The government of China could launch its own PC desktop operating system sometime in October which could later be extended to smartphones and tablets, in a bid to compete with rival overseas systems from Microsoft , Google and Apple .

The government controlled Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted Ni Guangnan, the leader of China's official OS development alliance, as saying, "We hope to launch a Chinese-made desktop operating system by October supporting app stores." He added that their domestic OS could replace current desktop systems in one to two years, and could do the same for the mobile market in three to five years.

Details of how this Chinese OS will differ from the many Western operating systems are not known at this point. However, China clearly doesn't want to rely on operating systems that are coming from the US. A few months ago, the government announced it would not use Microsoft's current Windows 8 operating system on its PCs due to both security and energy use concerns.

What do you think of China's plans to create its own operating system and could it eventually lock out Western-made software?

Source: Reuters