Details revealed about North Korea’s version of Linux (Red Star OS)

North Korea Linux details revealed

North Korea is known as the “hermit kindgom” for its isolation from the rest of the world. But the country has also been known to be developing its own version of Linux. More details have been revealed about North Korea’s operating system in a report from The Guardian:

North Korea’s homegrown computer operating system mirrors its political one – marked by a high degree of paranoia and invasive snooping on users, according to two German researchers. Their investigation, the deepest yet into the country’s Red Star OS, illustrates the challenges Pyongyang faces in trying to embrace the benefits of computing and the internet while keeping a tight grip on ideas and culture.

North Korea, whose rudimentary intranet system does not connect to the world wide web, but allows access to state media and some officially approved sites, has been developing its own operating system for more than a decade.

This latest version, written around 2013, is based on a version of Linux called Fedora and has eschewed the previous version’s Windows XP feel for Apple’s OSX – perhaps a nod to the country’s leader Kim Jong-un who, like his father, has been photographed near Macs.

But under the bonnet there’s a lot that is unique, including its own version of encrypting files. “This is a full blown operation system where they control most of the code,” Grunow said. The researchers say this suggests North Korea wants to avoid any code that might be compromised by intelligence agencies.

More at The Guardian

The was also an interesting YouTube video that shows what North Korea’s Red Star OS is like:

As you might imagine, The Guardian’s report about North Korea’s operating system spawned a thread on the Linux subreddit. Here’s a sampling of comments from that thread:

Pest15: ”I know it’s fun to point fingers at NK’s paranoia, but let’s be honest for a moment: is Red Star OS really more invasive than what the NSA is doing? REALLY? Give me a break. Only in his dreams could “Dear Leader” have the kind of mass surveillance that is being constructed in some Western countries.”

BurningFox: ”Well, openly controlling a smaller group of people (North Korean hardware and software manufacturers, importers and users) is way easier than surreptitiously controlling a large group of people. After all, your computer doesn’t watermark every file on it, does it?”

Whargarbl135: ”Something worth nothing is that North Korea is totally cool with sending dissidents to gulags, while we’re still only afraid of the NSA because of what they might hypothetically use the data for. I’d rather be spied on by the NSA than the DPRK.”

DaGranite: ”You don’t keep up. Police organizations “reconstruct” evidence from the NSA and other organizations to arrest people and send them to prison. The original covert evidence or even its existence is never known to the defendant and therefore can never be properly defended against. ”

Jones_supa: ”NK has plenty of modern computers available, which seem to be mostly Dell workstations.

The country is connected to Internet, although with a rather crusty link. Only VIPs have access to the global Internet from within NK. General population has access only to the intranet, which provides good amount of useful information resources, but also plenty of propaganda.

There are some public websites that you can visit, for example a nice cooking site cooks.org.kp. 🙂 More can be found by digging around in the .kp top-level domain.”

More at Reddit

Ars Technica reviews Linux Mint 17.3

Linux Mint 17.3 has been out for a little while now, and the reviews have started to come in. Ars Technica has a review that includes the Cinnamon and MATE versions, and considers that Linux Mint 17.3 might be the best Linux desktop OS ever released.

Scott Gilbertson reports for Ars Technica:

Linux Mint 17.3 is the final Mint 17 release and should put to rest any worries about Mint’s plan to stick with Ubuntu LTS releases for its base. Mint has done what it set up to do, namely improve the Cinnamon desktop to the point that it not only matches, but in many places far exceeds the user experience found in other options like GNOME, and especially, Unity.

Indeed, it’s hard to look at Mint 17.3 without comparing it to its upstream base. While Mint has been continually working hard on the desktop and cranking out release after release, Ubuntu has stagnated. If Ubuntu wants to leapfrog past some of its pain points, its developers would do well to look downstream. Mint’s package management tools are simpler, more comprehensive, and easier to use than anything Ubuntu offers. Mint also manages to do all this without anything even remotely close to the resources Ubuntu enjoys.

Perhaps the most worrying thing about Mint is that it’s based on Ubuntu, the future of which looks a lot less bright than it used to. There is of course Linux Mint Debian Edition, but it tends to lag well behind its Ubuntu-based brethren when it comes to updates and polish.

Despite the possibly cloudy future of Ubuntu, there’s no reason to panic on Mint’s behalf just yet. The next major step for Mint will be the transition to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS when it’s released in April of 2016. At that point development on Mint-specific features will probably take a back seat to making sure that everything works with the new base. Once that’s done though, expect Mint to return to focusing on what makes Mint great.

More at Ars Technica

Tidbits about the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge

Samsung has not been idle in its efforts to compete in the smartphone wars. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will be the company’s next big things, and Android Authority has some interesting details about both Android phones.

Bogdan Petrovan reports for Android Authority:

…Samsung will increase the display size of the Galaxy S7 to 5.2-inch, up from 5.1-inch on the S6. There won’t be a similar-sized curved version, however; the Galaxy S7 Edge will measure 5.5 inches, which is slightly smaller than the S6 Edge Plus model that arrived alongside the Note 5 this fall.

Citing anonymous industry sources, ETNews reports that Samsung is preparing an initial production run of 5 million units, split between the two models at a 2:1 ratio: 3.3 million Galaxy S7 units and 1.6 million Galaxy S7 Edge units.

For comparison, unofficial sources said the initial production run for the S6 comprised four Galaxy S6 units for every S6 Edge unit. After consumers reacted surprisingly well to the S6 Edge, Samsung scrambled to manufacture more units, eventually approaching a 1:1 ratio. It looks like Samsung is expecting a milder reaction to the Galaxy S7 Edge, possibly due to its larger size.

It’s all but certain that the S7 and S7 Edge will feature AMOLED displays of Quad HD resolution. The devices will be powered by Snapdragon 820/Exynos 8890 processors (depending on the market) and will come with improved cameras. The Galaxy S7 will also come with a microSD slot.

More at Android Authority

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