Stock prices of two Chinese Linux suppliers jumped almost immediately after the news broke. Kylin Software and Tongxin Software Technology, better known as UnionTech, were the obvious winners when Bloomberg reported that China has told some government agencies to stop using Windows.
ZDNET, which wrote up the report on August 21, 2026, said Bloomberg attributed the information to China’s Ministry of State Security. The order covers Windows 10 China Government Edition, which agencies are to swap for Chinese-made Linux distributions. Chinese officials cited data security concerns but gave no details.
Microsoft pushed back. “Microsoft is not aware of a security incident affecting this product, which continues to receive regular security updates,” the company told Bloomberg.
A special build of Windows
This is not the Windows 10 many people still run at home. The China Government Edition was developed by C&M Information Technologies (CMIT), a 2016 joint venture between Microsoft and state-owned China Electronics Technology Group. It was built to meet Chinese government requirements: localized activation and updates, certain consumer services removed, and support for Chinese cryptographic standards.
Its retirement had already been scheduled for February 2027. Under the new directive, ZDNET reported, the end-of-life date moves to later in 2026.
Kylin or UOS
The government did not say which Linux versions will take over. ZDNET’s Steven Vaughan-Nichols judged Kylin OS and UnionTech OS (UOS) the most likely, since both were already pitched as domestic replacements for Windows in government, state-owned enterprises and critical infrastructure. Kylin Software sells desktop, server and specialized editions, plus a free open-source version called openKylin. UOS traces its desktop lineage to Deepin and the Debian family. Both vendors have concentrated on government and enterprise work, not consumer PCs.
Huawei’s HarmonyOS is being developed into a PC platform too, but ZDNET said it will not be deployed soon, leaving Kylin and UOS as the only mature desktops ready for institutional use.
The hard part
Switching will not be simple. Agencies face application testing, peripheral and driver validation, identity system integration, document-format compatibility, staff retraining and, in many cases, replacing or adapting software that depends on Windows. The report gives no detail on how this will be carried out.
The directive also has limits. It does not amount to a nationwide ban on Windows in China; Windows Home China 11, a restricted, factory-locked edition, is still available. Nor has every government body been told to abandon Microsoft software. The directive’s scope remains undisclosed.
ZDNET placed the order in a longer Beijing push to replace foreign technology in sensitive systems with domestic open-source alternatives, and in a wider move by non-U.S. governments away from American software.
