How the Galaxy Thunder OS Was Born and Its Product Philosophy: Staying True to the Original Mission

1. Origin – Dawn

More than 30 years ago a curious teenager from a remote mountain village excelled academically, winning the city’s top score in 1992 and earning a place at a tax school in Sichuan. Despite limited resources, he pursued a passion for learning, eventually discovering computers and deciding to study computer science after meeting his first love.

In 1999 he began programming at a small Chengdu company, working on Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, and during a business trip to Dongfang Electric he expressed a willingness to sacrifice half his salary for a chance to develop an operating system—an ambition that sparked his OS‑development career.

Around 2000 he started reading Linux kernel books, inspired by the magazine "Computer World," and later published a CSDN interview (https://blog.csdn.net/weixin_30779691/article/details/98029626) describing his early Linux studies.

In 2008 a minimalist prototype of only ten thousand lines of code and a simple GUI earned the trust of ZTE Chengdu Research Institute, leading to his recruitment. While at ZTE, he contributed to an embedded OS based on Linux that won the 4th China Industrial Award alongside the Liaoning Ship.

His later work at ZTE and Alibaba earned multiple company‑level awards, and he authored five books on Linux OS implementation, receiving recommendations from industry experts, professors, academicians, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

2. Attack – Focused Execution

Decades ago, Chinese visionaries recognized the strategic importance of a domestic OS and began R&D. Recent geopolitical shifts have accelerated the need for a self‑developed OS. The author predicted these challenges ten years ago and has since participated in numerous industry seminars, advocating for long‑term, bench‑press‑style development.

Key industry debates identified include:

Whether domestic talent can develop an OS or should rely on foreign solutions.

The micro‑kernel vs. macro‑kernel controversy.

Prioritizing ecosystem development with foreign open‑source Linux before tackling core OS issues.

Re‑writing an OS in a new language to ensure technological advancement.

The author argues that OS development must avoid endless route disputes; any engineer who can deliver working code is valuable. He promotes a “technical horse race” where multiple approaches compete, and stresses learning from advanced foreign OSes (Linux, macOS, Windows) before attempting disruptive innovation.

3. Elevation – Product Philosophy

3.1 Social Responsibility & Commercial Balance

The first pillar of the Galaxy Thunder OS philosophy is “social responsibility and commercial balance,” adhering to a “serve the people” mindset while ensuring market sustainability. The OS aims to avoid becoming a monopoly owned by a single corporation and instead fosters an ecosystem where partners prosper.

Support for domestic CPUs (FeiTeng, Loongson, ShenWei, RISC‑V) and foreign CPUs (Intel, AMD) to secure information security for finance, telecom, and power sectors.

Campus‑customized editions for low‑spec hardware (e.g., JM9100 graphics) to lower the digital‑divide in remote areas.

Family editions that use fine‑grained traffic statistics (application, IP, regional) to prevent excessive entertainment use and protect academic performance.

3.2 Technology‑Centric Core

The OS is a full‑stack, self‑controlled system built on a hybrid macro‑kernel architecture, avoiding reliance on foreign micro‑kernels or GPL‑licensed code. It supports Intel, AMD, and domestic CPUs (FeiTeng, Loongson, ShenWei) as well as domestic GPUs (JM9100), ensuring end‑to‑end controllability.

Key technical focuses:

Autonomous control to break foreign technology dependence and mitigate GPL risks.

Extreme performance and power‑efficiency optimizations for domestic chips (FeiTeng, RISC‑V, Loongson) across servers, embedded devices, and desktops.

Real‑time enhancements for industrial control, power, telecom, and automotive scenarios.

AI acceleration via NPU drivers for domestic AI chips (Cambricon, Ascend) to boost inference performance.

3.3 Human‑Centric Design

The OS emphasizes user experience: seamless migration from Linux, no backdoors, data residency within national borders, modular component installation, deep personalization, and the ability to run on decade‑old hardware.

4. Future Mission – Breaking the Monopoly

The global OS market is dominated by a few giants: Windows (>75% desktop share), macOS (high‑end lock‑in), Android/iOS (mobile duopoly), and Linux servers (still influenced by overseas foundations). This creates dependency risks, potential backdoors, and limits innovation.

Galaxy Thunder OS proposes a strategy to overcome these barriers:

Full‑stack autonomous architecture that does not depend on Linux or Unix, avoiding GPL constraints.

Binary compatibility with Linux to leverage existing applications without rebuilding ecosystems.

Virtualization layers for Windows compatibility, enabling smooth user transition.

Neutral hardware support across x86‑64, ARM‑64, RISC‑V, Loongson, FeiTeng, etc., preventing single‑vendor lock‑in.

Open‑source‑compatible components for partners while using a proprietary "Galaxy Thunder Public Development License" to sidestep foreign sanctions.

From an industry perspective, the OS follows a three‑pronged commercialization plan:

Low‑price base edition for individuals to build a user base.

Enterprise paid edition (Red Hat‑style) offering high‑security and safety‑critical features for government and corporate customers.

Industry‑customized edition for verticals such as telecom and power, with tailored services.

Additional tactics include bundling with domestic CPU + OS + applications solutions, leveraging domestic GPU (JM9100) graphics stacks, and establishing the “Galaxy Thunder Certification” to set industry standards.

Looking ahead, the OS aims to transition from “following” to “defining” a new technological track, maintaining full autonomy while ensuring Linux binary compatibility, and confronting challenges such as giant‑company pressure, developer attraction, and user habit shifts.

Images illustrating the vision: