Chronicle of Ubuntu Kylin, an Open Source OS

2014-12-31 09:04:25

Ubuntu Kylin, an open-source project, is supported and led by CCN Joint Lab. Its purpose is to provide exquisite UE and make an operation system with more Chinese characteristics, through adopting the design idea of platform internationalization and application localization, customizing localized desktop environment and developing application software catering to the specific needs of Chinese users. Ubuntu Kylin based on Ubuntu, get much support from Debian, Ubuntu, LUPA, Linux user groups around the world.

In June 2012, Mark Suttleworth, the Ubuntu founder, visited NUDT and introduced the development of Ubuntu and his legendary life to Linux enthusiasts in Hunan. He also discussed the difficulties of developing a Chinese open source software with National University of Defense Technology OS team(referred to as NUDT) and the representatives of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Software and Integrated Circuits Promotion Center(referred to as CSIP). Three parties reached a preliminary agreement on cooperation.
In October 2012, the representatives of NUDT were invited to attend Ubuntu Developers Summit(UDS) in Denmark and participated in the discussion of the Unity 7/8, technologies like Widget and the preparations of developing a Chinese Ubuntu-based open source OS.
In January 2013, Ubuntu development team, NUDT and CSIP held a technical seminars in Changsha, discussing the technologies of Image Building, Ubuntu Packaging and the international open source community development and deciding to call three parties’ engineers together to start the development of Ubuntu Kylin.
In March 2013, Ubuntu Kylin was officially recognized by Ubuntu and became a derivative version of it after a strict evaluation of Ubuntu Technical Committee.
In March 2013, in order to support the development of Ubuntu Kylin, Canonical, CSIP and NUDT founded a nonprofit organization,CCN Joint Laboratory Open Source Innovation, with the purpose to promote the Chinese open source software and open source culture.
In April 2013, Ubuntu Kylin 13.04 was released, with free version download and open source code. The cumulative downloads in the official website exceeded more than 1 million times.
In May 2013, Ubuntu Kylin 13.04 Release Parties were held in Beijing and Changsha by Ubuntu Kylin development team, introducing the characteristics of Ubuntu/Ubuntu Kylin 13.04 and open source projects, like Sea File and Ubuntu Tweak.
In May 2013, Ubuntu Kylin 13.04 Release Party was held in Beijing.
In June 2013, Ubuntu Kylin Developers Summit(UKDS) was held online. Dozens of developers discussed the shortcomings of Ubuntu/Ubuntu Kylin and the follow-up technical direction of them.
In July 2013, CCN Changsha Technical Conference discussed technical planning of Ubuntu and Ubuntu Kylin development and the technologies of new graphical desktop such as Unity 8, Mir and so on.
In August 2013, Ubuntu Kylin development team developed Kingsoft Kuaipan for Linux with Ksyun, and in October launched the first official version.
In October 2013, Ubuntu Kylin 13.10 was released, with free version download and open source code. The cumulative downloads in the official website exceeded more than 2 million times.
In November 2013, Ubuntu Kylin 13.10 Released Parties were held in Beijing and Changsha by Ubuntu Kylin development team, introducing the characteristics of Ubuntu/Ubuntu Kylin 13.10 and some open source projects like Openstack.
In January 2014, Ubuntu Kylin development teams co-developed Sogou Pinyin for Linux with Sogou.Ltd, and in April launched the first official version.
In February 2014, CCN Changsha Technical Conference solved a number of technical issues during the process of Ubuntu and Ubuntu Kylin development.
In March 2014, Ubuntu Kylin development team launched Knowledge Base and Video Section in community platform to provide a better communication and learning platform for enthusiasts.
In April 2014, Ubuntu Kylin 14.04LTS was released, with free version download and open source code. The cumulative downloads in the official website exceeded more than 4 million times.
In May 2014, Ubuntu Kylin 14.04LTS Released Parties were held in Beijing and Changsha by Ubuntu Kylin development team, attracting enthusiasts in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chongqing, Tianjin, Guangzhou and other places to organize parties spontaneously.
In May 2014, Ubuntu Kylin Roundtable for Developers/Enthusiasts was held in Changsha. The participants talked about the current and future situation of China open source community and provided recommendations for Ubuntu Kylin technical route.
In June 2014, Ubuntu Kylin team assisted CSDN to hold "Open Source Camp" activity, providing seven open source projects and setting up a "Special Contribution Award for Linux desktop".
In August 2014, CCN Changsha Technical Conference discussed the development plan of Ubuntu/Ubuntu Kylin 16.04.
In September 2014, Ubuntu Kylin team hosted Software Freedom Day(SFD) activity in Changsha and assisted to SFD activities in Beijing, Xi'an, Guangzhou and other places.
In October 2014, Ubuntu Kylin 14.10 was released, with free version download and open source code. The cumulative downloads in the official website exceeded more than 1 million times.
In November 2014, Ubuntu Kylin 14.10 Release Party was held in Guangzhou by Ubuntu Kylin development team and attracted enthusiasts in Xi'an, Chongqing, Harbin, Xianyang, Xingtai, Changsha to organize release parties.
In December 2014, Open Source Developers Conference was held successfully by Ubuntu Kylin development team and the open source community core members like GitCafe, Gnome user groups in Beijing in Central South University, Hunan University and NUDT.

How time flies! Ubuntu Kylin is about to enter its third year and also has successfully released four versions. The cumulative version downloads in the official website exceed more than 8.6 million times and the forum users twenty thousand people. Looking back these two years, with the spirit of openness and cooperation, Ubuntu Kylin strictly obeyed the rules of the open source community in no matter the active participation of the community or the feedback to it, release party or Developers Conference, online communications or offline interactions, system development or community platform, and gradually created a new development model of open source operating system in Chinese, and ultimately integrated into the open source community and was recognized by the upstream communities. Although the existing ignorance or even misunderstanding to the open source model, Ubuntu Kylin, with an open and tolerant attitude, will still strengthen community exchanges and cooperation, actively contribute their efforts to the open source community, and strive to be somebody in the field of open source operating system.

Some Pictures:

In Jun 2012,Mark is giving a speech in NUDT.