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HarmonyOS is Huawei’s alternative operating system that was created after the company was banned in the United States and lost its Android license. The reality is that the operating system is less of a new alternative and more of a slapdash fork of Android 10, according to a new report from Ron Amadeo at Ars Technica.
HarmonyOS was originally touted as a completely separate operating system from Android and iOS, something that would be just as comfortable on smart home devices (like the company’s Honor Vision TV) as it is on smartphones. . The announcement was a hopeful promise that losing access to U.S. businesses wouldn’t stop Huawei from innovating, but Amadeo’s experience with the beta highlights some disappointing findings:
- Obtaining developer access requires a two-day background check which includes sending copies of your passport, personal ID, and credit card to Huawei.
- You are not actually running the beta operating system in its emulator; it’s served to you, much like Google Stadia, from (presumably) a phone running the beta in China
- More importantly, HarmonyOS appears to be a fork of Android 10 with the word “Android” to search for and replace with “Harmony”
HarmonyOS was probably always going to be the most popular in China, but the fact that the new OS appears to be a continuation of Huawei’s EMUI skin with potentially slower access to Android updates through the Android Open Source project is a strike. major against its use everywhere. other. That might be enough not to offend the US government and satisfy the Chinese authorities, but swift text changes and an invasive application process don’t make for a mouthwatering operating system.
Read all of Amadeo’s detective work on the beta dissection, as well as a few jabs in Huawei’s lint-filled developer documentation for a hypothetical “super virtual device,” at Ars Technica.
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