| Developer | National University of Defense Technology, Kylin Software, China Electronics Corp's |
|---|---|
| OS family | Linux (Unix-like) |
| Initial release | 2001 |
| Latest release | 10.0 |
| Available in | Chinese, Arabic, English, French, Spanish, and 52 others |
| Platforms | x86-64, ARM |
| Kernel type | Monolithic |
| Default user interface | UKUI (based on Qt) |
| License | Proprietary |
| Official website | www |
Kylin (Chinese: 麒麟; pinyin: Qílín; Wade–Giles: Ch'i²-lin²) is an operating system developed by academics at the National University of Defense Technology in the People's Republic of China since 2001. It is named after the mythical beast qilin. The first versions were based on FreeBSD and were intended for use by the Chinese military and other government organizations. With version 3.0, Kylin became Linux-based, and there is a version called NeoKylin which was announced in 2010.
By 2019, the NeoKylin variant is compatible with more than 4,000 software and hardware products, and it ships pre-installed on most computers sold in China. Together, Kylin and Neokylin have 90% market share of the government sector.[1]
A separate project using Ubuntu as the base Linux operating system was announced in 2013. The first version of Ubuntu Kylin was released in April 2013.
In August 2020, v10 of Kylin OS was launched. It is compatible with 10,000 hardware and software products, and it "supports Google's Android ecosystem".[2]
In July 2022, an open-source version of Kylin, titled openKylin was released.[3]