I'm quite surprised that they appear to use a customised Linux distribution rather than build their own from scratch properly. If you look at the East Germany in the 1980s, the various "VEB" state industries were even chucking out 8086 and VAX clones with every component built in the Eastern Block and even cloned UNIX operating systems!
Couple of links to show the scale of their industry back then:
I always found it surprising that certain people and governments from the East condemn the West for everything and anything, while embracing the technologies which were invented and developed in that same West.
I currently live in South Korea. It's interesting to note that I cannot visit any of the DPR government-sponsored North Korean sites. The only way to view content was using Google's cache. Periodic restrictions like this make me appreciate how truly 'open' the internet still is in the United States.
hacker at heart. For those that do not want to bother with downloading installing and possibly being watched by the En Kay via their new installation: found a review on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUnYQyxjv4s in case you want to consider the pro's and con's of this operation system to win8 or osx before you make your switch
"There's a curious quirk on every official North Korean website. A piece of programming that must be included in each page's code.
Its function is straightforward but important. Whenever leader Kim Jong-un is mentioned, his name is automatically displayed ever so slightly bigger than the text around it. Not by much, but just enough to make it stand out."
That part of the article is misleading. It's not Javascript that does it, it's just CSS. North Korea do have a small few websites available to the outside world, so I've taken my example from one of them: http://www.kcna.kp
goHome.do (HTML)
<nobr><span class='spanT'>Kim Jong Il</span></nobr>′s Whole Life Devoted...
One could make an user JavaScript out of this (I guess replacing «span.className= 'kju';» with «span.style.fontSize = '150%';» should be enough) and enjoy the correct typesetting all over the Internet!
Red Star (the OS used on many North Koran PCs) is a Linux distro running KDE3.x and skinned to look like Windows XP.
It's been a while since I've seen any leaked demos of it, but I seem to recall it supporting / running MS Office via WINE. But I might be wrong on that.
[edit] I think I'm mistaken about MS Office. Glancing through some Russian blogs, it looks like it's Open Office. But due to the XP skinning efforts, it looks very much like MS Office: http://ashen-rus.livejournal.com/4300.html
"The readers will be aware of the might of the DPRK that is advancing bravely towards world standard, united single-mindedly around <font style="FONT-SIZE: 17px">Kim Jong Un</font>, supreme leader of the WPK"
Looking at the rest of the code, it seems North Korea has no need for our inferior capitalist stylesheets and favours inline styles. Who knew?!
I actually briefly saw someone using this when I was in Pyongyang recently.
They have mostly older PCs (with CRTs) and the forums are reminiscent of the internet back in the Netscape 4 days. But from what I saw it is very much an intranet that even had a dating forum. But really it is just a toy for the sons/daughters of the elite. See they very much know about the outside world and so this helps them feel like they aren't missing out on something.
Apparently though Indian workers who have been brought in to work on government construction projects e.g. the pyramid hotel can access the 'proper' internet. But I believe the governments sets up a custom WiFi network.
Also since there were no mobile phone towers around I suspect they may have an underground fibre optic network with lots of microcells around.
"Also since there were no mobile phone towers around"
When I was there in April there were people on the streets in Pyongyang using mobile phones (I've got a picture showing it somewhere), so the towers must be there.
This is why we need to keep the Internet as free and open as we can. Progress and innovation happens on the Internet because of that reason. Imagine if the whole Internet was as restricted as the one in North Korea. It makes me very angry that UN is trying to restrict it even a little bit (or maybe a lot) right now. And ironically they say they want to do it to "accelerate" Internet's growth, which sounds very unlikely, and the opposite seems more likely.
[+] [-] meaty|13 years ago|reply
I'm quite surprised that they appear to use a customised Linux distribution rather than build their own from scratch properly. If you look at the East Germany in the 1980s, the various "VEB" state industries were even chucking out 8086 and VAX clones with every component built in the Eastern Block and even cloned UNIX operating systems!
Couple of links to show the scale of their industry back then:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VEB_Robotron
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rob...
[+] [-] Luyt|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pzaich|13 years ago|reply
www.korea-dpr.com/
http://i47.tinypic.com/4zw11v.png
[+] [-] jnsaff2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BasDirks|13 years ago|reply
edit: http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5803379/
[+] [-] vmialik|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mokash|13 years ago|reply
Its function is straightforward but important. Whenever leader Kim Jong-un is mentioned, his name is automatically displayed ever so slightly bigger than the text around it. Not by much, but just enough to make it stand out."
http://mgakashim.com/405/kim-jong-un
[+] [-] laumars|13 years ago|reply
goHome.do (HTML)
kcna.css (CSS)[+] [-] demetrius|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] suhastech|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aj700|13 years ago|reply
We have an actual facebook that various security agencies adore and that is owned by Goldman.
One can make the argument... but I'm not making it. I'm just pointing out a similarity.
[+] [-] paullth|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] laumars|13 years ago|reply
It's been a while since I've seen any leaked demos of it, but I seem to recall it supporting / running MS Office via WINE. But I might be wrong on that.
[edit] I think I'm mistaken about MS Office. Glancing through some Russian blogs, it looks like it's Open Office. But due to the XP skinning efforts, it looks very much like MS Office: http://ashen-rus.livejournal.com/4300.html
[+] [-] IsaacL|13 years ago|reply
"The readers will be aware of the might of the DPRK that is advancing bravely towards world standard, united single-mindedly around <font style="FONT-SIZE: 17px">Kim Jong Un</font>, supreme leader of the WPK"
Looking at the rest of the code, it seems North Korea has no need for our inferior capitalist stylesheets and favours inline styles. Who knew?!
[+] [-] eloisius|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mokash|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] taligent|13 years ago|reply
They have mostly older PCs (with CRTs) and the forums are reminiscent of the internet back in the Netscape 4 days. But from what I saw it is very much an intranet that even had a dating forum. But really it is just a toy for the sons/daughters of the elite. See they very much know about the outside world and so this helps them feel like they aren't missing out on something.
Apparently though Indian workers who have been brought in to work on government construction projects e.g. the pyramid hotel can access the 'proper' internet. But I believe the governments sets up a custom WiFi network.
Also since there were no mobile phone towers around I suspect they may have an underground fibre optic network with lots of microcells around.
[+] [-] EliRivers|13 years ago|reply
When I was there in April there were people on the streets in Pyongyang using mobile phones (I've got a picture showing it somewhere), so the towers must be there.
[+] [-] yequalsx|13 years ago|reply
North Korea is probably the most evil regime in the world. Going there as a tourist supports this regime and as such is profoundly immoral.
[+] [-] leoh|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mtgx|13 years ago|reply