Deepin – China's Linux Distros and How They Can Do Well in the West

The Chinese market is different, there is no dispute. It's different for consumers, it's different for entrepreneurs, for companies that want to make their services available there, China is different! Let's talk a little bit about the "Chinese way" to create technology solutions, especially desktop, especially Linux-based.

Chinese technology

There is no denying that the political rigidity for foreign products and companies, especially from the United States, ultimately generates a different market within China. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and so many other technology giants are not barred from operating in the country, but a number of laws and bureaucracies make their operation much more complicated and summarily discouraged and limited.

This partly comes from the Chinese Government's willingness to be technologically independent, I can't blame them for that, I think until there is a positive aspect amid the abuses committed to make it happen, the big problem is really why China wants to stop your technology. But with my intention not to talk about politics and how the Chinese Government acts there, then we leave that to another opportunity.

The funny thing is that despite "not going with the face" of western companies, it is very clear when looking at Chinese-made products how much they are inspired by Apple, Microsoft and Google solutions, of course, with their own footprint. .

Although China is not so interested in importing technology, the opposite is not true, many technology giant companies produce their components there, especially for the low cost that it generates and also because of the large technology centers, in addition, Chinese companies like China. Xiaomi, Alibaba, Baidu, Huawai, Lenovo, Asus, Acer, etc., irreversibly branded their Western market name, becoming successful multinationals. Also influencing western technology producers to the point where it is hard to say "who copies who" today.

Still, even for Chinese companies, presenting different solutions for Chinese and Western audiences, the products have different, especially visual, I would say, characteristics, and mostly it seems to me to be worth a rule: "It doesn't have to revolutionize if it's good, the goal is to reinvent the wheel, polish it and give consumers what they want."

What the Linux distros of China come in

The Chinese government itself has an official distribution with slight inspiration in the older versions of Apple's MacOS, visually speaking, though, even though it is the "official district of the country," statistics show that apart from government-controlled organs, Only a few users have joined it.

We know that the Chinese government has a very abrupt way of telling people what they can or can't access and there are several reports that there is constant monitoring, so open source systems, where you can watch from source if there are backdoors left on purpose are successful, especially from the specialized audience even though most Chinese users continue to use Windows XP. Tracing can take place in many different ways and does not need to be tied to the operating system, but let's say it's one less concern if you can see the code.

Besides Linux being attractive, another feature that Chinese distros have is their interfaces that aggregate values ​​from several different systems, whether they are proprietary or not, two great examples that we can comment on is Ubuntu Kylin with its UKUI, remembering usability Deepin, which has a "morphing" interface (just like the Power Rangers), and can resemble both MacOS and Windows.

The interesting thing about distributions in China is that you might say that some things are lacking originality, but if there is one thing they do well to solve problems. Whether or not the "lack of fear" of creating or reimagining something that already exists ends up sharpening the concepts around the user experience.

Deepin is a great example:

"- Do users prefer a Windows or macOS look, or something completely different?"

"- I don't know, put them both!"

You can observe problem solving behavior without fear of switching from Deepin in various aspects throughout the life of the distro, it has had several different interfaces until deciding to create its own, it was already based on Ubuntu, today in Debian, it has already launched periodicals, today Rolling Release, have already used extremely colorful icons (very popular in China), today the option of flat icons too, following a more "traditional" design today.

Do users want programs easily?

How about taking all the packages and putting everything in one s repository? Done. Deepin's Repository is so rich with useful applications like Arch's AUR and Ubuntu PPAs together and even compatible with .deb packages, all in one interface where you simply have to click, nothing more.

Indeed, they are not ashamed to repeat and reimagine what has already worked, the result of which is a growing company in China and a system that is beginning to draw attention outside it.

Far from Deepin will be perfect or just right for you, or even Ubuntu Kylin, but what draws attention is that Chinese technology production is already around you and you may not have noticed, computers and components from Asus, Acer, Lenovo? All chinese.

The position of China's distributions to serve the public without worrying about "look, they're copying this or that", it brings (perhaps) exactly what the public (or most of it) wants, ease and beauty. What about WPS Office?

I think it's still early to say that Deepin A DISTRO for desktop, but they are in the way and worth keeping an eye on.

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