Deepin

Overview

Deepin

screenshot	Deepin 23.webp
developer	Deepin Technology Co., Ltd.
family	Linux (Unix-like)
working state	Current
source model	Open-source
released	February 28, 2004
latest release version	25.0.1
latest release date	19 January 2026
marketing target	Personal computing
language	Multi-lingual (more than 30)‡R1R‡
updatemodel	Deepin Software Center
package manager	APT, dpkg‡R2R‡
supported platforms	x86-64, RISCV64,‡R3R‡ ARM64,‡R4R‡ LoongArch64‡R5R‡
kernel type	Monolithic (Linux Kernel)
ui	Deepin Desktop Environment (Qt-based)
license	Free software licenses (mainly GPL)
website	https://www.deepin.org/

deepin (formerly known as Linux Deepin and Hiweed Linux[6]) is a Linux distribution, formerly based on Ubuntu and Debian,[7] that features the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE), a desktop environment built on Qt and available for a variety of distributions. The Deepin userbase is predominantly Chinese, though DDE is in most prominent Linux distributions' repositories as an alternative desktop environment. The company behind the development, Deepin Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of UnionTech (统信软件), is based in Wuhan, China.[8][9]

History

The distribution began in 2004 as Hiweed Linux. In 2011, the development team behind Deepin established a company named Deepin Technology to support commercial development of the operating system.

Reception

The distribution is generally praised for its aesthetics by users and reviewers alike, such as linux.com,[41] Fossbytes[42] and TechRepublic.[43]

CNZZ incident

When Deepin was accused in 2018 of containing spyware through the use of statistics software within their App Store, the company made an official statement clarifying that it did not and would not collect private user information. According to Deepin, CNZZ is a website similar to Google Analytics that collects anonymous usage information such as the screen size, browser and other user agent information to "analyze how the Deepin store was being used, in order to improve it."[44]

On 20 July 2018, Deepin removed CNZZ statistics from the Deepin App Store website due to the backlash.[45]

Performance

Deepin's reputation was that it had relatively high CPU and memory demands when it was still based on GTK and HTML technologies, even when the system was idle.[46] After switching to the Qt-based desktop environment, performance improved, as was noted by Linux.com in its September 2018 review of Deepin 15.7.[47]

Concerns about connections to Chinese government

Radware's head of threat research has commented on concerns about analytics collected by Deepin, and whether these are sent to the Chinese government: while the CNZZ analytics service has been removed, analytics are still collected, now by "Umeng+".[26] According to cybersecurity lawyer Steven T. Snyder, due to the sheer size of Deepin's codebase, it is impossible to really scrutinize all the code comprising it to be sure the Chinese government doesn't have backdoors.[26] The project does remain fully open source allowing anyone to review, modify or change the code to meet their standards.[48]

OpenSUSE removal of Deepin Desktop Environment

On 7 May 2025, the SUSE Security Team announced the removal of the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) from openSUSE Tumbleweed and the planned Leap 16.0 release. This was motivated by a documented history of persistent security vulnerabilities in various DDE components since 2017, difficulties in achieving satisfactory remediation with Deepin's upstream developers, and concerns over the upstream project's security culture. The discovery of a packaging policy violation in the deepin-feature-enable package (introduced in April 2021) that using a "license agreement" bypassed the security reviews and installed unverified components triggered a comprehensive review of the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) that culminated in the removal of the desktop environment from the distribution.[49]

Deepin

History

Overview

Deepin Desktop Environment

Deepin applications

Deepin Installer

Reception

CNZZ incident

Performance

Concerns about connections to Chinese government

OpenSUSE removal of Deepin Desktop Environment

See also

References

History

Overview

Market share

Deepin Desktop Environment

Deepin applications

Deepin Installer

Reception

CNZZ incident

Performance

Concerns about connections to Chinese government

OpenSUSE removal of Deepin Desktop Environment

See also

References