North Korea’s state-controlled operating system was made available to the public for the first time ever this week, thanks to it being leaked over torrent sites. The last version (Red Star 2.0) was designed to look just like Windows, but for the sequel, Kim Jong Un’s minions have taken some inspiration from Apple and completely redesigned their Linux-based operating system to look just like OS X.
The folks at The Next Web were brave enough to install it into their systems, and discovered the painstaking details Pyongyang went through to replicate OS X. Everything from the dock, menu bars, settings, and even the spinning beachball of doom, have been ported over to the operating system. A few remnants of the Windows copying days still linger, like the ability to run Windows 3.1 apps, but the rest of Red Star 3.0 is full OS X clone through and through.
The Linux-based operating system is the exclusive software weapon of choice with which the People’s Republic attempts to make itself even more independent of the imperialist rest-of-the-world. Although, the North Korean operating system has yet to reach many users, both domestically (in the absence of computer ubiquity) and internationally (because of the strict export and tourism restrictions).
