vstars Chapter 271 Huaxia System Project
Chapter 271 Huaxia System Project
Wang Jianguo pushed up his glasses and took out a stack of documents from the canvas bag he carried with him.
"Mr. Ling, let me first give you a brief overview of the situation." His voice was a little hoarse, with a distinct Shandong accent. "The Huaxia System project was initiated in 1995 with the initial goal of developing an independently controllable Chinese operating system. At that time, domestic operating systems were completely dependent on foreign countries, from DOS to Windows, all of which were American products. We felt that this wouldn't work; we were technologically dependent on others, and there were also security risks."
He opened the first page of the document, which contained a hand-drawn system architecture diagram.
"We chose Linux as the base because it is open source and can be freely modified. Over the past three years, we have mainly done a few things: First, kernel localization. This is not a simple interface translation, but rather support for GB2312 and GBK standards at the encoding level to solve the problem of garbled Chinese characters. Second, driver framework. We designed a driver abstraction layer to facilitate adaptation by hardware manufacturers. Third, graphical interface. We developed a simple desktop environment based on X Window, although it is still very rudimentary."
He handed over several printed screenshots. Ling Yun took them; the edges of the papers were already frayed.
"The current version is V0.8, which can be installed and run on PCs with a 386 processor or higher. It supports common Chinese software such as WPS and CCED. The system is quite stable; we conducted a 72-hour stress test and it did not crash."
"What about the users?" Lingyun asked. "Are there any actual users?"
Wang Jianguo paused for a moment. "It's mainly being used internally within the Institute of Computing Technology, and there are a few collaborating units as well. The total number... is about one or two hundred people."
"What's the feedback?"
"Everyone says...it works," Wang Jianguo carefully chose his words, "but compared to Windows, the gap is huge. The interface is not aesthetically pleasing, there are few software options, and hardware compatibility is also limited."
"What's the team's situation?"
"Nineteen people, all here." Wang Jianguo pointed to the opposite side, "Two researchers—myself and Lao Li, three associate researchers, and fourteen engineers. The average age is forty-two, the youngest is thirty-one, and the oldest is fifty-four." He paused, "They are all veterans from the Institute of Computing Technology, and they have been working on this project for three years."
"What about the funding?"
"The total investment was 820,000 yuan, funded by the state. It was all spent last October, and now we're just surviving on basic salaries paid by the Institute of Computing Technology." Wang Jianguo's voice lowered. "The institute's leaders said that if we can't find a new source of funding by the end of March, the project will have to be stopped, and the staff will be reassigned to other research groups."
Ling Yun flipped through the documents in his hand. The paper had become soft from repeated handling, and the edges were curled. There were handwritten annotations on it, the handwriting neat, and some places were marked with questions in red pen.
"Can I take a look at the technical documentation?" he asked.
Wang Jianguo took out three thick folders from his bag. The covers were wrapped in kraft paper, with the words "Huaxia System Technical Documents (Volume 1) (Volume 2) (Volume 3)" handwritten on them. The paper was old-fashioned printing paper with torn edges.
Ling Yun opened the first volume. The table of contents was handwritten, with clear entries:
Chapter 1 Kernel Modification Record
1.1 Chinese encoding support
1.2 Memory Management Optimization
1.3 Process Scheduling Adjustment
Chapter 2 Driver Framework Design
2.1 Abstraction Layer Interface Definition
2.2 Example Driver Implementation
……
He quickly flipped through it. The content was very detailed, with code snippets, flowcharts, and test data all included. The comments were written very carefully, explaining not only the functionality but also the design rationale and the reasons for the choices made.
"Who wrote these documents?" Ling Yun asked.
"Let's all work together," Wang Jianguo said. "Each person is responsible for a part, and we'll compile the final draft."
"The annotations are very detailed."
"We're afraid future generations won't understand," said Old Li, who sat next to Wang Jianguo. He looked older, with completely white hair. "Our generation may not be able to create perfect products, but at least we should leave a complete record. That way, when others continue the work, they'll know which pitfalls we encountered."
Lingyun closed the document. The kraft paper cover had become smooth from being touched so often.
"I have a question," he said. "If you were given enough funding and hardware resources right now, what would you most like to do next?"
After the question was raised, there was a brief commotion in the meeting room. The team members looked at each other, then their eyes focused on Wang Jianguo.
Wang Jianguo took a deep breath. "Three things. First, rewrite the graphical interface. The current one is too rudimentary and provides a poor user experience. We need a modern desktop environment that is easy to use, aesthetically pleasing, and stable."
"And the second one?"
"Secondly, we need to build an application ecosystem," Wang Jianguo said. "Operating systems are not isolated; they require software support. We want to develop a set of basic applications—a file manager, a text editor, a browser, and an email client. We also need to establish a development toolchain to attract third-party developers."
"third?"
"Third, hardware compatibility." Wang Jianguo raised his voice slightly. "Currently, the drivers for domestically produced PCs—motherboards, graphics cards, and sound cards—are all written for Windows. We need to collaborate with hardware manufacturers to develop official drivers for the Huaxia system. This is a huge project, requiring a significant investment of manpower and testing equipment."
After he finished speaking, the conference room fell silent again. Everyone looked at Ling Yun.
Ling Yun did not respond immediately. He stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and picked up a marker.
"Teacher Wang, everyone," he drew a simple coordinate system on the whiteboard, "the horizontal axis is time, and the vertical axis is technical difficulty. You are currently located here—" he pointed to a point in the lower left corner, "and the location of the Star System is here—" he drew another point in the upper right corner.
"The Star System?" Wang Jianguo asked in confusion.
"The operating system I developed in Silicon Valley," Ling Yun said. "It has a modern graphical interface, a complete development toolchain, and an application ecosystem that is currently being built. It currently has over 100,000 users, mainly in North America and Europe."
A collective gasp filled the conference room.
"Did you create the Star System?" Wang Jianguo's voice trembled.
"Yes," Ling Yun put down his pen, "I developed the kernel of the Starry Sky system, and we use the Starry Sky Browser for the graphical interface, which is simpler than Windows 95. The browser is our self-developed Starry Sky, and its performance is better than Netscape and IE. The development tools have complete SDK and API documentation. But—" he paused, "we're missing two things."
"What?"
"First, in-depth optimization of the Chinese environment," Ling Yun said. "The Starry Sky system supports multiple languages, but Chinese processing is a weakness. Font rendering, input methods, and typesetting engines all need special optimization."
"Secondly," he looked at Wang Jianguo, "a domestic team that understands the grassroots, understands the systems, and has passion."
The meaning is quite clear at this point.
Wang Jianguo's team members exchanged glances, and some nervously licked their lips.
"What does President Ling mean...?" Wang Jianguo asked tentatively.