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posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the totally-not-full-of-backdoors dept.

nobbis writes:

" Desktop Images from Red Star 3.0, the North Korean Operating System, have been made available by Will Scott a US computer scientist who lectured in Pyongyang in 2013.

Red Star 3.0 is a Linux based OS, whose desktop now closely resembles OSX, possibly influenced by Kim Jong-un who has been pictured with an iMac; although how he obtained an iMac is unclear. Screenshots of Red Star 2.0 and a walk through of the installation of Red Star 3.0 are given in an article in North Korean Tech blog. The 8 desktop images include artillery under snow with magpies, a farming scene with 1960s era tractors, and an unconvincing city view. Will Scott has answered questions about his experiences in Pyongyang on a Reddit ask me anything."

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:14PM

    by frojack (1554) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:14PM (#11007) Journal

    Unconvincing city view?
    Its all artwork, none of it is photography, so why is only that one called out as unconvincing?

    As to how Kim Jong-un obtained an iMAC being unclear, why would anyone expect that to be clear?
    He's the leader of an entire country, he has people who obtain things for him.
    When was the last time anyone saw Obama or Merkel shopping at Best Buy?

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by dotdotdot on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:20PM

      by dotdotdot (858) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:20PM (#11015)

      For the record, he may have an iMac, but he's using a ballpoint pen (in the picture in the article).

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:34PM

        by frojack (1554) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:34PM (#11027) Journal

        I've got 5 computers within arm's reach, and my desk is still littered with pens.
        Its clearly a posed photo, we don't know if it even works, but that doesn't matter.

        The real question is Why did UN want to be seen with a computer, at all?
        Most World leaders are not shown with a computer on their desks. Ever.

        I think I saw One Picture [go.com] of Obama using anything more technical than a telephone.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 05 2014, @12:45AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 05 2014, @12:45AM (#11083)

      It's unconvincing as the view of a city in North Korea.

  • (Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:16PM

    by GungnirSniper (1671) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:16PM (#11010) Journal

    How Kim Jong-un obtained an iMac is unclear.

    This soon-to-be potbellied dictator probably has people just to get him the toys he wants, and in a kingdom where failure can lead to death, they are rather resourceful.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by hubie on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:16PM

    by hubie (1068) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:16PM (#11012) Journal

    Is it a mystery how he got an iMac? Someone from one of their foreign embassies goes out and buys one, puts it in the courier bag? Dennis Rodman bought one at Best Buy and carried it over? I'm not sure why this is worth speculating over.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by bornagainpenguin on Wednesday March 05 2014, @04:06AM

      by bornagainpenguin (3538) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @04:06AM (#11160)
      I'm not sure why this is worth speculating over.

      While everyone in the discussion thus far seems to be focusing on inanity of a dictator of a communist country with a high end luxury computer like the iMac, presumably the original comment was a throw-away in reference to export restrictions on potentially military capable computing. Recall North Korea was mentioned as part of GW's axis of evil as was Saddam's Iraq--and there were all sorts of articles that came out about the ways in which those countries would attempt to leverage common electronics to boost around export restrictions. For instance:

      http://beta.slashdot.org/story/15431 [slashdot.org]Iraq Stockpiling PS2 Consoles!

      In context it's interesting to see how things have changed and yet remain the same...
      • (Score: 1) by AnythingGoes on Friday March 07 2014, @10:54AM

        by AnythingGoes (3345) on Friday March 07 2014, @10:54AM (#12590)

        As long as anyone with money can buy anything at retail - export restrictions don't matter. How hard is it to pay a teenager to buy a Macbook Pro for you?

        Just remember that the computing power that each of us has on our desk is far far more than what was available to the best military/three letter agencies up till 20 years ago and they were using that to do all sorts of top secret stuff etc. And how hard is it to hook up a bunch of PS3/Xbox 360s to be a compute cluster?

        Just like in the postscript to "Sum of all fears" where Tom Clancy talked about how easy it was to purchase a 5 axis CNC machine - seriously easier nowadays to buy even better manufacturing equipment from China.

        The question is how many people in NK can even afford to have a computer and if it would be a catalyst for change, or become just another tool for control...

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:34PM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:34PM (#11028) Homepage Journal

    No one seems to understand that not only does the People's Republic of China not embargo North Korea, it actively assists it.

    North Korea is a lot wealthier than most people understand. They sell the products of their manufacturing, natural resources and the like for the most part to China. They also sell missiles to Iran and the like.

    The reason that the people are so poor and starving is that it has an enormous military. The Korean War never ended; all we ever really had is a cease-fire.

    Much like Mexico, India, Pakistan, Russia and so on, it's not at all that North Korea is not possessed of prodigious wealth, but that that wealth is inequitably distributed.

    For example, Mexico's Carlos Slim is one of the richest people in the world as he owns the Mexican phone company.

