS whose core value proposition is compatibility with the competitor's ecosystem.

6. CAS Fangde (中科方德)

Backed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, targeting high-performance computing and railway scenarios. Its flagship "Mandarin Duck Hotpot Platform" (鸳鸯火锅平台) is essentially a heavily modified Wine layer enabling Windows programs to run on Linux, complemented by a "zero-code adaptation engine" that automatically resolves missing dependencies. The author characterizes this as an OS vendor investing its primary engineering effort in emulating the rival's ecosystem rather than building its own.

7. HarmonyOS PC (鸿蒙PC)

Huawei's extension of phone HarmonyOS to PCs. MateBook Fold captures over 70% of the 20,000+ RMB segment; MateBook Pro holds 12% of the 8,000+ RMB segment. Achieved National Security Level 2 certification and is entering government/enterprise procurement. The architecture emphasizes distributed collaboration — phone, tablet, PC, and smart screen share a "super terminal" with seamless camera and app flow. However, it runs on an independent technology stack (neither x86 nor traditional Linux), so the application ecosystem must be built from scratch. The author cautions that ecosystem maturity requires years, not launch-event demos.

Core Issues

Despite hundreds of billions invested, the landscape remains a collection of Linux derivatives: deepin on Debian, UOS on deepin, Galaxy Kylin on openEuler, openEuler continuing the pre-EOL CentOS line. Each layer adds packaging but not fundamental innovation. Distributions are mutually dismissive — deepin users call UOS a reskin, openEuler users view Galaxy Kylin as a government sales wrapper, HarmonyOS proponents claim the rest are obsolete. To ordinary users they appear as "Windows or Mac look-alikes with severely limited software," leading to immediate Wine installation and regret over not staying on Windows.

Conclusion

Practical advice: if your organization mandates Galaxy Kylin, accept WPS as the primary tool; if you experiment with deepin, configure Wine first; if considering a HarmonyOS PC, wait two years for the ecosystem to mature.