Editor's Note:

In today's digital age, the global industrial landscape is undergoing profound transformation, driven by the digital economy. Server operating systems stand as the cornerstone of this evolution, underpinning advanced technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data. Their strategic importance is undeniable; they are not merely the "operating systems" of digital infrastructure but also the "lifeline projects" crucial for national information security and industrial autonomy.

For an extended period, the global server operating system market has been firmly under the control of overseas vendors. Linux-based distributions such as Red Hat and Ubuntu have constructed extensive community collaboration and commercial support networks through decades of technological advancement. Microsoft Windows Server, leveraging its vast enterprise user base, has established a dominant presence in the commercial server sector. These international behemoths have crafted complete ecosystems of "hardware-software" collaborative optimization by deeply integrating with chip manufacturers like Intel and AMD, securing a first-mover advantage in high-performance computing, edge computing, and other emerging scenarios.

However, this landscape is undergoing a seismic shift with the rise of domestic operating systems. In recent years, factors such as the discontinuation of CentOS maintenance and the escalating demand for autonomy and controllability in key industries have propelled domestic server operating systems into a "golden age" of large-scale expansion.

From 'Usable' to 'User-Friendly'

What is even more encouraging is the explosive growth in the market size of domestic operating systems. According to predictions by the China Intelligent Computing Industry Alliance, the relevant market size is projected to exceed 30 billion yuan within the next three years, with the localization rate increasing from the current 35% to 65%, marking a leapfrog development from niche sector substitution to general market penetration. By 2025, the Longxi Community announced that its operating system installations had surpassed 10 million sets. Boasting stable and secure performance along with deeply optimized cloud-native support, it has emerged as the preferred choice for many enterprises in their digital transformation journey. Behind these impressive figures lies a qualitative transformation for domestic operating systems, evolving from "usable" to "user-friendly," reflecting market recognition and trust in autonomous innovation technologies.

The ascent of domestic server operating systems is not only evident in the increase in market share but also in their deep penetration and large-scale application across key industries. In the telecommunications sector, ZTE's New Start operating system has been widely adopted in core businesses such as 4G/5G core networks and big data processing, providing secure and stable network support for operators with an annual shipment volume exceeding 10,000 sets. In the power industry, domestic operating systems have successfully passed the State Grid Electric Power Research Institute's network entry testing and have been effectively applied in key scenarios like relay protection, power forecasting, and intelligent substations, ensuring the stable operation of power systems. In the government sector, security-assessed domestic operating systems, in collaboration with domestic databases and servers, have constructed secure and trustworthy government solutions in regions such as Guangxi and Hunan, laying a solid security foundation for digital government construction.

In the financial industry, domestic operating systems are gradually replacing overseas products and are being deployed in critical areas such as core trading systems and risk control platforms.

Fully Adapting to the Cloud + AI Era

Innovation in 'Hardware-Software Synergy' for Heterogeneous Computing Power Adaptation. Against the backdrop of accelerated digital transformation, computing power demand is exhibiting a trend of diversification and heterogeneity. Different types of hardware devices, including CPUs, GPUs, DPUs, and AI acceleration chips, are working collaboratively, imposing higher requirements on the adaptation capabilities of server operating systems. Domestic operating system vendors have pioneered a path of "hardware-software synergy" innovation through deep collaboration with hardware companies.

The strategic cooperation between Hygon Information and leading domestic cloud service providers is highly illustrative. Both parties have focused on the full-link optimization of Hygon's C86/DCU processors with operating systems and cloud platforms, achieving large-scale deployment in scenarios such as smart cities, big data analysis, and high-performance computing. Survey data indicates that in current enterprise server deployment environments, Hygon C86 virtual machines/physical machines account for 30.51%, significantly surpassing the deployment proportions of non-x86 architectures, public clouds, and private clouds. This deep collaboration of "chips-systems-applications" not only maximizes hardware performance but also resolves compatibility issues in heterogeneous computing power scenarios, providing robust hardware support for the high-performance performance of domestic operating systems.

Domestic vendors are also actively positioning themselves for emerging open-source hardware architectures like RISC-V. The open-source nature and community model of RISC-V are highly compatible, offering a historic opportunity for domestic operating systems to break through traditional technological paths. Domestic vendors are concentrating on key technologies such as compilation toolchains and kernel adaptation. It is anticipated that by 2025, there will be an explosion in demand for RISC-V server scenarios, at which point domestic operating systems will achieve comprehensive support for new open-source hardware architectures, further enriching the diversity of server ecosystems.

Technological Reconstruction Empowered by 'Cloud + AI'. The deep integration of cloud computing and artificial intelligence is reshaping the technological paradigm of server operating systems. Currently, more than one-third of enterprises deploy over 50% of their operating systems in cloud environments, with the proportion of on-cloud deployments for both existing physical machines and newly purchased servers approaching 40%. Meanwhile, the application of AI technologies in scenarios such as data analysis, intelligent operations and maintenance, and resource optimization is becoming increasingly widespread, driving the evolution of operating systems toward "intelligence and elasticity."

