North Korea's Official 'Red Star' Operating System Borrows Heavily From OS X

[xlii]

Who's to say Apple didn't copy North Korea's version of OSX? As a workers paradise thinking original thoughts and creating new ways of doing things is a way of life there. Plus it is a peaceful law abiding place. Not one of their citizens would ever copy someone else's creation.

 

[BeyondtheTech]

Steve Jobs was rumored to have said he was going to go thermonuclear on Google for them copying iOS into what we now know as Android.

Think Apple would coin the same phrase against North Korea?

 

[Solomani]

Even the North Koreans know what is the best

North Koreans, South Koreans. Mortal brotherly enemies. But they both agree on one thing: Copying from Apple is the way to go.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

All that effort for the ~1000 people in NK who will ever get to use a computer in their lifetime (barring social change)?

Sad and true. Almost no one is allowed online. I have access to more IP addresses than their entire country does.

 

[2457282]

Clearly this is a statement that when it comes to OSs, not even the North Koreans like Windows. They could have copied Chrome, Window, ubuntu, whatever, but chose Apple. At least in this regard, this is totally a compliment.

However, I am sure that they added a ton of filters and spyware so they can track your every move. Trying to go to an unapproved website probably sends a note to their version on the NSA.

 

[Plutonius]

Can we blame it on Dennis Rodman .

 

[johncarync]

I found screen shots of version 2...

 

[powerstrokin]

I bet that is loaded with spyware to track what the people are doing and report back to the local peoples monitors

Just like the NSA does here in the "Land of the Free" eh?

 

[iJohnHenry]

Well here is at least one vendor that we can assume listens less to its customers/users than apple.

I almost choked on lunch.

 

[Solomani]

Can we blame it on Dennis Rodman .

So the rumor is true. Dennis Rodman gave one of the first-shipping Mac Pros as (January) birthday gift to Kim Jong-Un.

Kim: "What this beautiful device?!!"

Rodman: "Your birthday gift, Excellency!"

Kim: "Fantastical! How many megatons power when it explode?!"

Rodman: "No no, Kim. It's not a thermonuclear bomb. It's a new computer. A very advanced one from the States."

Kim: "Oh. I so losing interest already." [hands the Mac Pro to his chief science officer]

 

[luckydcxx]

South Korea copies the phones and North Korea copies the OS. Maybe its something in the water over there.

 

[jm001]

Wow even the calculator looks the same. The movie app icon is a mash of the original iMovie icon and a film canister. Maybe Forstall went over there due to the heavy use of skeumorphism in their icons.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

The User Agreement on this probably states "Click Agree or Die".

 

[lostngone]

Just like the NSA does here in the "Land of the Free" eh?

But... but.. but... but....

It's "okay" that we spy on our people because we are the "good guys"

 

[curmudgeon32]

I bet that is loaded with spyware to track what the people are doing and report back to the local peoples monitors

Thank god that doesn't happen here.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

What does China have to do with this?

The American education system has failed us.

 

[numlock]

I almost choked on lunch.

thats a shame

Wow even the calculator looks the same. The movie app icon is a mash of the original iMovie icon and a film canister. Maybe Forstall went over there due to the heavy use of zoomorphism in their icons.

if so then maybe ive and his thinner evolution can take over in a year or two

 

[keysofanxiety]

The more I look at these screenshots, the more I want to try this OS, just to see what it's like. Anybody got a torrent? (Serious question)

 

[Renzatic]

The more I look at these screenshots, the more I want to try this OS, just to see what it's like. Anybody got a torrent? (Serious question)

Chances are good it's a Linux derivative. You'd probably have better luck getting PearOS, and tweaking the theme a little bit to make it even more OSX-like.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Chances are good it's a Linux derivative. You'd probably have better luck getting PearOS, and tweaking the theme a little bit to make it even more OSX-like.

Cheers matey! My only experiences with Linux distros have been Ubuntu & Fedora, so I'll check this out. Looks good from the screenshots.

I was under the impression it was a ground-up Korean programmed thing, but looking at the screenshots from PearOS, I think I may have given NK a little too much credit ...

 

[ChrisA]

So it has an Apple Mac like look on top of Linux.

That is not far from what Apple did tens years ago. They placed an Apple look on top on BSD UNIX and created Mac OS X which is BSD based. (Actually the project was done at Next, then Apple bought Next.)

Google placed an Android look on top of Linux to make their phone/tablet OS.

NK has made a slightly different mix, a Mac like look over Linux. Linux has an advantage in that it runs on so many different architectures, Intel, ARM, MIPS, S360 and everything else you can think of. Everything from wrist watches to mainframes. I think they picked the best stuff.

 

[krravi]

Apple vs Kim Jong Un. Will be a interesting court case.

 

[Renzatic]

Cheers matey! My only experiences with Linux distros have been Ubuntu & Fedora, so I'll check this out. Looks good from the screenshots.

You've also got Elementary OS, which I thought was an all around excellent distro. It's not exactly OSX-like, but it's definitely inspired by it.

I was under the impression it was a ground-up Korean programmed thing, but looking at the screenshots from PearOS, I think I may have given NK a little too much credit ...

Well, they do deserve some credit. It's a pretty well done clone at least.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I bet that is loaded with spyware to track what the people are doing and report back to the local peoples monitors

And since it's Linux, they're probably using some malicious code from the NSA that let's the NSA spy on everyone, too.

 

[mrgraff]

The more I look at these screenshots, the more I want to try this OS, just to see what it's like. Anybody got a torrent? (Serious question)

I can't vouch for or be responsible for these extremely slow links that I found on Wikipedia, but I'm gonna' give it a try:

"Red Star Linux Disc 1 (.iso) – Bootable installation disc. (720mb)".
http://www.openingupnorthkorea.com/DPRK Red Star.iso

"Red Star Linux Disc 2 (.iso) – Additional supplementary software. (700mb)".
http://www.openingupnorthkorea.com/Red Star Software.iso