North Korea’s Computer Operating System Revealed

Megalith

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Oh look, it’s OS X.

The Red Star operating system makes it very hard for anyone to tamper with it. If a user makes any changes to core functions, like trying to disable its antivirus checker or firewall, the computer will display an error message or reboot itself.
 
The guy....he just doesn't sound like he's very proficient in anything he's doing. I'm sure he's smart and knows a ton more than I do but like....it seems like he's read a quick brief on North Korea and is trying to give an even briefer description of who NK is...and doesn't do very well in my opinion. Then, his entire presentation, he's amazed at how similar Red Star looks to OS X but instead of having another VM running with OS X so he can compare dialog boxes, he just randomly pokes around in the dark. I mean, if you're going to give a presentation, at least do some prep. work so you don't sound like you're winging it.

I was also annoyed simply by the fact that he didn't understand how the OS picked up the correct time but had him in Pyongyang's time zone. Time zone has to be set manually if there's no network connection to reach out to the internet. Current time can just be pulled off the BIOS and I'm confident that's all it was doing. I bet if he went into his system's BIOS and changed the actual time, Red Star would reflect that change.
 
Also, we are talking about North Korea. A country so brainwashed that its people admire Kim Jong in the way religious people admire their God. If your God tells you to replicate something down to the smallest detail, you're going to make it your life's work to do your absolute best.
 
Would still rather run that than Win10.

The reason they don't let you change the settings is they don't want you disabling the spyware.
Everything in Windows 10 would pale by comparison.

This OS likely tracks everything you do and forwards it to their military. Say anything bad about the dear leader and you'll spend the rest of your short life in a work camp.
 
It's pretty smart to run OSX as the OS makes it easy to block most anything you want and if you tamper with settings it will error out till it reboots and re defaults everything.
 
It's pretty smart to run OSX as the OS makes it easy to block most anything you want and if you tamper with settings it will error out till it reboots and re defaults everything.

Except it isn't OSX? RTFA?

It's Linux based, and a quite old kernel at that.
 
I clearly see the resemblance between Red Star, OS X and China's NeoKylin.
 
It is worth saying that the older versions were made to look like windows xp. The change to making it look like macos is on the newer version.

It is a localized version of linux with the clocks as they started with year one in 1912. It also has wine.
 
Also, we are talking about North Korea. A country so brainwashed that its people admire Kim Jong in the way religious people admire their God. If your God tells you to replicate something down to the smallest detail, you're going to make it your life's work to do your absolute best.

Don't confuse subjugation with admiration. Those that criticise are killed so would you criticise?
 
Also, we are talking about North Korea. A country so brainwashed that its people admire Kim Jong in the way religious people admire their God. If your God tells you to replicate something down to the smallest detail, you're going to make it your life's work to do your absolute best.

I would say the admiration comes from their military students and the civilians just try to survive.
 
I didn't say they did, learn to read.

It's pretty smart to run OSX as the OS

Pretty sure you did. Learn to express your thoughts better? Perhaps "it's pretty smart to run an OSX looking OS"?

Considering your comment then continued with:

makes it easy to block most anything you want and if you tamper with settings

Shows that you continued to talk about it as if it was OSX.

So yeah, my reading comprehension is just fine, thank you very much.
 
Don't confuse subjugation with admiration. Those that criticise are killed so would you criticise?

I can't begin to answer that. The American me would rather die than subjugate to that kind of control. If I were a North Korean though, I wouldn't know anything but what I was raised to know. I don't have the curious, rebellious nature that some people have so I would probably be living in ignorant bliss of my great leader Kimmy if I were a North Korean. It's the rebellious and adventurous that defect or are killed.
 
It is worth saying that the older versions were made to look like windows xp. The change to making it look like macos is on the newer version.

It is a localized version of linux with the clocks as they started with year one in 1912. It also has wine.

Well that is certainly going to mess with all the epoch calculations....
 
Pretty sure you did. Learn to express your thoughts better? Perhaps "it's pretty smart to run an OSX looking OS"?

Considering your comment then continued with:



Shows that you continued to talk about it as if it was OSX.

