Huawei has officially unveiled its new operating system – HarmonyOS at the annual Huawei Developers Conference in Dongguan, China. HarmonyOS has been in development since 2017 and the first product running it will be unveiled by sub-brand Honor, according to the company’s CEO, Richard Yu.
The goal with the new OS is to provide an open-source platform capable of running on a wide range of devices that range from smartphones to smart wearables, TVs, tablets, laptops, and even cars.
A modularized #HarmonyOS can be nested to adapt flexibly to any device to create a seamless cross-device experience. Developed via the distributed capability kit, it builds the foundation of a shared developer ecosystem #HDC2019 pic.twitter.com/2TD9cgtdG8
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) August 9, 2019
HarmonyOS is a microkernel-based operating system which means it will use as few resources as possible. It’s open-source comes with a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) for improved security across all devices. The Arc compiler in HarmonyOS supports all the major programming languages including C/, C++, Java, JavaScript, to name a few.
While theoretically, HarmonyOS can replace Android, for now, the company will stick to Google’s software on its smartphones for the sake of users and Google’s extensive app portfolio according to the company’s CEO.
However, according to Richard Yu, if more complications arise the users will be able to migrate to the new OS in a matter of days. HarmonyOS, in terms of app support, will eventually support all Android apps as well as HTML5 and Linux based ones.
Ultimately, the goal of Harmony is to take on Android and become a “global operating system” in the future. The company will provide dev kits to its partners to immediately begin developing compatible apps and speed up the process of integration for the new operating system.
Ram found his love and appreciation for writing in 2015 having started in the gaming and esports sphere for GG Network. He would then transition to focus more on the world of tech which has also began his journey into learning more about this world. That said though, he still has the mentality of "as long as it works" for his personal gadgets.
