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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: 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?

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (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) 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.