So yeah, my reading comprehension is just fine, thank you very much.

Yea no, still never said it or insinuated they did say it. Everything started with you saying it, so yea... Learn to read.
 
Also, we are talking about North Korea. A country so brainwashed that its people admire Kim Jong in the way religious people admire their God. If your God tells you to replicate something down to the smallest detail, you're going to make it your life's work to do your absolute best.

Wow man, you really have them down pat. :rolleyes: How about you try to live in a dictatorship that says, cry when we tell you to cry or you will die on the spot. Someone needs to get out more.
 
I can't begin to answer that. The American me would rather die than subjugate to that kind of control. If I were a North Korean though, I wouldn't know anything but what I was raised to know. I don't have the curious, rebellious nature that some people have so I would probably be living in ignorant bliss of my great leader Kimmy if I were a North Korean. It's the rebellious and adventurous that defect or are killed.
You completely missed the point... (We need a facepalm emote..)
You were critising NK residences for devout loyalty to their govn. They can't speak out against it.
You.cannot use western values to then defend the fact you cannot understand why you don't hear crtisim from NK... Those that do are either dead or in prison. Is it fucked up? Yes but that doesn't change the fact you don't hear critism and thus you cannot extrapolate that to admiration...
 
Wow man, you really have them down pat. :rolleyes: How about you try to live in a dictatorship that says, cry when we tell you to cry or you will die on the spot. Someone needs to get out more.

Have you seen any documentaries about North Korea? Have you been outside of democratic cultures and interacted with people who weren't raised with freedoms? Sure there are some people that adhere because of fear but, I'd be willing to bet that what appears to you and I as some sort of fantastical façade where people worship a human as a god, isn't a façade at all. Think about it, we, assuming you're an American, have grown up with freedom all our lives. Our government didn't prohibit us from saying anything we wanted and, other than the use of profanity, our family and friends allowed us to say and think anything we wanted. The same with religion, I probably had a dozen different friends, all of whom practice a different faith and it never once seemed odd or out of place. Its just how we were raised and the environment we were raised in.

I've been to Iraq, I've interacted with the people and it's like some sort of weird up is down and down is up backwards ass world. From sun up to sun down you are inundated with Islam. Five times a day you have 10-15 minutes of mosque loudspeakers blaring across the city the days prayers followed by an entire day every week devoted to Islam. You walk down the streets, you see Islam's teachings in the clothes women wear and in the general behavior of people (women walk behind men, women do not initiate conversation with men, etc...). I have absolutely nothing against Islam by the way, I'm just trying to paint a picture. Now, imagine that from the moment you are born, every day you wake up to the sound of mosques and go to bed to the sound of mosques. By the time your 10, you've heard the same preachings nearly 20,000 times. Your mom, your dad, all of your family, all your friends, they all adhere and follow the same teachings. Just as freedom is to Americans, Islam and the Koran is to Iraqis...or at least the people of Ramadi and Al-Qaim.

With that said, how is it so close minded (I'm assuming that's what your insinuating) to think that a society can worship a man in the same way. Kim Il-sung built a powerful propaganda machine for his own population. While it was initially backed by a military that would kill you for defying (and still will), those that obeyed had children and, as parents protecting their children, taught them to take the propaganda as truth and believe that their leader is the most benevolent. We are now on the third generation of the Kim family's rule. The "millennial" generation in North Korea has grown up hearing a very well oiled machine preaching the greatness of the Kim Dynasty (Is that the proper naming?) and how terrible the Imperialist United States is. They've grown up, surrounded by pictures of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il hung above doorways in their homes and every other building they've gone into. Those that have television turn on state sponsored programming whose messages are carefully tailored to the national propaganda machine. Those that have a computer, as the OP attests to, are monitored very closely. I strongly believe that if the time came to remove the Kim family from power, and the world did it in the most successful way possible, the people would still be devastated by the loss of their great leader and you'd have a large portion of the population refuse to believe that the majority of the world, including the United States, is not the enemy.

