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Comment by Zigurd | Hacker News Reader

Here is the interesting part: Jolla (Qt) and Android apps will be accepted. This increases the probability that the Jolla handset will ship with Android compatibility in Sailfish at launch.

There are some interesting consequences to this:

1. Jolla is the first OEM to ship a non-Android OS with Android compatibility built in.

2. Jolla is the first OS maker to not rely on Web apps to fill in for a lack of app store content at launch, and instead go for native app compatibility with another platform.

It's a unique launch strategy, with very low ego content. I think they will be rewarded with market acceptance for taking this approach. Have cake. Eat cake. Why not?

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I think the compatibility is done with libhybris: https://github.com/libhybris/libhybris

Anyway, I am so excited about this. I think 2 means they have a real shot at this, and their product looks great.

I just got an N9, but it seems the N9 port is dubious at this point: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6647428

Still, I'm very happy for Jolla. Maybe I'll drop 500+ bucks on it when it comes out.

edit: Uh oh, update again, looks like it's possible!

http://wiki.maemo.org/OS

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=90761&page=17

I'm really crossing my fingers for Jolla in particular, and Sailfish/Mer in general, to succeed. It's becoming clear that Android's currently debatable status as free software is heading decidedly in the non-free direction.

Sailfish/Mer's Android compatibility also makes it sounds at least somewhat realistic that there's room for it in the market.

Moreover, what I've heard about it is that it's aiming to be much more of an "ordinary GNU/Linux system with a radio and a slick touch screen interface" than Android has ever been. Does anybody have any hard information on this? It would be so delicious to have a platform that's more like an ordinary computer than what's offered in the mobile space today.

Recent Blackberry versions also have an Android compatibility layer.

Not all Android compatibility layers are created equal.

BB10.0 shipped with an Android environment that could only run up to Android 2.3... And considering the power under the hood of the Z10, it was really laggy. And submitting them to BlackBerry World required the developer to modify it from a .apk to a .bar.

What matters is how big the barriers to entry are for getting Android apps on. Both for developers and users. Jolla can improve on this, and IIRC the Jolla Harbour won't be the only way of putting apps on the device, Jolla said there would be a 3rd party android app store.

And of Course, locking it down to a single app repo doesn't really fit with Jolla's vision of openness ;)

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