"Pure-blooded Hongmeng" is about to be commercialized, and the history of Europe and the United States dominating the operating system kernel is over

Observer.com

2024-06-21 21:57Posted on the official account of Shanghai Observer.com

"Pure-blooded Hongmeng" is about to be commercialized, and the history of Europe and the United States dominating the operating system kernel is over

[Text/Observer.com Lu Dong]

"For a long time, basic software such as operating systems have been dominated by Europe and the United States, and today's era of Internet of Everything and Intelligence of Everything has arrived, giving us an opportunity to change lanes and overtake. It can be said that we have done what our European and American counterparts have done for more than 30 years in 10 years, and realized the independent and controllable core technology of the operating system. On the afternoon of June 21, Yu Chengdong, executive director of Huawei and chairman of the terminal BG, said at the Huawei Developer Conference 2024.

At this Huawei Developer Conference, the biggest protagonist is undoubtedly HarmonyOS NEXT, which is known as "pure-blooded Hongmeng".

Yu Chengdong revealed at the conference that Huawei has been developing operating systems before and after being sanctioned by the United States, and it has been 1778 days since the first release of HarmonyOS OS, and the "pure-blooded HarmonyOS" HarmonyOS NEXT has achieved a comprehensive renewal from the operating system kernel, file system, programming language, compiler/runtime, programming framework, to design system, integrated development environment, as well as AI framework and large model.

Source: Observer.com

For the core technology of the operating system, Gong Ti, President of the Software Department of Huawei Device BG, pointed out that the kernel is the nerve center of the operating system and the ceiling in the software field, and it is very difficult to develop, "The HarmonyOS kernel can completely replace the Linux kernel, and the history of the operating system kernel being dominated by Europe and the United States for a long time is over, and since then we have a Chinese core, and the HarmonyOS kernel is safer, more flexible, and smoother than the Linux kernel." ”

He said that at present, whether it is Wintel architecture or Arm+Android architecture, it adopts a horizontal decoupling model, which has the advantage of facilitating the division of labor in the industrial chain, but the shortcomings are also very obvious, that is, the collaboration of software and hardware core cloud is not enough, the system architecture is too complex, and the user experience is not done to the extreme, and Hongmeng has reconstructed the system architecture to make the device smoother, more energy efficient, and better user experience.

Gong also linked the operating system to the chip. He said, "Thanks to the comprehensive breakthrough in root technology and the innovation of the system architecture, the performance of the HarmonyOS NEXT machine is 30% higher than that of HarmonyOS 4, which is even more than the performance improvement brought by the two generations of chip process upgrades." And this is not a one-shot deal, our goal is to improve the performance of the whole machine by 20%-30% every year through the simplified architecture and extreme parallelism, surpassing the progress of the industry's chip process, which is our commitment. ”

Source: Observer.com

For the current Chinese market, users need far more than an autonomous and controllable operating system, but also a better operating system to solve the inherent problems of Android and iOS. At this developer conference, He Gang, CEO of Huawei Device BG, also spent a lot of time introducing the new features of HarmonyOS NEXT from three aspects: all-scenario, intelligence, and security.

For example, in all scenarios, HarmonyOS NEXT can achieve one-time development and multi-terminal deployment, mobile phones, tablets, and smart screens can share a single system, and developers only need to develop and maintain one version of HarmonyOS native applications. In terms of intelligence, HarmonyOS NEXT integrates AI capabilities into the system for the first time, and Xiaoyi has been upgraded to Xiaoyi Intelligent Twins, which can perform more complex operations. In terms of security, Huawei has launched its self-developed Starshield security architecture, which builds order from the source and redefines the rules for applications to obtain private data.

"I've visited a lot of partners, and I've often been asked if the HarmonyOS ecosystem is a replacement for the Android or iOS ecosystem, and whether developing HarmonyOS native apps is simply rewriting the code? I believe that from today onwards, as everyone gets the beta version, they will have their own answers, HarmonyOS is by no means a replacement for Android or iOS, and the development of HarmonyOS native applications is not simply to rewrite the code, but to redesign the user experience, even familiar functions can be renewed. Gong Ti said.

