Huawei Says It Has a Backup OS In Case It's Cut Off From Android (engadget.com) 85
Huawei has built its own operating system for phones, tablets and computers in case tensions between Huawei and the U.S. escalate even further than they already are. "The OS has been rumored for years, but Huawei confirmed its viability with the South China Morning Post, saying it could be used if the company were cut off from Android or Windows," reports Engadget. "It's seen as a last resort, but given the current discord between the U.S. and Huawei, it's not entirely surprising that the company has a plan B." From the report: Huawei began building the OS in 2012, after the U.S. banned Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE from using American products and services. This was reportedly seen as a way to prepare for "worst-case scenarios." Now, with Huawei suing the U.S. government and the U.S. saying it might punish Germany if the country works with Huawei on its 5G networks, those worst-case scenarios might not be too far-fetched. At the moment, this doesn't change much. Android and Windows are still the company's first-choice. "We fully support our partners' operating systems -- we love them and our customers love them," a company spokesperson told South China Morning Post. Still, given the state of the U.S.-Huawei relationship, this contingency plan could be significant.
Copyright? What Copyright? (Score:1)
Probably a copy of Android.....
Re:Copyright? What Copyright? (Score:5, Informative)
Since Google is blocked in China all Chinese Android users already have their own alternative versions, e.g. their own app stores and search services to replace the missing ones. Huawei is no exception so all they need to do is have a plan to continue core OS development on their own, rather than starting from scratch.
That would make sense, given that Android is open source and there are lots of apps for it.
A few western companies have already done the same thing, e.g. with compatibility layers for running Android apps on other operating systems.
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GNU/Linux hopes (Score:2)
I was also hoping for some variation of GNU/Linux.
Either TizenOS as you mention.
Or something Mer project based (descendant of Meamo/Meego, currently used as a base in Jolla's SailfishOS (*)).
Or something else running on the libhybris (what Jolla developped to run *GNU*/Linux on Android Linux kernels and blob drivers) like UB Ports' Ubuntu Touch.
Or writing GNU/Linux compatible drivers from the ground up and "licensing" (well it's GPL so it's free) Purism' OS of the Librem 5 smartphone.
Or one of the lighter
Permissive License (Score:5, Informative)
The base OS itself, i.e. AOSP, is licensed under a permissive license (Apache 2.0)
Huawei (just like anybody else - e.g. Amazon's Fire and free/libre projects like LineageOS, also compatibility layers like Andbox) can freely copy Android all they like and nobody is every going to tell them anything.
The problem isn't the base OS. It's the giant blob for service that Google only provides to licensed partner: the Google Play Services.
That one might be required by some apps: that includes some mapping apps relying on the Google Maps Service (e.g.: some car sharing applications) and that include Google Play Store it-self.
A chinese manufacturer can slap android on their phone, but the users won't have access to the usual Play Store and won't be able to install some application. That's why they usually provide teir own eco-system of apps. (Just like Amazon had their own application store).
Even more so because Google is banned in China anyway.
If you WANT to install those apps, you'd need to:
- Pirate the google service (lots of cheap chinese phone manufacturer to that).
- Install google services legally (as an end user, you can ask for a free license under some circumstance)
( ^- You know, Google would be happy at the opportunity to siphon your data anyway, so they are not against the idea of end-users installing it after-market. They are only against manufacturer not providing the exact "Google Experience" that they want - i.e.: try to get users hooked on Google Apps).
- Install an open-source re-implementation of these services such as MicroG
( ^- And these one are much more configurable and can leak a lot less personnal data than the real google deal. Your smartphone's battery will appreciate not needing to ping back the mother ship every 30 seconds).
Re:Permissive License (Score:4, Interesting)
This has been long done with in China, as google play services have been overwhelmingly blocked there on their Great Firewall. By far the most popular OS on Chinese phones is android. Without google play.
The train you're complaining about being on the station left the station many years ago. Chinese android variants have long done away with any google play dependencies, and their customers largely don't care about google play in any way, as Tencent et al have long developed alternatives for everything and more.
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The problem isn't the base OS. It's the giant blob for service that Google only provides to licensed partner: the Google Play Services.
