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Huawei prepares to split from Android on consumer devices with HarmonyOS Next
- hunglee2 3y agoChina de-risking from US controlled internet is really ambitious - if they pull it off, it might become the only country that achieves digital sovereignty. I expect Russia, Iran and other designated enemies of the US to try and follow suit but no other has the domestic market size to pull it off. Whatever, we think of the geopolitics, it's a fascinating experiment
- O1111OOO 3y ago> I expect Russia... Doesn't Russia have Aurora OS (from Sailfish)?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_OS_(Russian_Open_mobile_platform)?useskin=vector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_OS_(Russian_Open_mobile... I'm not sure how successful it's been.
- hunglee2 3y agoRussia for sure have to try it, but lost all of their manufacturing outside of military after post Soviet collapse. Don't see anyone else who could do it
- vachina 3y ago> enemies Make friends not enemies
- pjmlp 3y agoOthers will follow along, as I don't expect EU and US to be cozy friends forever. RISC-V moved into Switzerland to protected themselves against US politics.
- O1111OOO 3y agoCause and effect. We tell a country you can no longer use our toys. You've been sanctioned! They develop their own toys that threaten to infiltrate us and the rest of the world - much in the same way the original toys do. We forced them to learn to fish on their own. They are no longer bound to us. Maybe Michael Corleone was right when he said... "keep your friends close but your enemies closer."
- tianqi 3y agoThey didn't develop their own toys, they just stole the toys that others open-sourced. Considering that this behavior is not market driven, although a special(if not monstrous) ecosystem could be formed, I don't think the quality of the apps in that system is sufficient for it to expand into any normal market.
- deadbolt 3y agoThey stole open-source software?
- threeseed 3y agoDo you see them complying with the terms of the GPL ?
- charleslmunger 3y agohttps://consumer.huawei.com/en/opensource/detail/?siteCode=worldwide&productCode=Smartphones&fileType=openSourceSoftware&pageSize=10&curPage=1 https://consumer.huawei.com/en/opensource/detail/?siteCode=w...
- Barrin92 3y agoI love how the general tone is "information is free!" unless of course when the one benefitting from it is China, in which case everyone suddenly gets out their magnifying glasses and GPL licenses. For what it's worth in practical terms, I can't tell you if everyone in China complies with every license, but Huawei is one of the largest contributors to the linux kernel and several open source projects. https://news.itsfoss.com/huawei-kernel-contribution/ https://news.itsfoss.com/huawei-kernel-contribution/
- Dalewyn 3y agoEvery time I see these kinds of achievements from the Chinese, I am vindicated when I tell the Chinamageddon hysterics to stop wasting my damn time and go get bent[1]. Now yes, there's probably a whole damn lot of artistic license and hot air in these achievements, but the old saying goes that smoke doesn't rise where there is no fire. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39108542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39108542
- threeseed 3y agoIt isn't an achievement to fork an existing OS. North Korea has done this. And if you look at the videos of HarmonyOS the UI is clearly ripped off from Apple. What's important is whether you can innovate and build something compelling not just copy.
- tjpnz 3y agoAt the very least it's guaranteed to be innovative and compelling to the CCP.
- tw04 3y ago>Every time I see these kinds of achievements from the Chinese, I am vindicated when I tell the Chinamageddon hysterics to stop wasting my damn time and go get bent[1]. So you've decided to completely ignore their birth rate numbers? Because "achievements like these" will mean absolutely nothing for their capitalist economy when their population shrinks to 25% of current numbers. And that's ignoring the whole fact that the second they stop being a cheap source of labor, the west will look elsewhere (which they've already started to do). You can't "centrally plan" your way out of young people not wanting to reproduce.
- shiroiuma 3y agoDon't be ridiculous. They can easily mitigate the birthrate issue by bringing in lots of immigrants. Billions of people would absolutely love to live in China! /s
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- danpalmer 3y agoIt's not clear whether this will be Android API compatible? If it's not, I'm sure it'll be successful given the size of the local market, but it's going to create a real schism for services – will Netflix produce a HarmonyOS app? Maybe that won't be a problem, but it'll probably further cement the separate Chinese ecosystem on the web, and create more work for local companies who will now need to support 3 mobile platforms. If it is Android compatible, those issues will go away and I could see this taking off externally. Huawei phones are popular in many countries (not the US) as they're cheap and reasonable quality for the price, even if they have had scandal after scandal. Many consumers won't really care about the backstory. Edit: sounds from other comments like it will not be Android API compatible.