Another angle, it takes the United States Marine Corps. 90 days to successfully turn 95% of the people that pass through their indoctrination into brainwashed idiots who still hold onto the teachings and beliefs decades after leaving the Corps and being enveloped in civilian world. I still hold onto some of the dumbest behaviors because it's like muscle memory but don't hate on my Corps, Chesty's ghost will throat punch your ass if you dishonor my Corps. :D
 
Have you seen any documentaries about North Korea? Have you been outside of democratic cultures and interacted with people who weren't raised with freedoms? Sure there are some people that adhere because of fear but, I'd be willing to bet that what appears to you and I as some sort of fantastical façade where people worship a human as a god, isn't a façade at all. Think about it, we, assuming you're an American, have grown up with freedom all our lives. Our government didn't prohibit us from saying anything we wanted and, other than the use of profanity, our family and friends allowed us to say and think anything we wanted. The same with religion, I probably had a dozen different friends, all of whom practice a different faith and it never once seemed odd or out of place. Its just how we were raised and the environment we were raised in.

I've been to Iraq, I've interacted with the people and it's like some sort of weird up is down and down is up backwards ass world. From sun up to sun down you are inundated with Islam. Five times a day you have 10-15 minutes of mosque loudspeakers blaring across the city the days prayers followed by an entire day every week devoted to Islam. You walk down the streets, you see Islam's teachings in the clothes women wear and in the general behavior of people (women walk behind men, women do not initiate conversation with men, etc...). I have absolutely nothing against Islam by the way, I'm just trying to paint a picture. Now, imagine that from the moment you are born, every day you wake up to the sound of mosques and go to bed to the sound of mosques. By the time your 10, you've heard the same preachings nearly 20,000 times. Your mom, your dad, all of your family, all your friends, they all adhere and follow the same teachings. Just as freedom is to Americans, Islam and the Koran is to Iraqis...or at least the people of Ramadi and Al-Qaim.

With that said, how is it so close minded (I'm assuming that's what your insinuating) to think that a society can worship a man in the same way. Kim Il-sung built a powerful propaganda machine for his own population. While it was initially backed by a military that would kill you for defying (and still will), those that obeyed had children and, as parents protecting their children, taught them to take the propaganda as truth and believe that their leader is the most benevolent. We are now on the third generation of the Kim family's rule. The "millennial" generation in North Korea has grown up hearing a very well oiled machine preaching the greatness of the Kim Dynasty (Is that the proper naming?) and how terrible the Imperialist United States is. They've grown up, surrounded by pictures of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il hung above doorways in their homes and every other building they've gone into. Those that have television turn on state sponsored programming whose messages are carefully tailored to the national propaganda machine. Those that have a computer, as the OP attests to, are monitored very closely. I strongly believe that if the time came to remove the Kim family from power, and the world did it in the most successful way possible, the people would still be devastated by the loss of their great leader and you'd have a large portion of the population refuse to believe that the majority of the world, including the United States, is not the enemy.

Another angle, it takes the United States Marine Corps. 90 days to successfully turn 95% of the people that pass through their indoctrination into brainwashed idiots who still hold onto the teachings and beliefs decades after leaving the Corps and being enveloped in civilian world. I still hold onto some of the dumbest behaviors because it's like muscle memory but don't hate on my Corps, Chesty's ghost will throat punch your ass if you dishonor my Corps. :D

Not just your Corps, I served from 85 to 91 myself. :) Now that I have been out for 24 years, I do not do a lot of the stuff I used to do when I was in the Corps. I probably eat in the same manner though by habit more than anything.
 
Not just your Corps, I served from 85 to 91 myself. :) Now that I have been out for 24 years, I do not do a lot of the stuff I used to do when I was in the Corps. I probably eat in the same manner though by habit more than anything.

That's one of the things I notice a lot for me as well, feet at attention and being swift, silent, and deadly with eating, lol.
 
Looks more usable than windows 8. :D

I imagine it must be filled with spy stuff though, probably just as bad as windows 10.

Guessing it's probably hard for those people to obtain Linux or anything as well so they pretty much take what they're given.
 
it actually looks quite usable... if linux installed that easily/looked like that maybe people would use it!
 
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