I guess they really do have to ‘Pay to Play’
ba-dump-dump-ching!
Thanks folks, I’ll be here all week.
Re:Permissive License (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm wondering whether we will eventually get a trustworthy western corporation with their own version of Android that doesn't snoop so much. I have an old Android phone that my kid uses and that thing lasts almost a week on a single charge of the 1800 mAh battery. We opted not to sign in to a Google account when configuring the device and disabled mobile internet. I imagine you could probably have a phone that ran quite a bit longer if you were willing to put up with some minor inconveniences like only polling for new mail periodically.
I really don't need that much stuff from Google Play at this point and could probably go completely Google free by replacing most of what I do on my phone with open source alternatives. My needs are pretty basic, and could probably be filled by having a good browser like (Firefox perhaps) and simple email, messaging, and phone tools
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Alternative (Score:2)
Sepcifically for the maps on android, OSMAnd [openstreetmap.org] is an openstreetmap-powered solution that can also run offline.
For the rest of the de-googled smartphone see my other post above [slashdot.org], with both solutions for no-google-apps phone and completely no-android phones.
(I personnally do the latter, running Sailfish OS on Sony Xperia)
Less google snooping (Score:2)
I'm wondering whether we will eventually get a trustworthy western corporation with their own version of Android that doesn't snoop so much. I have an old Android phone that my kid uses and that thing lasts almost a week on a single charge of the 1800 mAh battery.
If you specifically require *Android* :
- using the opensource LineageOS [lineageos.org]
- and using either F-Droid [f-droid.org] (specifically for opensource software) or/and Aptoide [aptoide.com] (multiple 3rd party repositories) to obtain 3rd party apps.
- and optionnally installing MicroG [microg.org] as an alternative implementation if any of your must-have apps requires a library that is normally provided by Google (And optionnally
(- and optionnally Yalp store [f-droid.org] if you desperately need apps from Play store).
this are the ways to proceed to obtain an Android that
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Probably a copy of Android.....
In the FOSS community it's called forking, it's done all the time and there is nothing wrong with it. In fact Android uses the Linux kernel under the hood so in that sense the Android core systems themselves are a fork (a.k.a. 'copy') of Linux.
Android hosted on Linux, *not* a fork (Score:2)
Probably a copy of Android.....
Anyone and his dog are allowed to copy the base Android OS --- as Android is a fork of Linux anyway.
Android is *not* a fork of Linux. Android is effectively its own OS. It is merely hosted on Linux. The vast majority of Android devs and nearly all Android users see nothing of Linux, no more than someone using some other appliance that has a Linux kernel in the background.
Re: Android hosted on Linux, *not* a fork (Score:2)
Thats dumb youre claiming that linux function as a hypervisor in Android ? Operating system abstracts things such as file persistence you dont have to know the SATA commands etc to write raw blocks. This is all done by linux, not dalwik. think of android as WIN95 ontop of dos6 a UI layer ontop of the underlying operating system.
"Hosting" covers quite a bit more than VM type situations. Operating systems hide hardware details from application programmers, and application programmers under Android see neither hardware details nor Linux implementation details/abstractions. They don't see Linux at all, its hidden just like the hardware. From the app developer's perspective Android is the operating system. The Linux kernel could be replaced with the old BSD kernel or Google's new Linux kernel replacement Fuscia and the Android develope
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Huawei Says It Has a Backup OS In Case It's Cut Of (Score:1)
Re:Huawei Says It Has a Backup OS In Case It's Cut (Score:5, Insightful)
If I was an authoritarian regime looking for a cover story to replace everyones software on their device with something I could control in greatee detail, this would be a good one. In fact why not just roll that social media credit system into the payment apps as well. Surcharges for lower social credit scores, etc. Best of all we made it look like someone elses fault so our people flock to this change.
Go ahead (Score:4, Insightful)
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The U.S. & U.K. have been proved to spy on their allies (echelon).
They even sell to their own companies the info... to pay back the system.
When some people come on MY HOME & steal MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY , I call them " THIEVES"
When one of theses allies try to build a wall around it's property, the thieves cry...
