openEuler brings China's enterprise Linux ambitions to the desktop
CentOS roots give way to homegrown containers, AI tools, and a workstation edition we took for a spin
openEuler, the modern free community version of Huawei's EulerOS, has gained traction as a Linux distro, despite being less familiar to users accustomed to Western enterprise distros. Originally a Huawei project, it was opened up and is now run by the OpenAtom Foundation, co-founded by Huawei and other major Chinese companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and Inspur.
Inspur, which previously developed its own distro, K/UX, contributed to openEuler's development and has since discontinued K/UX. The rise of openEuler can be attributed to the sanctions placed on Huawei in 2019, prompting a closer collaboration between Huawei and other Chinese companies. openEuler boasts a dual-strand release cycle with LTS versions and more frequent innovation releases.
The current LTS version, 24.03, was released in June 2024, while the latest version is 26.09. Various installation ISOs are available, including Offline Standard, Offline Everything, Network Install, and desktop variants. Users can choose from several desktop environments, including GNOME, Deepin, UKUI, MATE, Xfce, and Kiran.
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