How OpenCloudOS 9.0 Is Shaping China’s Cloud‑Native OS Landscape

Operating systems are the backbone of digital transformation, linking hardware, databases, middleware, and applications, and national policies repeatedly stress the importance of developing independent OSes.

Recently, the OpenCloudOS open‑source community announced the first fully self‑developed 9.0 version, jointly built and maintained by Tencent and more than ten other enterprises, with a completely independent kernel and user‑space stack, achieving end‑to‑end autonomy.

Community‑Based Sustainable Development

Globally, server OSes are dominated by Linux and Windows; over 50% of Linux servers are based on CentOS, which is being phased out, opening a large market for domestic OSes.

Tencent entered the OS field early, launching TencentOS in 2010 and later TencentOS Server, which now powers all of Tencent’s services. In 2021, Tencent helped create the OpenCloudOS community, contributing its decade‑long expertise.

The community defines three layers: L1 (source community, built on the Linux kernel), L2 (enterprise edition with hardening and support), and L3 (fully open, community‑driven edition). OpenCloudOS aims to cover all three, delivering a next‑generation cloud‑native OS.

OpenCloudOS 9.0 is distinguished by its independent development and production‑grade validation. The L1 Stream 2301 version, released in January, was built by partners including Tencent, ZTE, and others, featuring over 1,800 independently selected, compiled, and packaged software packages. After extensive validation in Tencent’s production environment via TencentOS Server 4, the L3‑grade OpenCloudOS 9.0 was released.

OpenCloudOS 9.0 Highlights

Built on Linux kernel 6.1, it adds multi‑architecture support, multi‑core performance optimizations, enhanced isolation, and memory‑efficiency improvements via MGLRU and Mapple Tree. It fully supports Cgroup v2, hot‑patching, and includes security features such as GPG acceleration, new PAM modules, OpenSSL 3.0, and native SM3/SM4 algorithms.

System services are upgraded to Systemd 251, dracut with ZSTD, and GRUB2 with TPM, NVMe, and RAID5 support. Core toolchains include GCC 12, LLVM 14, Kona JDK 11/17, Glibc 2.35, Python 3.10, and Rust 1.64. Storage and device management tools (LVM2 2.03.16, e2fsprogs 1.46.5, Parted 3.5) and networking utilities (Nftables 1.0.4, iptables 1.8.8) are also updated. Compared with OC 8.6, database performance improves by 50.49% and I/O by 26.5%.

These enhancements provide a stronger foundation for cloud‑native, big‑data, and AI workloads.

Open‑Source Community’s Role

The OS ecosystem acts as a bridge between hardware and software. China’s two‑decade‑long OS development has produced several domestic systems and vibrant communities. Community members stress the need to move from merely “usable” to truly “user‑friendly,” emphasizing innovation, standardization, and ecosystem integration.

Challenges remain: insufficient innovation due to reliance on external upstreams, fragmented standards across dozens of domestic OS vendors, and the need for broader hardware and software compatibility.

To address SME migration pain points, the OpenCloudOS community launched the “Qian‑Bai‑Shuang‑Fu” program, offering migration services, ecosystem resources, alliance building, and investment incubation.

Looking ahead, the community pledges diversified technical input and a long‑term development roadmap to strengthen China’s indigenous, open‑source operating system ecosystem.

Sources: Tencent, Donews, NetEase Tech