Re: Go ahead (Score:2)
Re:Go ahead (Score:5, Insightful)
It is more that time that Europe start to understand that the US are not ally
It's not that Europe does not understand that the US is a sucky ally (and unusually so at the moment), it's that they understand that being the ally of Russia and China is way worse.
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How stupid. US has become a selfish hegemon since the II WW.
... and China is a corrupt autocratic plutocracy while Russia is a mafia state. However hegemonic the US becomes, we can handle them and we can. reason with them, China wants to be what it was during the time of the Tang dynasty and Russia ... Russia is a type of kleptocracy that has no parallels in human history except perhaps the Roman Republic during it's descent into utter corruption and debauchery during the Jugurthine wars, except Russia has nowhere like the raw power Rome had even at that time and in
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It's not that Europe does not understand that the US is a sucky ally (and unusually so at the moment), it's that they understand that being the ally of Russia and China is way worse.
We'd never align with them, the question is how badly the US is needed. The Soviet Union dissolved 28 years ago, Russia is the 10th biggest economy in the world behind Italy and their sphere of influence is now pretty much Belarus with the Baltic countries and Ukraine turning towards the west. Despite their meddling in Crimea and East Ukraine they've never been in less of a position to launch a major offensive against Europe. In fact we've built down our military to de-escalate with Russia despite the EU ha
Whataboutism (Score:1)
The us and UK are bad, no doubt about it. But neither is anywhere close to the dystopian state that China is. Most of the idiots bringing up western problems when discussing China are either paid Chinese propaganda spreaders or people who have never been to China and have no idea how bad it is.
I was there for only a week, and even I could sense the level of dystopia there. Cameras everywhere, ID required for almost everything (buying train tickets, SIM card, Hotel, etc. ) and of course the censorship online
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Leave echelon aside for a minute. Spanish police are saying that the CIA was involved in an assault in February where they took everyone in the North Korean embassy in Madrid prisoner, interrogated them for two hours, and then stole documents, computers, and two cars.
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It's interesting that Spanish police are saying that, but have they presented any, well, evidence that what they're saying is true?
I notice that according to the BBC, Spanish police have not answered their queries for information....
IMHO, the lack of a formal complaint by the
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Why is the US still in NATO? The narrative I heard is we pay a ruinous cost for their defense and so they can afford comfortable welfare states, and in return we get agreement to our policy proposals. This already sounds like a bad deal. But, we aren't even getting that. The NATO "allies" are openly defiant and won't fall in line. Don't say this started with Trump, either, because it didn't.
USA out of NATO!
That would be confused with an open source project (Score:2)
Call it replican,
That would be confused with the Replicant [wikipedia.org] open-source no-proprietary-blobs android project.
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China was rewarded with US investment and advanced tech.
Taiwan the real China no longer had as much US support.
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Capitalist enterprises from the West invested in China, and were welcomed there by Mr. Deng Xiaoping and his followers.
Not a huge surprise... (Score:4, Funny)
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They have all the same kinds of services that Android offers. App store, AV protection, cloud sync, voice assistant, account and payment management for families, OTA updates etc.
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For the Chinese market do you really need anything being AOSP
Google could conceivably stop doing Android themselves, and then there will be no AOSP either. Given Google's propensity for canceling projects that people are using, they have to have a backup plan anyway. Granted, it could be "Fork AOSP".
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Citation?
Hmm + 100's of millions of apps I'm sure (Score:2)
OS is not the problem.
Developers with apps to make the device functional is the problem.
Rock and a hard place really...... so seems like fluff and nonsense from Huawei really.
Man I hate how "OS" has been diluted. (Score:4, Insightful)
We've been working so hard on our own OS! It's Android, but with a skin and without a few apps!
A new Linux OS is out! It's Ubuntu, with a different terminal emulator!
We wrote 10,000 lines of code, added it to the existing 15 million lines of code, and now we have something new! We're relevant and important!
In reality, this just makes them on par with a precocious 8th grader.
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I think a majority of what we see and consider a new "OS" is the desktop environment plus some changes under the hood that a majority of the people would never know about.
More likely in case Google drops censorship tools (Score:2)
Huawei Says It Has a Backup OS In Case It's Cut Off From Android
More likely in case Google actually stops developing the censorship / monitoring versions of their software for China.