Ubuntu Kylin Pushing To Replace XP In China

legitreviews.com ^ | Sun, May 18, 2014 - 4:33 PM | Benjamin Young

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The third iteration of Ubuntu Kylin released just last month and has already reached 1 million downloads. All versions are a desktop replacement based on Ubuntu Linux specifically geared toward Chinese users. The name Kylin comes from a FreeBSD operating system that was originally built for the Chinese Government between 2001 and 2013, and during its final years was rebranded as NeoKylin and moved to the Linux kernel.

Ubuntu Kylin 14.04

Since Ubuntu Kylin follows the same release schedule as stock Ubuntu, last months release was based on Ubuntu 14.04 and is Kylin’s first LTS release. Canonical has teamed up with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to give the public a free alternative to upgrade their aging Windows XP installations. Over the releases of 13.04 and 13.10, Kylin garnered 3 million users in its first year of public availability.

Kylin offers a number of localized customizations that stock Ubuntu doesn’t offer to try and make the switch easier.

• The new Sogou Input Method caters to Chinese typists as there are tens of thousands of characters, called hanzi, in their alphabet.

• While Libre Office is still the default suite for the distribution, Kingsoft’s WPS Office (China’s top office suite) has a free Linux alpha. 
• An XP-to-Linux file porting utility
• Custom Unity scopes for searches in local news and events

XP is loosely estimated to still cover 50-70% of the Chinese desktop space. The wide spread and fuzzy numbers are both largely due to the rampant piracy of the operating system in the region. Microsoft has even said that over 30% of these desktops likely never received any updates, probably in an effort to avoid the Windows Genuine Advantage update. As such, the Chinese government was driven to contact Canonical in order to find a safer, more secure, and inexpensive option to provide an alternative for the public. It will probably take some time to remove XP from its throne, but Kylin definitely seems to be inching ever-closer.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[GraceG]

Install this as a VM machine under another Ubuntu install for when you need to leak certain info tot he web that way it will really confuse the NSA.....

You can install Virtual Box in Ubuntu then install this under it...

[ShadowAce]

Q4OS is also pushing for that market.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

There is also this one:

Robolinux

*********************Excerpt******************

One of the project's more interesting features is the availability of a pre-configured virtual machine support pack with Windows XP or Windows 7 - a VirtualBox setup which allows the user to install and run the Windows operating system seamlessly alongside Robolinux.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See updates.

[GeronL]

That is a pretty big market

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

a VirtualBox setup which allows the user to install and run the Windows operating system seamlessly alongside Robolinux.

AND they have just released a script that will make an image of your XP install and import it into a VM running in Virtual Box.

One limitation though that made it a no-go for me...your XP drive must be smaller than 127Gb. That would hamper a lot of folks. But it is still way cool.