Domestic operating system vendors have keenly observed this trend and are making sustained efforts in the "Cloud + AI" integration field. Alibaba Cloud has introduced AC2, a container image tailored for AI scenarios, which integrates the CUDA AI library and mainstream AI framework PyTorch, combined with performance optimization for Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure, effectively enhancing the user experience in fully containerized AI scenarios. The Longxi operating system has achieved full compatibility with mainstream AI hardware ecosystems both domestically and internationally. Its Alinux partner recruitment program, initiated in collaboration with Alibaba Cloud, has collaborated with companies like Ant Group to deliver AI solutions for domestic and international customers.

In terms of intelligent operations and maintenance and resource optimization, domestic operating systems have achieved significant technological breakthroughs. Alibaba Cloud has introduced the OS Copilot interaction engine, Keentune tuning tool, and SysOM operations and maintenance platform, which combine AI algorithms with expert knowledge bases to achieve intelligent operations and maintenance, automatic tuning, and anomaly identification for operating systems, significantly improving resource utilization and system stability.

Enhancing Influence in Open-Source Ecosystems. Open-source has become a core development trend in the server operating system field. Globally, organizations such as the Linux Foundation and Apache Foundation have built global collaboration networks, driving rapid technological iteration. Domestic operating system vendors are actively embracing open-source, transitioning from "code contributors" to "rule makers" in international open-source communities, gradually enhancing their influence.

The vigorous development of domestic open-source communities has provided strong ecological support for domestic operating systems. The Longxi Community has gathered 24 governing units and over a thousand ecological partners, incubated 14 derivative versions, and completed nearly 4,800 software and hardware compatibility certifications. Communities such as Euler and OpenCloudOS have collaborated with the Longxi Community to promote the unification of the Linux 6.6 baseline kernel, reaching consensus on over 1,600 interfaces, effectively resolving the issue of ecosystem fragmentation. This model of "global open-source collaboration + local ecological construction" enables domestic operating systems to fully absorb global advanced technological achievements while innovating to meet domestic industrial demands, injecting a continuous stream of impetus into autonomous development.

Removing 'Obstacles' on the Path Forward

Despite significant progress, domestic server operating systems still face numerous challenges in core technology areas. Kernel key performance optimization is the most prominent weakness, with domestic systems still lagging behind international mainstream operating systems in areas such as multi-core processor support, efficient scheduling algorithms, and system call optimization. In large-scale intelligent computing concurrent scenarios, domestic systems lack sufficient capabilities in efficient scheduling, load balancing, and resource allocation, making it difficult to meet the high demands of AI training, big data analysis, and other businesses.

Currently, domestic operating systems still face technological bottlenecks in areas such as containerization technology, automated operations and maintenance, and microservice orchestration. Compatibility with mainstream container management platforms like Kubernetes needs improvement, and capabilities in container isolation, data protection, and fault recovery require further strengthening. These "last-mile" challenges in core technologies directly affect the performance and market competitiveness of domestic operating systems.

Dual Tests of Data Security and Ecological Compatibility. Data security is one of the core requirements for server operating systems. Although domestic operating systems have achieved technological breakthroughs in confidential computing and data encryption, they still face numerous challenges. Different processor vendors have varying interface schemes for confidential computing implementation, requiring additional adaptation for cross-platform data interaction and affecting the large-scale application of the technology. The defense capability against side-channel attacks is weak, and the operating system layer lacks real-time detection mechanisms for abnormal access to TEE environments, posing security risks to data.

In terms of reliability and fault tolerance, the stability of domestic systems under extreme load scenarios still needs improvement. Tests show that when running 1,000 TEE containers simultaneously, a certain domestic operating system experiences a 50% increase in business delay due to unoptimized CPU scheduling strategies. The insufficient coordination between distributed storage and TEE encrypted data easily leads to secondary encryption errors, increasing operational complexity. These issues pose challenges for the deep application of domestic operating systems in key industries such as finance and power.

Ecological compatibility is another urgent issue to be resolved. Survey results indicate that 33.7% of enterprises are most concerned about the compatibility of operating systems with domestic databases, middleware, and mainstream open-source applications. Due to the varying architectures, interfaces, and driver requirements of different hardware platforms, domestic operating systems lack sufficient heterogeneous hardware compatibility capabilities, making it difficult to fully leverage hardware resource advantages. The construction of open-source community ecosystems is also weak. Compared to mature communities like Linux, domestic communities still lag in terms of developer numbers, technological contributions, and international influence. Standardization of open-source protocols and intellectual property protection require further strengthening.

Conclusion

The development path of domestic server operating systems is a vivid microcosm of China's information technology industry transitioning from "following" to "running alongside" and "leading." From early technological pursuit to today's large-scale deployment, from being constrained by core technologies to continuously enhancing autonomous innovation capabilities, from ecosystem fragmentation to the formation of an "hardware-software synergy, open-source collaboration" ecological system, domestic operating systems have become a key support for safeguarding national information security and promoting high-quality development of the digital economy.

Although challenges in core technologies and ecological compatibility still lie ahead, with the dual driving force of policies and markets, the deep integration of technologies and applications, and the coordinated development of open-source and autonomy, the future of domestic server operating systems is full of promise.