The user experience has been reconstructed with technology, and for Hongmeng, it has only completed the "two major battles", and there is still one major battle that must be won if it wants to survive, that is, to build an ecology on the root technology. Only when the ecology is successful, Hongmeng will be successful, and the industry around Hongmeng will grow.

In the past few years, the progress of the HarmonyOS ecosystem has been very rapid. Yu Chengdong revealed this time that after four generations of development, the number of HarmonyOS ecological devices has exceeded 900 million, and 2.54 million HarmonyOS developers have invested in the development of HarmonyOS world. Canalys data shows that in the first quarter of this year, Hongmeng's shipment share in the Chinese market reached 18%, exceeding Apple's iOS 15%, which means that Hongmeng crossed the "life and death line" of 16% share.

Some industry analysts told the observer network that the development of the Hongmeng ecosystem will turn the global terminal ecological pattern into an Android ecology, iOS ecology, and Hongmeng ecology, breaking the monopoly pattern of the United States, just as the global positioning system has GPS, Galileo and Beidou, and the field of large aircraft has Boeing, Airbus and COMAC, and smart phones will evolve into Hongmeng mobile phones, Apple mobile phones, and Android mobile phones.

However, it should be pointed out that the current ecological achievements of Hongmeng are still achieved under the condition of compatibility with Android open source code (AOSP), in contrast, it is much more difficult for "pure-blooded Hongmeng" to create the original ecology of Hongmeng. Yu Chengdong revealed at the conference that HarmonyOS native applications have entered a full-scale sprint stage, and more than 5,000 commonly used applications have all been started for development, of which more than 1,500 have been put on the shelves. He also thanked the major manufacturers that have joined the HarmonyOS ecosystem, such as Taobao, Alipay, Meituan, JD.com, Douyin, Toutiao, Xiaohongshu and so on.

Source: Observer.com

What is more noteworthy is that WeChat, China's largest social APP, has not yet joined the team of the original Hongmeng, and Yu Chengdong did not mention the cooperation between the two sides at the meeting. Today, a relevant person from Tencent revealed to the media that WeChat, Tencent News, QQ Browser, etc., are developing and adapting the HarmonyOS system and communicating with each other, hoping to ensure a smooth, safe and stable transition to the new system as soon as possible.

It is no exaggeration to say that the large-scale development of the native HarmonyOS application can be called the largest "collective migration" in the history of China's mobile Internet, and the difficulties of large and small manufacturers are inevitable. The staff of the domestic office software WPS revealed at the conference that the application adaptation to Hongmeng will achieve comprehensive transplantation and adaptation of more than 40 million lines of code, and at the same time, it must also support multiple devices and platforms, which is huge and complex.

In order to reduce the difficulty and cost of adapting to the native HarmonyOS, Huawei revealed that it has worked with industry partners such as AutoNavi Map and Ant Digital to build a full-link tool, which can reduce the development workload by up to 90%. At the same time, Huawei has compiled its thoughts and predictions for the future into the HarmonyOS 2030 White Paper, and announced the preview of tools such as Cangjie, a next-generation programming language, and a next-generation AI-assisted coding IDE.

But for users, the most concerned thing is when they can use "pure-blooded Hongmeng". According to the schedule announced by Yu Chengdong, the HarmonyOS NEXT beta upgrade for developers and pioneer users has been officially launched, followed by the beta upgrade for consumers will be launched in August, covering the Mate60 series and the flagship mobile phones and tablets listed later, etc., it is expected that with the launch of the Mate70 series in the fourth quarter, HarmonyOS NEXT will turn to large-scale commercial use, and the Mate60 and other series models that have been launched will also be equipped with HarmonyOS Native, More models will be upgraded in 2025.

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