In 2019, Huawei lost access to Android with Google services for its smartphones, and now the Chinese company may lose Microsoft's license to use Windows on its computers and laptops. Because of this, Huawei plans to supply computers with Linux and its own operating system HarmonyOS, TechSpot reports, citing Chinese media.
Huawei may soon lose its license to sell Windows computers to Chinese customers, according to reports. However, the company plans to release new PCs in April that could run Linux and HarmonyOS. There have also been reports that these computers will be "AI PCs" equipped with Kunpeng processors and will have applications based on DeepSeek's large language models.
HarmonyOS was originally designed for smartphones after the end of its licensing agreement with Google and supported Android apps. However, in 2023, Huawei introduced HarmonyOS NEXT, which no longer supported apps from Android or other operating systems and required developers to adapt their apps to the new platform. In addition, in 2024, the company confirmed that it would transition to a desktop version of HarmonyOS.
Huawei OS uses a proprietary application format based on JavaScript and TypeScript, as well as an optimized compiler designed to accelerate JavaScript execution.
In addition to using its own operating system, Chinese media reports that Huawei is also developing Linux-based systems. A future update to the MateBook D16 laptop will retain the same specifications, but will receive a version with an as-yet-unnamed Linux distribution instead of Windows.