Choson Minjujuui Inmin Konghwaguk, here in the west more commonly known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or North Korea, is a country you usually read about in the foreign affairs section of the newspaper. As a logical consequence of its Juche ideology, North Korea has developed its own Linux distribution.
North Korea has its own internet, which exists outside of the regular internet that we know. In addition, as has been revealed, the country has also developed its own Linux distribution called the Red Star Operating System, clearly a KDE 3.x-based environment with several North Korean touches.
For instance, the date and time are presented in Juche years, which is exactly like the Gregorian calendar except that it starts in 1912, the birth year of Kim Il-sung (ê¹€ì¼ì„± in Korean – I love Wikipedia), North Korea’s “Eternal President”. Firefox is called “My Country”, and there’s a notebook application called “My Comrade”. Some of the code is written by North Korea itself, such as the “Woodpecker” antivirus program, or the “Pyongyang Fortress” firewall.
The smart cookies among you might already be wondering how we know all this stuff – since North Korea is pretty much sealed off from the outside world, this kind of information rarely leaks out. Luck has it that a Russian student, studying at the university of Pyongyang (Kim Il-sung University, in case you hadn’t figured that one out yet), bought the operating system for 5 USD at an information centre.
He was able to install it at the Russian embassy, and there, he played with it, providing us with screenshots and other pieces of information. Apparently, Red Star has been commissioned by Kim Jong-il, the current North Korean leader, and according to people on the street, isn’t quite polished yet. It is also not popular yet, with people preferring Windows XP and Vista. Everybody can buy it freely – however, since the sale of computers is heavily restricted, few would have a use for it.
I like stories like this. I like this because it offers a very rare glimpse into a world we rarely get to see. The western world tends to forget that underneath that horrid regime, there’s real people living and breathing in North Korea, with their own hopes, dreams, and fears. It is stories like this that help us remember that despite the despicable nature of their regime, North Koreans are still people like you and me, and their well-being should be top consideration in any decision we may ever take regarding the country.
Does North Korea violate the GPL by selling a linux distro?
Of course not. GPL only requires you to provide means to acquire the source for people buying the distro. The distro probably also has proprietary components.
(cf. RHEL)
I’m going to bet the source is available to the Eternal President, and that’s all the people will ever need to know.
Good luck getting the sources from North Korea.
Oh the irony
.
Then Ballmer was right, Linux is communistic!
Exactly! That’s why Windows XP and Vista are more popular there.
So the commie puppet regime of N Korea continues again to enslaved the working class. Their aim of taking over the worl by stolen code and malware will not go un-noticed by free thinking peoples.
Just saying it like they do on the voice of north korea.
North Korea is also famous for making Silver Star Baduk (go/weiqi game program).
While at it, I’m not surprised that North Korea will have a major tech boom, likely European software companies outsource North Korea.
I’m rather familiar with the economic/social situation in N. Korea and that seems highly doubtful to me for the foreseeable future.
reminds me of xandros, but with a different goal.
who would have thought those WMD’s george bush kept talking about were hiding inside that adorable penguin this whole time. awwww *boom*
Edited 2010-03-04 21:07 UTC
I know they both have the goal of World Domination…
1. My Computer has been renamed to Our Computer
2. A very powerful email client is included, but it has no send button
3. Every computer includes a free Web Cam
4. Comes with the Peoples Genuine Advantage application, that verifies if you are a legitimate copy
5. Contains free programs written by Kim Il-sung himself, such as gcc and emacs
HAHAHH, Good one
At this time, Score 43, is this a new record?
Edited 2010-03-05 18:42 UTC
…there’s now an answer to the thorny problem of how to get a supported distro that uses KDE 3.5 as its primary desktop: move to North Korea!
Can anyone in NK even afford a computer? Does anyone even have one outside of the elites in the party? Something tells me this is NOT for the workers of the revolution, and knowing NK god only knows what weird idea is behind this.
This answers some parts of your question.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwangmyong_%28intranet%29
Internet is not used by the general public, except for banking in the Chinese branch of a North Korean bank.
Edited 2010-03-04 21:34 UTC
a great many trade embargoes exist against N Korea, so selling PCs to them is not very easy, wonder what kind of hardware they have managed to get…
Remember when the G4 powermac couldn’t be sold abroad because it counted as a supercomputer and therefore a weapon? Those were the days….
