Why Huawei went for OpenHarmony-based HarmonyOS Next PC over Linux path (Full final edition)

Why Huawei did what they did in a time of geopolitical tech cold war battle from Washington DC from chips to software.

Original via HarmonyOS Hub: Why Huawei went for OpenHarmony-based HarmonyOS Next PC over Linux path - HarmonyOSHub

Huawei has built Linux consumer laptops and more expensive enterprise laptops for the Chinese market when it did not have an established PC platform of it’s own during post-2019 licensed Android bans, when it depended on existing successful distros within the Linux ecosystem such as Deepin but not at the mainstream level, in the world of Windows, macOS, ChromeOS dominance led by US Big Tech companies. Deepin was the most successful Linux platform in China, not computing platform in the country, with only 40,000+ apps in it’s app store suite for sometime. However, it is very limited in it’s ecosystem size and scalability, adaptability to a wider average consumer market outside the niche tech savvy market when it comes to long term growth without being stunted.

Earlier this year media and tech forums in the west went in a frenzy during Huawei’s HarmonyOS Next event, earlier this year back in January 2024, particularly pro Linux-blogs such as It’s FOSS News blog lambasting Huawei for claiming that their new kernel has better performance than Linux kernel, and it was misinterpreted as “a diss towards Linux” or some “anti-Linux” campaign with the usual conspiracy theories of “easier Chinese government spyware” nonsensical talk. It was not even about Linux itself, the company was comparing previous versions of HarmonyOS 4.2 and earlier on mobile devices such as tablets and phones that use Linux kernel to power the AOSP base previous versions when compared to pure HarmonyOS Next version that includes the new faster and more advanced secure parameters of it’s customised Hongmeng kernel with microkernel architecture, where historically since 1990s after 1980s experiment with the earliest Mach project, was deemed as slow to use in computers, at that time, PC specs were weak for such systems, since companies for years preferred to use a industry leading kernel like Linux or their own custom kernels that happened to be Monolithic-based and sometimes kernels that were originally Microkernel for example, Windows NT that transformed into a more Monolithic kernel friendly architecture with the hybrid kernel model, same as Apple’s XNU for Apple’s platforms today such as macOS, iOS, iPadOS etc. Well, computing today with advent of GenAI, edge computing, faster chips in 2020s decade, in the 21st century has become more powerful than 30-40 years ago, and has become more ambiguous, more complex where optimising and stabilising Microkernel IPC is not a difficult task nowadays.

Why Huawei picked their own route for the future personal computing in 2025, well, OpenHarmony began as an important project for Huawei going back to 2020 as it was donated and launched as an open source project by Huawei after releasing the first version of HarmonyOS in 2019 while it’s second version of HarmonyOS was in beta which was not due for final release until the following year in June 2021 that fall of 2020. During that time, on May 16th 2019, Huawei was officially sanctioned by United States where it was placed on a blacklist on export control restrictions where it affected the licensed Android it had once acquired doing business with Google where the company used to export their operating system technologies and bundle their services under it such as Google Mobile Services, where Huawei would just be selling hardware with it. Once, that was removed during restrictions after May 16th 2019, Huawei wasted no time setting up a GMS alternative called HMS, which stands for Huawei Mobile Services after quickly switching to the bogged down version of Android, called AOSP which stands for Android Open Source Project that don’t carry the proprietary GMS services from Google. This would affect Huawei’s access to Android updates provided by Google automatically alongside apps that get updated in favourable terms on Google Play compared to alternative app stores, same with apps availability altogether where Google has a large influence over the app stack ecosystem as well as the Android app economy it mostly controls. Google stipulates in it’s contract to OEMs like Huawei that no alternative Android ecosystem to “maintain consistency and eliminate fragmentation” in it’s licensed Android business under the guise of “Open Handset Alliance” which was setup by Google in 2007 with original founders, Huawei was one of the originals that joined the following year in late 2008. Fast forward after the mobile chip bans producing of Kirin chips in September 2020 a year and half after GMS ban, four years later, US government revoked license of both Intel and Qualcomm to provide chips to Huawei PC business in May 2024 marking Windows licensing volumes Huawei used to acquire from Microsoft as bleak for future use when dealing with alternative choice, which leave Huawei without chips in a limbo as some in the US government believes but to Huawei internally in reality, is forcing them to make their own PC chips as reported in this geopolitical battle it still faces in the wave of AI. Huawei knows that one day gen AI software as we all know is going to be mainstream by tech, software industry will be restricted by Microsoft in their power at the behest of US government if Huawei continued to use Windows ported to their own chips in the future, disabling their computers overseas. Therefore, it said never again like May 2019, that an inevitable path led to vertical integration, Apple style across all it’s integrated ecosystem of devices with minimal hardware work on the same Kirin custom chips under one solo OEM, but it doesn’t stop there, let me tell you why?

