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North Korean Red Star Linux shamelessly rips off OS X

by on04 February 2014



Emulating another totalitarian regime

Linux is supposed to be all about freedom, so it doesn’t exactly have much in common with North Korea. However, the totalitarian hermit kingdom has its own Linux release for the proletariat and now it got a fresh new look.

According to Electronista, the new Red Star OS ditches the look and feel of Windows and adopts an OS X look. It appears that the Windows 8 UI was a bit too much even for North Korea.

Of course, the OS doesn’t allow people to access the internet, because they may be surprised to learn a thing or two about the Juche hunta ruling the country. It does, however, allow access to the country’s tiny intranet, which is used by a handful of local institutions. It also has a web browser called “Naenara” (My Country) and if you have any privacy concerns, or prefer not to spend the rest of your life in a concentration camp, it’s probably not a good idea to use it too much.

Still, it is rather nice to see North Korea was able to overcome political differences and join South Korean companies in ripping off Apple’s UI designs.

You can check out a screenshot gallery here. Rumour has it that the OS was developed using a MacBook Air left behind in North Korea by American diplomat Dennis Rodman. Actually we made that bit up, but we are talking about North Korea, a country famous for inventing the past, present and future, much like a certain ministry in Orwell’s 1984.

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