Yes, HarmonyOS NEXT is a distributed and capability-based persistent AI operating system for IoT
Let me tell you why
On January 18-19th 2024, Huawei revealed at it’s HarmonyOS Developer Ecology conference with developers in China, it’s 9 year development and it’s 12 years of R&D project of it’s self developed HarmonyOS NEXT, the underpinnings of HarmonyOS Galaxy Edition or “Star River” edition, is indeed capability-based unlike previous versions of HarmonyOS. It’s built on the HarmonyOS kernel, a self-developed system that employs a “heterogeneous native” parallel mechanism which is a Microkernel architecture that is not Unix nor Unix-like which everything is a file. This feature enhances memory management efficiency by three times. The kernel is designed to operate across different device scenarios without depending on Linux kernel or AOSP.
Galaxy Edition boasts six major improvements, including native refinement, ease of use, smoothness, security, intelligence, and interconnection. The operating system also emphasizes aesthetic design, with improved security management and AI capabilities. That includes it’s own compiler, runtime which also packs a more powerful object oriented programming language called Cangjie alongside it’s JavaScript and TypeScript superset programming language called ArkTS.
HarmonyOS Galaxy Edition version of HarmonyOS is a persistent distributed operating system developed by Huawei for smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, smart watches, and other smart devices, including self driving cars. It has a microkernel design but closed as a commercial operating system, with open source components from modified custom open source OpenHarmony codebase side that is the bedrock of HarmonyOS NEXT development. Without OpenHarmony and LiteOS, there would be no pure HarmonyOS today starting with Galaxy Edition iteration with HarmonyOS NEXT at it’s core.
On the other hand, Fuchsia is an open-source capability-based operating system developed by Google. Unlike Google’s Linux-based operating systems such as ChromeOS and Android, Fuchsia is based on a custom kernel named Zircon1. Fuchsia’s kernel and software model are designed for modern computing. A capability-based system fully isolates processes by default, and limits program access to only the capabilities and resources that have been explicitly granted.
On iOS, when you want to select a photo from your phone's gallery and post it on the App B.
On Android, the app will request you to grant access to your entire photo library.
Meanwhile, on HarmonyOS only requires granting access to Photo A for the app, preventing it from accessing other photos in the gallery, effectively stopping the abuse of permissions. Does this make HarmonyOS NEXT capability-based?
Yes, the feature described is a characteristic of a capability-based operating system. In a capability-based system, programs are granted specific permissions, or “capabilities,” that determine what resources they can access. In the case of HarmonyOS NEXT, when an app requests access to a photo, the system grants access only to that specific photo, rather than the entire photo gallery. This approach enhances privacy and security using Object-capability model by limiting the scope of permissions, thereby preventing potential misuse or abuse of permissions. So, this feature is indeed a demonstration of the capability-based nature of HarmonyOS NEXT.
HarmonyOS Next app development, dissecting the system:
Cleaner: The Core File Kit and Location Kit
The Core File Kit and Location Kit can be used without user authorization through security controls
If you want a tree, give it to only one tree.
Users can save pictures in the application by clicking Save. The photos can be saved to the system album without granting any permission to the application.
The application cannot access any public files by passing the user.
Position control
Scenarios such as sending location and adding location.
Paste the control
Pasting, Meetime, SMSs, and Links.
Three types of components are expected to be reduced by 70%
Permission authorization pop-up window.
Secure access (pictures/video, audio, files, contacts
Camera, phone, avatar
scanning code and map selection)
Input (SMS verification code, ID card, and delivery address)
Button (Paste, locate)
How HarmonyOS Next protect our privacy?
Restrict 3rd party app permission. System provide related capabilities rather than authorized applications.
Media Library Kit
Smarter: The Media Library Kit intelligently recommends photos to select.
Select an ID from the Gallery.
Select a driver's license from Gallery
Ease of use: Scan Kit
Software, Chip and Hardware Collaboration.
Provides unified system-level code scanning capability for HarmonyOS native applications.
One-Step desktop shortcut icon(or other fixed access).
Supports all popular QR codes.
√ Simple integration and zero upgrade and maintenance costs.
√ Shorter scanning delay and higher identification accuracy.
√ No need to apply for camera and storage rights separately, making user experience smoother.
Fuchsia and HarmonyOS NEXT packed within the newest rebooted version of HarmonyOS GE, are designed from the ground up as persistent capability-based AI operating systems, whereas iOS incorporates some de-facto “capability-based”-like features within a broader, different architectural framework under it’s classic Unix-like, everything is a file approach.
HarmonyOS NEXT, developed by Huawei, is indeed a significant achievement in the field of operating systems. It’s not only China’s first capability-based multiserver microkernel operating system, but also one of the world’s first distributed persistent capability-based multiserver microkernel AI operating system that takes advantage of new Kirin simultaneous multithreading (SMT) chips such as Kirin 9000s and future successors under custom Taishan microarchitecture with it’s NPU for on-device generative AI processing on the OS system wide AI stack beyond Celia Assistant with Large Language Models on HarmonyOS 4.0. The NPU built by Huawei’s chip subsidiary, HiSilicon Kunpeng server class chips team with mobile Kirin team that are reportedly working on a new instruction set, that succeeds their ARM ISA based chips, called Lingxi that would be absorbed into the unique OS’ model of handling diverse, exotic instruction sets, chipsets in the “Kernel Abstraction Layer” that does the inner Hardware Driver Foundation work with it, where app developers don’t have to target instruction set in compilation.
