Deepin

The project began in 2004 under the name Hiweed Linux ^[3] . It was originally a Chinese community-driven Linux distribution.

In 2011, Wuhan Deepin Technology, which makes the best development of the distribution, became the developer. Since 2014, part of the company's revenue was obtained through program contracts with the Chinese government.

In 2015, Deepin joined The Linux Foundation ^[4] .

Deepin inherits all packages from the Debian database and provides its own repository with popular software such as Vivaldi ^[5] .

Deepin is a strategic partner of CodeWeavers ^[6] . The CodeWeavers CrossOver version comes with Deepin ^[7] .

Deepin uses its own free desktop environment, Deepin Desktop Environment, which has also been added to the package repository of some Linux distributions , such as Arch Linux ^[8] , and Manjaro Linux has a community-supported version of the distribution that comes with the Deepin Desktop environment ^[9] .

Installation

Deepin comes with an easy-to-use installer called Deepin Installer, which was created by Deepin Technology. The installer has clear instructions, so users who are not familiar with Linux can also install the operating system without problems. Deepin also comes with a disk partition manager that allows the user to partition and manage the installation location of the distribution ^{[10] [11]} .

Embedded Applications

Deepin comes preloaded with many open source programs . However, Deepin also comes with other closed source programs such as Google Chrome , Spotify, and Steam . Unlike traditional Linux distributions, Deepin does not ship with LibreOffice , instead it uses the Chinese version - the WPS Office package ^{[12] [13]} .

Deepin also has its own software , such as Deepin Terminal, Deepin Store, Deepin File Manager, Deepin Music and many others ^[14] .

Espionage

In April 2018, Deepin 15.5 was criticized for containing spyware, according to QuidsUp blogger . QuidsUp claimed that looking at the operating system for suspicious requests, he noticed that when sending requests to the Deepin Store , a CNZZ request for further actions would also appear. Upon analysis, these requests from CNZZ seemed to be collected by browser agents and several other user information ^{[15] [16]} . This has led many users and the Linux community to suspect that Deepin provides backdoors for the Chinese government ^[17] . The company made official statements on this issue, clarifying that in the past they did not collect confidential user information and did not collect confidential user information in the future. CNZZ is a web site similar to Google Analytics and collects user anonymous usage information such as screen size, browser, and other “harmless” browser user agents ^{[18] [19]} .

On July 20, 2018 , Deepin removed CNZZ statistics in the new Deepin App Store update ^[20] .

Performance

Deepin is known for its exceptionally slow download speed from repositories by default. Downloading packages from Deepin repositories by default takes significantly longer than for other distributions, which makes the work very slow. In addition to the fact that Deepin is also very demanding on the processor and memory , it easily accepts quite large memory loads even in standby mode. Although this is not a big problem with newer hardware, it can significantly affect performance in older computers ^{[21] [22]} .

The release cycle corresponded to various schedules, but currently it is designed for four issues per year ^[23] . Releases are delayed if development and testing work is not yet complete.

• Debian
• Linux Mint

• deepin.org - official site of Deepin
• Review Deepin 15
• Download Linux Deepin
• Russian site