In the beginning, when the Jiangnan Group announced its foray into the computer operating system market, almost everyone dismissed it as a waste of money. Microsoft's reign was seemingly unshakeable, even after the ransomware incident; it remained unshakeable.
However, when the Jiangnan Group's personal computers began to be sold, while Microsoft's reign was still unshakeable, the curious onlookers were surprised to find that the Jiangnan Group actually had a chance to make a crack in it.
The monopoly of the Windows system was mainly reflected in two aspects: one was the monopoly in hardware, where almost all computer hardware was adapted for the Windows system.
But conversely, if the system was developed with active hardware adaptation, then the hardware monopoly could be overcome on some levels. For example, the Linux system, if you don't mind your computer crashing a few times a day, you can still switch to this free new system for your computer.
However, the Lingyun system from the Jiangnan Group directly abandoned this only possibility of breaking the hardware monopoly, because they actually released their own set of hardware adapted to their own system.
This meant that if users wanted to change the system, they would have to replace most of the hardware in their computers. The Lingyun system directly sealed its own path in terms of hardware, which was why most onlookers were not optimistic about the Lingyun system.
The hardware monopoly aside, the other aspect of the Windows system's monopoly was truly an ironclad empire, and that was the monopoly in software.
Apart from Apple's own software, almost all software worldwide was developed around the Windows system, and this software could only be installed on the Windows system.
The official release of the Linux system's most primitive version had a small number of programs installed with a delay. But due to the flexibility of Linux, users could modify the system themselves, and with Windows system virtual mapping packages, Windows programs could be used on the Linux system.
However, this posed a copyright issue, which was a direct infringement of Microsoft's rights. Therefore, the official channels could not carry out such modifications; it required users to do it themselves.
But 99% of users would never modify a computer system themselves, so Linux had always been just a tool loved by geeks, never a mainstream system.
However, the Lingyun system released by the Jiangnan Group found a way to partially break the monopoly of the Windows system in software by directly porting the entire suite of applications from their own Lingxiao system on terminals to the computer.
Just as Microsoft had established a strong software monopoly on computers, the Jiangnan Group had also established a strong software monopoly on terminals, and this monopoly was even more exaggerated than Microsoft's.
This was because all terminal apps were developed around the five-digit system, and currently, no company in the world other than the Jiangnan Group could master the five-digit system. Even though a US laboratory announced two years ago that they had mastered the technology to manufacture five-digit chips, it would still take time to transform the technology into actual products.
Moreover, ever since the technology was announced, there had been no further news.
Also, due to the nature of personal terminals, the number of personal terminal users quickly surpassed the number of personal computer users. Currently, there are over 6 billion terminal users worldwide.
This is a staggering number, meaning that except for some populations in Africa and a very small number of impoverished people in other countries, almost everyone in the world has a terminal.
This has led to the number of programs developed for terminals now exceeding the number of programs developed for personal computers. And most well-known programs on computers also have terminal versions. Almost all large-scale program development involves two parallel development lines, requiring the development of programs for both platforms.
Most programs available on the PC platform are also available on the terminal platform.
However, most programs available on the terminal platform are not available on the PC platform.
When the Jiangnan Group started developing the Lingyun system, they decisively drew out more than half of the core development personnel from the Lingxiao system to form the Lingyun system development team.
It was obvious that Lingyun and Lingxiao were twins, with almost identical underlying architectures. The only difference was specific usage and display optimizations for PC display effects, making the system more suited to PC operating habits.
Therefore, the programs developed for terminals could be migrated to the Lingyun system with almost no porting required.
The biggest problem was likely that Lingxiao system programs were designed to cater to the terminal display, and could not achieve perfect display effects on PC monitors.
Additionally, in terms of operation, it was touch-screen based, which was quite different from mouse and keyboard operation.
Therefore, the Lingyun development team invested almost all their energy into the intelligent conversion of terminal programs for display and operation on computers.
Finally, after five years of development, they created an intelligent AI with a very complex operating logic, which could automatically convert most Lingxiao system apps into versions usable on the Lingyun system.
Of course, this intelligent AI could not achieve complete conversion, and each program still required manual adjustments. However, the Jiangnan Group was already communicating with some program developers, asking them to develop Lingyun system versions for their programs.
This version would not require excessive effort; it would simply involve copying the logic of the original PC version to the Lingyun version.
However, this was still a troublesome task for these program development companies, and many of them explicitly stated their reluctance to undertake such an effort.
Then, the Jiangnan Group directly stated that if companies were willing to create dedicated Lingyun versions of their programs and pass Jiangnan Group's technical verification, they would receive an additional approximately 5% rebate during monthly settlement of app store revenue sharing.
As a result, all companies immediately pledged their willingness to develop dedicated versions for the Lingyun system to support its development.
Thus, the Lingyun system successfully opened a gap in the software monopoly, possessing a massive number of applications from its inception, even exceeding the total number of applications on the Windows system.
Although most of these applications were somewhat inconvenient to use on a PC, the crucial point was that with these programs available, the Lingyun system possessed the capital to compete with the Windows system.
After all, the past behavior of the Windows system had thoroughly disgusted all users. Many were willing to endure a less ideal future computer experience rather than continue using a system that could potentially turn all their important technical data into meaningless bits at any moment.
Although this might require purchasing a new set of computer hardware, computers, in general, require upgrades of various internal components every few years.
Furthermore, according to various data released by the Jiangnan Group, the hardware data corresponding to the Lingyun system was no less than that of Microsoft's hardware. For the most critical computer chips, the highest-performing chip among the five different models corresponding to the Lingyun system had a comprehensive performance that surpassed Intel's highest-performing chip by 20%, while its price was conversely 20% cheaper, resulting in a 40% superior cost-effectiveness.
The other four models were also similar, all performing better than their comparable Intel chips while being more affordable, which sparked a desire for upgrades among many computer enthusiasts. This was also why the first batch of Lingyun-related hardware was immediately sold out.
The cost-effectiveness was overwhelmingly superior to the competition, and there were also some users brave enough to try new things. As for the final outcome, it would depend on the actual user experience.
In response, Microsoft, which had always been wary of its own backdoors and had only released one relevant announcement, quickly responded through a high-ranking executive in the media, urging users to exercise caution when purchasing new systems and products on the market.
This was because these products were new, lacked any accumulated design experience, and were simply ported from a completely different product platform.
In their view, computers might just be large personal terminals, not computers, and therefore the user experience would inevitably be very poor.
Faced with this argument, most users were in strong agreement. This system platform, ported from personal terminals, indeed looked quite unreliable.
This was why review videos were going viral online; the general users were very eager to know whether the new system and hardware introduced by the Jiangnan Group were truly reliable.
This was probably the general view of the entire international market towards the Lingyun system: cautiously welcomed, but largely not expected to succeed. Microsoft's reign, though shaken, had only wobbled slightly; it remained, overall, unshakeable.
However, in China, a market that had been unshakeable for Microsoft, it had been completely broken.
In February 2016, Fantasy Computers, plagued by declining sales and struggling to formulate its latest quarterly financial reports, finally received a rare piece of good news: the previously suspended orders showed signs of loosening.
Many companies and organizations that had placed orders proactively contacted Fantasy Computers, stating that their previous orders could still proceed, but due to orders from above and serious concerns about the Windows system, they would no longer accept any computers with Windows pre-installed. They hoped Fantasy Computers would instead provide them with computers equipped with the Lingyun system.
If Fantasy Computers could agree, the previous orders could continue. Otherwise, they would have to seek other computer suppliers capable of providing complete Lingyun systems.