I suspect any of the Chinese manufacturers can chip to North Korea.
I once saw on tv, sort of a documentary about north korea’s internet cafes. They are illegal but popular among ppl so ppl save money to go there to play rainbow six and so. They sat down on plastic chairs without back (lol). It was a few years back already when I saw the programme while I was in S. Korea. So.. they, at least a small number of pppl might be able to access computers I guess. But not as freely as we do, of course.
I would have to imagine if it were built by North Korean “coders” I would not be surprised if it was setup to keep an “eye” on who ever uses it.
So much for “freedom”…..
Sigh….
I like you nickname. 😉
When I noticed KDE 3.x I thought it was oudated, but it came with Firefox 3.6. So it can’t be that outdated.
N Korea’s not the first communist country to develop it’s own Linux didn’t / isn’t Cuba developing Nova as the official state OS?
Don’t know about Nova, but Red Flag is a Chinese distribution (isn’t the official one of the country ?).
Very strange naming a product aimed at Spanish speaking people and using the name No va.
True, would have thought they’d have learned that lesson. One car company tried that–think it was Chevy–and it didn’t go over too well.
I can’t help but wonder if they made any changes to KDE, Firefox, or any other underlying component to this distribution. If they did, given the way that regime likes to spy, they probably aren’t releasing those modifications and they could be committing some serious license violations as a result.
license violations? get the security council to pass a resolution. I really doubt NK would care about the license
AFAIK, if the country does not care about the license, you cannot sue ppl in that country whether they mistreat the license. So.. they might not contribute back the modifications even if there’s any. Well, one thing just came up into my mind.. that since the government keeps internet access from majority of ppl in the country, I wonder if the developer of the distro got access to the internet at all. To build the distro he or she might got enough resource (source code and etc) from internet under permission though, to contribute back… well I don’t think that the government would allow the internet access for that purpose.
Didn’t say they would care, just my curious mind asking the question.
Violating GPL is hardly the worst license violation one could find in North Korea. They have had a very active counterfeiting black market industry for years and as of 2009 or 2008 data, where the best currency counterfeiters in the world; usually 100$ bills. Counterfeit cigarette are big too though China has general dominated that commodity.
McMafia
ISBN – 10:0887842046
ISBN – 13:9780887842047
That’s really great, now they only have to get computers and they’re all set.
Too bad that Linux doesn’t run on Z80 processors. Maybe they will be able to build their own version of 80286 in 10 years, though.
I think you mean 6502. The Z-80 is a bit high-tech for them.
Though both are too mainstream – more likely to rip off something obscure like a hibachi 6803.
Doesn’t the Z80 need electricity?
LOL
If like with “Space Gundam V” (a Macross ripoff of sorts) they’ll claim they invented Linux without outside help before Linus did.
North Korea Linux is like the Nazi-movement; they used the democratic principles to take over, than they abolished it.
This thread is a successful invocation of Godwin’s law:
“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
North Korea was correctly named as an axis of evil member. Anyone who has lived in that region for a few years would know exactly how they think and act. Take a few hours to listen to the official radio of north korea. Might not like what you hear.
The truth is the people are some of the poorest in the world. The leaders have an iron fist and boot at their throats. The leaders have extorted monies from the west to prevent nuclear arms race and have turned that wealth back into keeping the leaders in luxury and fine are.
There can be nothing good to come out of North Korea making an OS. Most likely they are trying to horn in on the scams like some of the other commie nations and a few African schemes. Might as well hack the west is their opinion.
The only thing more pathetic than 30 commenters trying to make a poor joke is Thom making any decision about their country.
OS news, anyone?
I have some questions about these disks.
1) Does the ink used to label the disks transfer easily, staining everything it comes into contact with?
2) Does the disk shrink to half its size if you attempt to wash it or even just get it wet?
3) Does the metal platter inside the disk start to rust out a few months after you get it?
The Pyongyang Fortres firewall provides enhanced security and assures that you get the latest patches and don’t access malicious websites.
And Woodpecker antivirus app looks for suspicious HTML, DOC, ODT, and TXT files to remove them quickly before you get infected with inappropriate information.
There is also an alternative for Apple’s iWork Suite called “weWork Sickle III edition” which automatically shares your work with the NK Department of Homeland Security.