COS (operating system)

COS (China Operating System) is a Linux kernel-based mobile operating system developed in China mainly targeting mobile devices, tablets and set-top boxes. It is being developed by the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISCAS) together with Shanghai Liantong Network Communications Technology to compete with foreign operating systems like iOS and Android.[1] The operating system is based on Linux but the platform is closed source. Security and the risk of back doors in devices from foreign vendors are some of the main motivations for COS. Android had almost 90% of the smart phone market when COS was introduced and Apple most of the remaining market share. COS looks very similar to Android and has its own Application Portal much like Android Market and iOS App Store.

COS
DeveloperLiantong Network Communications Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
OS familyLinux (Unix-like)
Working stateCurrent
Source modelClosed source
Initial release15 January 2014 (2014-01-15)
Marketing targetMobile, Tablets, Set top boxes
PlatformsARM
Kernel typeMonolithic (Linux kernel)
Default
user interface
Several GUIs
LicenseVarious
Official websitewww.china-cos.com

Licensing edit

The Linux kernel is GPLv2 and the COS framework is closed source and licensed by the originators.

Core OS edit

The COS Core operating system is based on the Linux kernel and can be seen as a Linux distribution, in the same way as the Android operating system.

API edit

According to the official statements, COS supports HTML5 based applications and Java based applications.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ BREE FENG (17 January 2014). "China Unveils New Native Operating System". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 February 2014.

External links edit