Embodiments of the present invention provide an operating system establishing method and apparatus. The operating system establishing method in the present invention includes: starting a just enough operating system and enabling a basic application service; acquiring a data selection instruction input by a user, determining a profile providing server according to the data selection instruction, and acquiring operating system information from the profile providing server; and accessing an operating system providing server according to the operating system information, acquiring an operating system copy, and deploying the operating system copy in an operating system container to establish an operating system. In the embodiments of the present invention, hardware and an operating system that are of a terminal are decoupled, which achieves a purpose that a terminal may establish an operating system according to a user preference.