Hunan, China, Aug. 31, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Open-source operating system project openKylin recently released version 3.0, which made its debut at the 2026 China International Big Data Industry Expo. As artificial intelligence increasingly evolves from standalone applications toward system-level capabilities, openKylin is exploring ways to integrate AI agents more deeply into the operating system environment while extending its open ecosystem to developers and industry partners worldwide.
One of the highlights of the release is KylinBot, an AI agent designed to interact directly with operating system functions rather than operate solely as a standalone chatbot. According to openKylin, KylinBot can understand user requests through voice and text, retain context across multiple rounds of interaction, and use system capabilities to help users perform tasks. By integrating Kylin-CUA, a computer-use automation tool, KylinBot can access capabilities such as system settings and device management, moving AI beyond answering questions toward executing tasks.
The release comes as technology companies and operating system developers seek to push generative AI beyond conventional chat interfaces and toward agents that can understand context and take actions on behalf of users. Microsoft, for example, has been developing similar capabilities in Windows, allowing its Copilot assistant to perform selected desktop tasks with user permission.
Against this backdrop, openKylin is focusing on embedding AI capabilities into an open operating system architecture rather than simply adding another AI application. At the same time, the project is seeking to build a more open ecosystem for AI agents. In addition to the built-in KylinBot, openKylin supports third-party agent tools including openClaw and WorkBuddy, allowing developers to select and combine AI capabilities for different use cases. By providing large-scale AI resources to developers worldwide, openKylin aims to lower the barriers to using AI agents and developing AI applications, enabling continued innovation in an open environment.
Beyond its AI upgrades, openKylin 3.0 continues to strengthen its underlying software foundation. The new version upgrades to the Linux 7.0 kernel, optimizes more than 180 core components, further improves support for hardware architectures such as RISC-V, and expands the use of Rust in some system tools to improve security and maintainability.
These underlying upgrades also reflect openKylin's effort to expand beyond a traditional desktop operating system into a broader range of computing environments. The project is adapting its technology for areas including AI-powered smart devices, industrial automation, embodied intelligence and robotics, high-performance computing and cloud computing, aiming to provide an open software foundation across different computing environments and support the reuse of AI capabilities.
Meanwhile, openKylin is strengthening technical collaboration with the global open-source ecosystem. Community developers continue to contribute to international open-source projects including Linux and RISC-V, with more than one million lines of code contributed. UKUI, a desktop environment led by the openKylin community, has also been included in the official software repositories of 11 major international Linux distributions, including Debian, Arch Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE, allowing technologies developed by openKylin to reach a broader global community of Linux users and developers. Related technical work has also attracted attention from from the president of KDE e.V. and two successive CEOs of RISC-V International, and has been featured and recommended on international developer platforms including Arduino and Conda Forge, further increasing openKylin's technical visibility within the global open-source community.
In serving users worldwide, openKylin has developed a technical framework covering multiple languages, hardware platforms and application scenarios. The system currently supports more than 100 languages for international users, including English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic, while expanding support for regional languages to meet localization needs in different countries and regions. At the same time, openKylin has achieved large-scale adoption in sectors including education, healthcare and meteorology, and has been deployed at scale in overseas markets including Azerbaijan as it continues to expand its international use cases.
As of August 2026, openKylin has recorded about 24 million deployments, around 2.5 million active users and more than 25,000 contributors. The project is incubated and operated by the OpenAtom Open Source Foundation. As part of its efforts to build a global community, openKylin has established a network of international user groups in more than 30 countries and has organized localized community events, technical exchanges and developer training in regions including Africa and South Asia. The community also participates in international training and technical cooperation programs, using open-source technology sharing and talent development to deepen its connections with developers and technology communities worldwide.
"The shift from 'AI as an application' to 'AI as an operating system' is not simply a feature upgrade, but a transformation of the underlying architecture," said Wu Qingbo, chair of the openKylin Technical Committee. "An open ecosystem will play an important role in this process, allowing developers to build and extend intelligent capabilities in a more transparent and secure way while adapting to a growing hardware ecosystem."
As part of its international ecosystem collaboration, openKylin plans to attend the Open Source Summit Europe in Prague, Czech Republic, in October. Through technical presentations, a booth showcase and exchanges with developers, open-source organizations and technology companies from around the world, the project plans to further strengthen its engagement with the international open-source community and explore opportunities for collaboration in artificial intelligence, operating systems and open ecosystems.
As AI models, agents and related tools become increasingly integrated into computing platforms, the role of the operating system is also evolving from a traditional environment for running software into a platform connecting hardware, developers and intelligent applications. For openKylin, version 3.0 represents a further exploration of the role an open operating system can play in the era of intelligent computing — enabling AI capabilities to be discovered, reused and extended within an open architecture, while continuing to evolve through the global open-source community.
Learn more:
openKylin download:
https://www.openkylin.top/downloads/os-en.html
DistroWatch openKylin page:
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=openKylin
Jemma, contact@openkylin.top
