What it is (at least the thing they've shown), it's just reskinned AOSP like Lineage, Graphene and other "OSes" which take Android and slightly modify it.
https://device.harmonyos.com/en/docs/start/introduce/oem_wif...
Obviously what runs on a modern phone is a massive system of components and services. And if you want to android apps there would have pieces of android there.
What I think confuses people is that the demos and marketing videos really just shows stuff that is visual and kinda looks no different from a modern android phone.
However the ideas there: micro kernel, distributed os, letting user code run in kernel via static validation, ways of sharing capabilities across devices at os level ... are classic ideas that has been around in experimental oses for while, however never put into a big commercial os.
Hopefully they will succeed as these ideas can really bring the whole industry forward.
Harmony OS, this harmony OS, the one that's actually powerful and what you really care about, is just an Android reskin.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/harmonyos-hands-on-h...
Huawei’s HarmonyOS: “Fake it till you make it” meets OS development
While it is true that Huawei did officially respond to the Ars Technica article, one of their developers did a detailed walkthru of the article trying settle some of the misunderstandings.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV12X4y1N7bd
It is in English but has a Chinese title which google hilariously translates into:
See the BBC again? The technology media from the West can't avoid the vulgarity. Seeing them embarrassing and black Hongmeng can't stand it, Brother Zhao refuted it.
Enjoy.
He confirms that the developer beta reviewed in the article is running Linux on ARM with all pieces of Android present, modulo Google Mobile Services replaced by Huawei Mobile Services. He then criticizes the article for concluding that it's just Android without trying out any HarmonyOS-specific features, but doesn't demonstrate them himself. To borrow his analogy, if Android is English and HarmonyOS is Chinese, why does he speak English the whole time? (And why so slowly?)
The video would've been much better if he'd booted up an emulator himself to show what was missing from the Ars Technica article.
EDIT: apparently there is a demonstration video here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27368995
https://space.bilibili.com/455592866
Unfortunately, the video I linked to appears to be the only one in English.
They have a similar brand, but are significantly different.
To be fair the HMS ecosystem is actually no small feat.
https://developer.harmonyos.com/en/docs/documentation/doc-gu...
And I can see that there are actually multiple supported kernels and a kernel abstraction layer.
Nonetheless it will be interesting how far this will be taken. I do believe they are serious about updating existing phones.
And that there are iot devices coming out with hardware similar to the development board I linked to and are running some form of this os.
watch this. you pair your phone to tablet, your phone gets mirrored on the tablet and you can drag photos from this window to your email on the tab. that is an improvement i would say
edit: it appears they have a "plug in" for pcs. i wonder it is an adaptation of kde connect/my phone from microsoft but this is nice
What does that have to do with with what HarmonyOS is?
I haven’t seen it in practice but that is the theory. It is a classic idea that no one so far has done at commercial level.
Just to be clear I am not a Huawei insider, just some random tech dude who is being put off by the general tech community’s unwillingness to try and understand what Huawei is attempting to do.