- throwaway5959 3y ago> Huawei phones are popular in many countries (not the US) as they're cheap and reasonable quality for the price, even if they have had scandal after scandal. Many consumers won't really care about the backstory. Sounds like they’re cheap in price but high in cost.
- y2k38 3y ago[flagged]
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- OleksiiA 3y agoHarmonyOS will not support Android apps accordingly to the latest news. So, know you have to "only" build thousands of apps to be on par with iOS and Android. I'm pretty sure there will be at least major China apps like TikTok and WeChat. Will there be Google Maps? Messenger? Probably not in the nearest time. Might end up in the same place as BadaOS, webOS, Windows Phone OS and others.
- Osiris 3y agoThis is exactly the problem Windows Phone had. Many reviewers said they liked the operating system but that there just weren't any apps for it.
- danpalmer 3y agoHN: Building an OS is the easy part, it's building the ecosystem that is the hard part. Also HN: Apple want to charge HOW MUCH for building an ecosystem?!
- fyrn_ 3y agoApple were a first mover, Not the same thing at all
- danpalmer 3y agoA first mover in what exactly? I think Palm and Symbian would argue they were earlier movers in the space and tried to build ecosystems. To be clear, I don't really lean to one side or the other on this, I just find it interesting that both of these are common views to hold.
- dylan604 3y agohow does that affect the fact that Apple invented the entire ecosystem for you to try to monetize your clone of candy crush?
- jchw 3y ago
- animanoir 3y agoAccidentally I bought a Huawei device and it was really annoying to use. Ditched it for an iPhone with no regrets
- jauntywundrkind 3y agoIt would be lovely if anyone could bother assessing HarmonyOS on the grounds it takes itself on, rather than these endless vapid articles discussing it only as it compares to Android. HarmonyOS begat China's first ministry of open source, where all the big names lined up behind OpenAtom foundation, to carry the work forward. There's ongoing efforts in tons of sectors to use the technology: mobile of course, but also in-vehicle, medical, energy and industrial. There's a neat LiteOS based low kernel that integrates with the ecosystem,Linux, and now microkernels that can run Linux compatibility layers semi-alooe Fuschia. The UI system is a pretty interesting thing extending TypeScript, ArkUI, with a very complete integrative ark tool. What I find really unique and compelling is the DSoftBus, which is a kind of semi-automatic distributed object layer that apps more or less get built on by default. In theory, it should be a fantastic uniquotous & pervasive computing layer, where apps and devices by default can be accessed and controlled without the app or controller having to custom code the effort; many of the advantages of something like grpc but with automatic networking & not having to think about the effort, with distributed objects being more normal. The Android story is so boring. Android is boring. Android has done almost nothing of interest for a decade anyways: like most OS it is still & subservient, barely present, letting apps run the show. It's such a boring story to discuss HarmonyOS on compare to another boring unmoving bland OS doing nothing. HarmonyOS has some interesting actual change its working for, and we should be actually diving into that, rather than this persistently bland ass coverage. Even The Reg fails to unearth a single notable useful thing to say. I wish coverage were better. Alas Huawei requires a passport photo & bank information to sign up for the very powerful dev account. There's the OpenHarmony code available on the state run gitee, but there's very little help on how to assemble & turn the dozens of repos into anything usable, alas. And it seems like HarmonyOS Next is much more prosperity than the OpenAtom OpenHarmony efforts, further confounding assessment. Still, it seems like while some layers like the kernel might change, it seems like continuity will be maintained on many levels like DSoftBus and ArkUI. It'd be worthwhile to actually dig in & understand merit here, especially given how bereft & unmoving OSes have been on all other fronts; Android support is not particularly interesting. https://gitee.com/openharmony https://gitee.com/openharmony
- pjmlp 3y agoAndroid was interesting in the begining (minus Google screwing up Sun and not being there to collect the prize), however the way they started pushing Kotlin while bashing Java (which Kotlin depends on to exist, alongside Android Studio and Gradle, what an irony), kind of killed by motivation about the platform.