    Go watch some Mexican television sometime - Univision or Telemundo - or have a gander at some Mexican magazines. Lots of Tacquerias carry them.

    You will find that the people on Mexican TV and in the magazines do not look at all like your typical immigrant Mexican farmworker.

    Much of the Hispanic world is phenomenally racist; the olive skin of what Americans think is your typical Mexican, is due to their native heritage.

    Castellanos - the Hispanic people for European Spain - were originally just as white as a loaf of wonderbread.

    There are a lot of olive-skinned people in Espagne now, in part due to immigration from Latin America, and in part because Spain was at one time the seat of the Islamic Empire, that is, until the Spanish Inquisition applied the thumbscrews.

    Go visit Alhambra sometime, where the Muslim Emperor used to live. Now compare the countryside around there, the abundance of food, drink, water to wash with the pleasant climate, to, say, downtown Baghdad.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:48PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:48PM (#11036)

      There are a lot of olive-skinned people in Espagne now, in part due to immigration from Latin America, and in part because Spain was at one time the seat of the Islamic Empire, that is, until the Spanish Inquisition applied the thumbscrews

      Yeah... I wonder why Michael Jackson didn't try the thumbscrews skin-bleaching trick... much cheaper and, as Castellanos pure-bred can attest, has a guaranteed effect.

    • (Score: 1) by NoMaster on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:58PM

      by NoMaster (3543) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:58PM (#11043)

      Kinda makes you long wistfully for the GNAA, doesn't it?

      --
      Live free or fuck off and take your naïve Libertarian fantasies with you...
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 05 2014, @02:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 05 2014, @02:40PM (#11339)

      What fool is modding this excrement up?

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by tibman on Wednesday March 05 2014, @12:16AM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 05 2014, @12:16AM (#11074)

    The Desktop Images link is just a bunch of backgrounds. The actual desktop pictures can be found in the NK Tech Blog. It certainly does have a Mac look. Wonder how much NK made and how much is just a downloadable theme?

    --
    SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by T0T4L_L43R on Wednesday March 05 2014, @12:28AM

    by T0T4L_L43R (2169) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @12:28AM (#11078)

    Howitzers in the snow, So poetic. Seriously though, these images give great insight into the mentality of N. Korean leadership.

    • (Score: 1) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:24AM

      by wonkey_monkey (279) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:24AM (#11228) Homepage

      What, that they might be a bit war-y? I wouldn't really call that "great insight."

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Appalbarry on Wednesday March 05 2014, @03:35AM

    by Appalbarry (66) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @03:35AM (#11154) Journal

    Was I alone in assuming that "Desktop images" meant the ISOs for the desktop version of the OS?

    • (Score: 1) by Marand on Wednesday March 05 2014, @07:21AM

      by Marand (1081) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @07:21AM (#11200) Journal

      Was I alone in assuming that "Desktop images" meant the ISOs for the desktop version of the OS?

      Nope, that's precisely what made the link interesting enough to click for me. I thought there would be some sort of interesting story about how the guy smuggled ISOs out of the country, or something along those lines.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by WizardFusion on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:20AM

      by WizardFusion (498) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:20AM (#11226) Journal

      Was I alone in assuming that "Desktop images" meant the ISOs for the desktop version of the OS?

      Me too, I wanted to install it in a VM and see the phone home packets (if any)

      • (Score: 1) by zafiro17 on Wednesday March 05 2014, @11:44AM

        by zafiro17 (234) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @11:44AM (#11279) Homepage

        Me too - was hoping to see what they can do with a Linux system. They don't respcet any international agreements so it'd be folly to think they'd respect the GPL or similar, either.

        I wrote the Dictator's Handbook: a practical guide for the aspiring tyrant (it's free at http://www.dictatorshandbook.net/ [dictatorshandbook.net] and Kim Jong Un and his douchebag father and grandfather are all over it. There are so many examples of ridiculous practice that come out of North Korea, it's almost a shame I didn't get a chance to ridicule their software, too. Probably chose Gnome3 as desktop, wankers (kidding, not even the North Koreans can handle that sort of restrictive desktop environment).

        --
        Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
    • (Score: 1) by JackZ on Wednesday March 05 2014, @03:13PM

      by JackZ (1155) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @03:13PM (#11351) Homepage
      Apparently you can download the iso images here http://www.openingupnorthkorea.com/downloads-2 [openingupnorthkorea.com]
      • (Score: 1) by JackZ on Wednesday March 05 2014, @03:20PM

        by JackZ (1155) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @03:20PM (#11357) Homepage

        Nevermind - that is not a link to download version 3 of the OS.

    • (Score: 1) by oostertoaster on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:42PM

      by oostertoaster (3378) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:42PM (#11536)

      No. I was definitely expecting more than just some desktop backgrounds.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:26AM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:26AM (#11229) Homepage

    possibly influenced by Kim Jong-un

    Influenced? He wrote every line of source code and soldered the chips to the boards with his laser vision!

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk