Huawei officially unveils Huawei's proprietary operating system (Topic)

Huawei has finally officially unveiled its own vision of how the OS should look. The Huawei operating system announced by the Chinese company is called Harmony OS, or in Chinese it sounds like HongMeng. Its release was not a surprise, the company has been working on a proprietary platform for a long time.

Despite the rumors circulating about it, predicting the fate of the second copy of Android, the Chinese OS received its own unique characteristics and, unlike Android itself, has more versatility due to its modular structure.

Operating system in Chinese

Huawei began developing its own analog of android back in 2011. The Chinese manufacturer carefully approached the matter and did not limit himself in terms of time, because at that time and until the beginning of this year, the company had an unlimited right to use the Android platform in its products. Everything changed after the signing in the spring of 2019 of bans on the cooperation of American IT companies with a Chinese brand. The prospect of losing access to Android has become a powerful argument for Huawei to speed up the release of its own OS.

The Chinese replacement for Android is open to third-party developers who can use the platform in their own devices, as well as make changes to it. Along with Android, Harmony OS has an open license, and in the summer it was known that other major manufacturers, including Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, began to test the system.

Key difference from Android

Chinese Harmony OS is a modular platform based on the concept of a microkernel, which makes it possible to connect additional modules to it. This is the main characteristic of Huawei OS, which distinguishes it from its counterparts iOS, macOS and Android, which use a monolithic kernel, which limits the possibility of additional connections.

Huawei CEO Yu Chengdong presented the operating system personally. In his words, the use of the modular concept was not chosen by chance. This is due to the desire to add efficiency, speed and lightness to the branded Harmony OS. According to information provided by Chengdong during the presentation, the main microkernel is responsible only for the basic functions of the system, while plug-in additional solutions bring specific options to it. This method eliminates unnecessary complications, for example, the absence of the need to carry unnecessary lines of code to OS variants for different types of devices.

Universal Platform

In the future, the replacement of Android by Huawei is capable of becoming widespread. And the reason for this will be not only its modularity, but also compatibility with many programming languages and applications.

According to company representatives, the operating system has compatibility with the same Android, Linux and Unix, which makes the process of porting applications to the new Harmony OS easier. In addition, the versatility of the Chinese platform is facilitated by the adaptability of the software solutions themselves, which can work on different devices with the same efficiency.

Further development and possible application

In general, Huawei's operating system is planned as a platform for a wide range of devices, from home appliances to on-board computers. Huawei is planning a gradual rollout of Harmony OS, which will kick off in 2019. The smart TV market will be the first consumer device to use the new OS.

In 2020, the company plans to release the next generation of Huawei OS (version 2.0). The updated system will be supplemented with options for fitness bracelets and smart watches. There will also be a variation of the system for laptops.

Although the final dates may change, the next third modification of Harmony OS (version 3.0) is scheduled for 2021. The system adapts to smart speakers and vehicle on-board systems. Interestingly, the company has not yet said anything about the use of the proprietary OS in smartphones. Although the platform was originally produced for the IoT class, the manufacturer can deploy it to mobile devices "anytime".

The Topic of Article: Huawei officially unveils Huawei's proprietary operating system.
Author: Jake Pinkman