This represents a major step forward in the development of independent and secure operating systems which makes Huawei 4th largest R&D player in the world, to have an edge over Google’s non-distributed capability-based Microkernel operating system where it’s MinFS is a fuse driver for Amazon S3 compatible object storage server1. It allows you to mount a remote bucket (from a S3 compatible object store), as if it were a local directory1. This means that MinFS does require an internet connection to access the remote bucket on the S3 compatible object store also poor performance in IPC speed.
On the other hand, HMDFS (HarmonyOS Distributed File System) is used in HarmonyOS NEXT. It’s a distributed file system that allows for file sharing and data persistence across different devices. This is part of HarmonyOS’s distributed capabilities, allowing for seamless collaboration between different devices.
HarmonyOS NEXT core operating system of HarmonyOS is an evolution of capability-based operating systems of the past with Artificial Intelligence, Big models frameworks in mind built for future proof Edge Computing. It’s more than an ordinary operating system and it’s not a mobile operating system. It is built on rich security that is designed for Internet of Things with it’s rich software design framework kits that is developer friendly for all types of devices, not just phones. It’s a new operating system paradigm that challenges the 1969/1970s operating system model standardised by the United States from Unix, BSD to today’s popularised Linux in IT infrastructure.
In a recent interview in China, back in September 2023: "Ren Zhengfei said that the Chinese industry needs a better standard system than the US. He mentioned that the American standard system was designed in the 1970s, which is over 50 years ago. These are optimized and changed with each generation."
HarmonyOS Next system base station
AI Model: Pangu
AI Framework: MindSpore
Integrated development environment: DevEco Studio / DevEco Testing /...
Design System: HarmonyOS Design
Programming Framework: ArkUI / ArkUI-X
Compiler & Runtime: Ark Compiler / BiSheng Compiler / Ark Runtime
Programming Language: ArkTS/Cangjie
File System: EROFS / HMDFS Distributed File System...
OS kernel: Hongmeng kernel (Microkernel)
Google’s model follows the same mistake as closed source Microsoft and Apple, one size fits all approach with a narrow paradigm between Closed vs Open debates for multivendors in the operating system paradigms that leaves less flexibility, control, access, freedom and ownership for OEMs, as well as developers, hobbyists as Google gets more control over the ecosystem with contract clauses against competing ecosystems and Apple locked down approach that prevents anyone outside it’s walled garden etc. Meanwhile Huawei, chose a dual path with the best of both worlds of closed to carve it’s for it’s wall garden proprietary IP hardware ecosystem with proprietary HarmonyOS controlled by themselves while leaving, the open source community it has donated it’s basic HarmonyOS codes for open source that helped them forked their own HarmonyOS from OpenHarmony underpinnings back into it’s self developed HarmonyOS NEXT software root stack for HarmonyOS consumers as a business, allowing others outside of Huawei, to create planets of open source distributions and closed commercial ones carved for themselves in the OpenHarmony galaxy led by a consortium providing developers, users, consumers, vendors choices, that allows them to do whatever they want and decided what ecosystem they want to tie themselves to or not.
In a decentralised model that is not controlled by one company (Huawei), one country (China) with a new open source system, new open source governance model reducing Huawei control over the project, as more codes are contributed by vendors, partners, developers in porting and new APIs feature versions, with a new open source community that is not only restricted to China but also a connected node to Eclipse Foundation Europe with pan-European OpenHarmony based Oniro operating system built for IoT that serves enterprises across Europe and the world as enterprises and the world can contribute into Oniro OS planet and the rest of OpenHarmony galaxy which is beneficial for Huawei in the global consumer market of global developers connected with it’s commercial HMS and AppGallery ecosystem for their consumer flagship devices. Alongside consumer competitors in OpenHarmony space.
An operating system for everyone, making distribution models, instruction set chipsets, kernels, drivers in the background irrelevant as they have a common set of app and library frameworks that are cross compatible across the galaxy, alongside timely OTA systems with 2-3 updates a year (one major two minor updates per year) for all distros that reduces fragmentation at the same time compared to today’s operating systems such as Android, closed side of Windows, where OpenHarmony gives vendors firm time to customise and deliver to users in a timely fashion alongside kernels, frameworks, systems, with their own ecosystems of stores and services, alongside tasks that suit their hardware computing needs at the same time in consumer systems and industrial enterprise systems.
Huawei’s software revolution challenging unwarranted consequences of US sanctions in Q4 2024 in the operating system spaces that is redefining the operating system with HarmonyOS with new HarmonyOS NEXT under the hood alongside it’s bigger open source OpenHarmony operating system community space next to it’s server OS, open source EulerOS, with community open source openEuler that would be integrated with the one ecosystem evolving away from Linux with HarmonyOS software stack technologies, is the one to watch long term in China and many parts of the world, including parts of the westernised world.