North Korea Linux (Red Star OS) Images
On this page you’ll find all of the images in this review. They are ordered by title.
Hover your cursor over the images to see the title. After you’ve clicked an image, it will load on a new page and you can then navigate back and forth by clicking on the smaller screenshots under it.
-
- Tux, in full communist regalia. Oh my!
-
- The North Korea Linux desktop.
-
- The application menus on the North Korea Linux desktop.
-
- Flash was installed by default, Lady GaGa’s video worked well.
Loading ...
It’s not odd that it’s only available in Korean. They don’t want to spread their communist agenda because of their unique “Juche”-philosophy.
The North Koreans believe they’re not only [obviously] ideologically superior but *racially* superior to all others!
After the Eastern Europeans, Russians and even the Chinese succumbed to capitalism they see themselves as the only one’s strong enough [racially] to continue! It’s sick but true.
They wish to be *fully* self-reliant and having their own OS fits nicely with their philosophy.
This was more of an excuse to make political statements on N.Korea rather than Linux distro assessment. Kidnapping, attacking or invading other countries is just not N.Korean specialty or its exclusive domain, there is a country called US of A, that does it quite well and in far more larger scale, except they call it hearts and mind and liberation. Next time do a Linux review, don’t bring in politics and turn it into a mud slinging fest, we got enough of that on other forums.
Ok Desktop is KDE Classic. So what is the kernel ? How to install aplications ? Where is the package manager ? This Red Star distro base on what distro ? Does is another Ubuntu ? How about repositories ? Any backdor or rootkit built-in ?
It doesn’t surprise me that there isn’t any propaganda – only the party elite would possibly have access to a computer, so there would be no need for any heavy-handed indoctrination.
Moreover, Kim Jong Il and the others in charge of North Korea aren’t foolish enough to think that releasing their own Linux distro would ever endear them to the outside world, nor, I imagine, do they care. Their government seems to be concerned with keeping power, not making friends or influencing world opinion.
And this is exactly how the US media used to portray China and USSR before.
The first paragraph to THIS article was so creepy I decided to skip it.
It read like a 50′s McCarthesque piece.
[...] here to read the rest: North Korea Linux (Red Star OS) | Desktop Linux Reviews Categories : [...]
The worls is going crazy, there are supporters of the North Korea regime? Do me a favor, go live there…
Ok the comments are very strange. Politics? One person described this a Mcartheresque. Really its not strange to say a countries bad when they lock up the manager of the soccer team that didn’t get past the group stages of the world cup. They oppress their citizens, this had nothing to do with bashing the economic system communism but the systemic human rights abuses.
@Arup if you are really comparing the US of A to north korea that really is the most laughable example of populist nonsense you find on the web, and thats coming from a generally anti american socialist.
The Linux community has some of the worst flamers I’ve ever seen.
Anyhoo interesting review and I do realise the limitations of the language barrier but I really would have liked to know about application installation is customasibilty locked down and what are the ‘snooping’ abilities of the OS?
I don’t see this review as political at all. But those of you who are defending North Korea should read this story:
North Korean defectors, victims speak at human rights conference
http://www.examiner.com/romance-travel-in-toronto/north-korean-defectors-victims-speak-at-human-rights-conference
“Young-Cheol Kim and Mi-ran Kim both may have completely different backgrounds but they share the same stories. At the International Conference on North Korean Human Rights, the North Korean defectors discussed their horrifying experiences and escape.
Malnutrition, torture, severe punishment, executions, unsanitary conditions, prostitution, rape, violence, human trafficking, slavery and oppression are the key terms to describe the present situation in North Korea where violations of human rights continue to escalate and human suffering soars.”
Is this the government you want to defend? Seriously? OMFG.
Well Jim, you certainly found another interesting example of software. I cannot say that I will ever be interested in running it, but it was interesting to read about it, and it is also interesting to read the very charged comments from people across many ends of the spectrum.
One thing that we can value, and I hope that we can retain it for a very long time, is the freedom of speech. We have people lambasting even the mention of this topic, criticizing you, then others criticizing North Korea and anything associated with it, then we have some others taking shots at a variety of things.
I can’t say that I agree or disagree with any of them, but what I greatly value here is the freedom of speech and the mere fact that someone like you can evaluate software like this, and people like us can come in here and talk about it, even rant about it. Is that really possible everywhere? I am not sure whether it is or it isn’t, but my guess is that open opinions are not welcome everywhere.
Congratulations to you, Jim, for once again daring to venture into something that’s not popular to think about, but apparently quite a few people will comment on it. I hope that your blog and your forums continue to attract interest. I certainly intend to continue following and promoting them.
As for Red Star OS or whatever we choose to call it, I’ll pass, but I did definitely appreciate reading this piece! :-)
Way to defuse the politically charged atmosphere of the comments by openly attacking yet another country that isn’t even mentioned by name in the article… stay classy.@ Arup:
North Korea Linux is best Linux!
One thing that drew me to read this is, have they developed any programs of their own?
Then I could see myself curious. Otherwise it’s just a distribution, but abit out of age (KDE 3.5 and kernel?).
Oh well, it’s a sad situation in N Korea. Could have been a good contributor to the world, if the regime was different.
Beelzebud wrote:
You may well feel that way, and you are entitled to have that opinion. It simply prompts me to ask, “What makes you feel that way?” What is it about North Korea Linux that leads to to exclaim that it is the “best Linux!”?
I have a number of “best Linux” distributions to suit my needs that depend on what I am doing. I like sidux as an every day cutting edge system based on Debian Sid technology, I like antiX as a lean, fast, and flexible system based on Debian Testing technology, and I like SimplyMEPIS as a simple, rock stable, easy to use system based on a stable Debian core.
I like and use many other derivatives of various types. The Debian varieties are my favorites, but I use Slackware and Red Hat variants too and enjoy them. I’ve recently enjoyed using Absolute Linux (Slackware derivative), Peppermint OS One (Ubuntu derivative), openSUSE 11.3 (long standing system with original roots in Slackware packaging, but well over a decade using Red Hat packaging, very much has its own unique design, very strong in interoperability with Windows, perhaps one of the best in this role), Mandriva Cooker, another system using Red Hat packaging that has been a popular system for well over a decade; I like the Cooker to check out the latest software.
OK, that’s just a hint of some of the things that I like. Now do tell us why Red Star OS, a.k.a. North Korea Linux (as termed by Jim) is “best Linux” for you?
N. Korea Linux is not the only Red linux out there. There are 4 or 5 distros coming out of China with some regularity. One of the is Red Flag.