China’s government is making its own operating system based on the open source OS Ubuntu. They have signed a deal with Canonical to create a new version of Ubuntu. It can be seen as an attempt to move from Windows to Linux. Windows has 91.62 percent market share on the desktop in China, compared to 1.21 percent for Linux according to NetMarketshare statistics. The other 7.17 percent is OS X.
The Chinese version of Ubuntu will be called Ubuntu Kylin and it will be released next month in conjunction with Ubuntu's regular release cycle.
"Ubuntu Kylin goes beyond language localisation and includes features and applications that cater for the Chinese market," Canonical said in its announcement. "In the 13.04 release, Chinese input methods and Chinese calendars are supported, there is a new weather indicator, and users can quickly search across the most popular Chinese music services from the Dash. Future releases will include integration with Baidu maps and leading shopping service Taobao, payment processing for Chinese banks, and real-time train and flight information. The Ubuntu Kylin team is cooperating with WPS, the most popular office suite in China, and is creating photo editing and system management tools which could be incorporated into other flavours of Ubuntu worldwide."
Source: Canonical