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I used North Korea's leaked Linux distribution, and it still has secrets a decade later
Quoting: I used North Korea's leaked Linux distribution, and it still has secrets a decade later —
North Korea is an interesting country to look at from a technology perspective. Under the regime, its citizens are entirely cut off from the outside world, and entry to the country is severely restricted; all that we know is essentially pieced together from a combination of satellite imagery, defectors from the nation, and reports that can often be contradictory. That's why Red Star OS 3, a Fedora-based Linux distribution developed by North Korea, is especially fascinating. It's a rare glimpse into an otherwise largely unknown world, and I set it up in a virtual machine.
Of course, Red Star OS 3, the version we're showing off here, leaked just shy of a decade ago. In fact, its successor Red Star OS 4 is apparently based on Ubuntu, though that particular version has found its way into the hands of few journalists and can't be downloaded publicly. Given that a decade has passed, and there's no shortage of information about Red Star OS 3 these days scattered across the internet, I felt it was worth exploring to highlight some of the most peculiar aspects of the operating system, and what it shows about the reclusive country that we otherwise know little about. It turns out there's more to find yet, as I discovered some functionality that I hadn't seen reported elsewhere.