Going back to OpenAtom OpenHarmony in China’s domestic and eastern market alongside European based Eclipse Oniro in Western markets, open source operating system projects where vendors can use for free of charge like Android and Linux without paying Huawei a dime for the operating system technology unlike Microsoft Windows business model avoiding the mistake Microsoft had made in the past with mobile and something they cannot replicate on the PC side if they want to counter the dominance of Windows PC market worldwide. This strategy is a clear one that seeks to bridge eastern and western developers not only just for the free and open source software community but also industry partners in China and globally among developers that work for software companies that provide services across platforms.

This is where Huawei uses it’s prowess to show to the industry how open their ecosystem is and interoperable with each other when it comes to applications already built that can be shared across distros of the same HAP application format of various frameworks supported such as React, Flutter, CEF, Qt etc., Linux ABI compatibility translator supported, supports multiple kernels including Linux kernel on OpenHarmony-Oniro userland and supports Linux within Hongmeng kernel with open standardised graphics back-end Vulkan API under a unified development environment unlike the unstandardised fragmented mosaic world of Linux with different app packages, different IDE programming target ecosystems alongside fragmented developer tools and porting, translation tools. And in order to lead it and want to challenge the status quo for change, it therefore went by the saying of “if you want change, change starts at home” by setting the foundation strategy of using OpenHarmony-based HarmonyOS Next as a hub for OpenHarmony software industry in the app and game development world of predominately large Chinese software companies among foreign multinationals backing in China before going big as there is a saying on “Go big or go home”.

In turn, growing the quality with the quantity of software built for the core important vertical platform and ecosystem at large as a model to duplicate the future global growth in 2025 and beyond with the 99% use case of important applications across phones, tablets, wearables and PCs among future hardware form factors such as headsets where technologies such as HarmonyOS HAP app file distribution package, NearLink and HDR Vivid are standardised across the ecosystem by default as Huawei uses these industry building platforms to influence the software vendor industry using their open software stack with. That is something where Huawei cannot do with a mosaic fragmented Linux PCs where Huawei has no voice on how apps should work with each other, consistency of UIs, performance, connectivity, sharing of computing resources, compatibilities where all users benefit across the board regardless of distros, not just few fragmented distros or Huawei itself etc. It brings bigger leverage and bigger bargaining as it courts developers from mobile/tablets, TVs, wearables to PCs. This is where the unique mix model of best of both worlds come into play from closed commercial vertical to open source horizontal platform strategy cross paths without friction where Huawei not only becomes the influence within the chip supply chain but also software supply chain itself. This strategy has not been implemented before at a large industrial software scale. This makes restrictions harder to be successful for DC when it comes to their power over software in their export controls where Huawei and any provider working with and other Chinese players that doesn’t fall short with it’s own software technology stack resources at it’s disposal wherever they are between China and Europe open source operating systems resources that Huawei has successfully established.

Ensuring the best out of the box setup experience, to being the best editor, web editor, code editor, video editor, music editor as well as a friendly developer environment where you can write your apps and games without needing to use a different desktop platform across screens with unified accessible shared file system within ecosystem, the ability to run the type of applications you want, execute terminals, and familiar Linux ones and also reusable Linux drivers when it comes to plug and play peripherals. Connectable to server OS ecosystems such as Linux-based OpenEuler in networking. All that without needing a second PC of a different platform, all done in one go on one platform with strong ecosystem. Apps that can be scaled across on it’s appropriate form factor and screen sizes unlike the road block between Linux and Linux Mobile. Also developer console for app publishing accessibility alongside third party store ecosystems and websites with modern auto application updates. As well as little fragmentation when it comes to updating the operating system with it’s core operating system base, OpenHarmony and kernel alongside the platform native developer API kits that adapt with it in each iterations overtime on maintaining compatibility and zero friction of apps long term as API changes with deprecation of replacements. That is what is defined within the accessible platform where developers and users can get started without heavy lifting blurring the lines of ultra powerful advanced mobile computing of tablets, laptops, thin clients.