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Hongmeng PC is coming? This may be one of the news Huawei users want to hear most this year. As the most important and core part of the Hongmeng ecosystem, although some news about Hongmeng PC was revealed as early as last year, it is still in a state of "half-hidden" until now, which is really itchy.

Recently, someone mentioned Hongmeng PC again under Yu Chengdong's Weibo congratulations on the launch of MateBook GT 14. However, this time the question was not ignored as usual, but received a response from Huawei's terminal customer service: "Hello, thank you for your attention and support. Huawei computers are not currently using HarmonyOS. If you want to know more about the release time of HarmonyOS, it is recommended that you pay attention to official information."

This is a very official and routine reply, but it gives people a different flavor. After all, Huawei officials never speak without a purpose. And just a while ago, Dr. Wang Chenglu, known as the father of Hongmeng, directly admitted that there will be a Hongmeng PC this year when answering questions from netizens. The increasingly frequent appearance of Hongmeng PC has indeed made many netizens curious:Is this most mysterious system of Hongmeng about to appear?

Hongmeng PC, a combination of tablet and mobile phone?

Although Hongmeng has not officially launched the PC version of the page yet, the layout and design of Hongmeng PC have been accidentally revealed on some pages.It is not difficult to see that it is very different from the current mainstream Windows system.

The design concept of Hongmeng PC is more likely to be similar to Apple's macOS: larger icons, more prominent taskbars and more intuitive UI, so that first-time users can quickly figure out how to use it. In addition, this interface is also somewhat similar to the UI of MatePad, but a lot of changes have been made to use it on a larger screen.

However, what is more interesting is the UI style displayed on Huawei's official developer website. From mobile phones to tablets to PCs, you will find that the UI consistency between different systems is very high.The advantage of this is that as long as the user has had access to a mobile phone or tablet equipped with HarmonyOS before, they can get started with the Harmony PC almost seamlessly.

UI consistency is the goal that the smart ecosystem has always been pursuing, but before Hongmeng, only Apple had barely achieved it. Friends who are familiar with Apple's entire family bucket should still remember that since the release of iPadOS 14, iPadOS has become more and more like macOS. The subsequent release of iPadOS 16 also went a step further, giving iPadOS similar multi-tasking capabilities to macOS.

iPhone users can also see a lot of iOS in iPadOS. As a bridge between PC and iPhone, iPadOS is essentially more like a fusion version of macOS and iOS. It removes the functional design for complex tasks on macOS and adds UI and operation logic designed specifically for touch on iOS.

However, due to the limitations of Apple's product positioning, iPadOS has not yet possessed the freedom and complex task-handling capabilities of macOS. The iPad that Apple fans have been looking forward to replacing the Mac is still a long way off.

Hongmeng may be able to truly realize a seamless OS experience across devices. After all, it is an OS born in the AIxIoT era.From the very beginning, it was positioned as a cross-terminal, cross-ecosystem operating system. At the HDC held some time ago, Hongmeng NEXT directly put forward the goal of basing thousands of devices on one system.

You can understand that no matter it is a smartwatch, a mobile phone, a tablet, a laptop, or even a smart speaker, they all use "one Hongmeng OS". According to the actual size and hardware performance of the device, the system UI and functions will be differentiated to a certain extent, but there will not be a situation where "the performance and hardware meet the requirements, but some core functions are restricted to a certain end device".

Moreover, the smart interconnection system of Hongmeng OS has long connected PCs and tablets. Even Huawei PCs using the Windows system can easily collaborate with tablets through the built-in Huawei smart interconnection system. However, since Windows is not well optimized for touch operations, the actual experience is quite average.This problem will most likely no longer exist in the future HarmonyOS PC version. At least from the current UI design, HarmonyOS PC has made many targeted optimizations for touch, and it is very likely to continue some of the operating habits of MatePad.

There is actually a lot to talk about just the UI interaction, but considering that the HarmonyOS PC has not yet been officially released, let’s stop for now. In fact, many people are more concerned about: When the HarmonyOS PC version comes, what will the ecosystem be like?

Windows crashes, it’s time for domestic OS to rise

The PC ecosystem is much older and more complex than that of mobile phones and tablets. As the earliest personal smart device in the true sense of mankind, the PC can even be said to be the cornerstone of modern technological society. The Windows system, released in 1983, quickly became the most mainstream PC operating system on the market with the strong technological strength and global influence of the United States at that time, and firmly occupied the throne of the market leader in the following decades.

Over the past decades, Windows has built a huge PC ecosystem. Many industrial and commercial software even have only Windows versions. From people's livelihood to industry, from entertainment to creation, Windows is the best choice in many industries.

This also makes all PC systems that try to challenge Windows feel desperate.But last month's global Windows crash just revealed a flaw and sounded the alarm for everyone, making everyone realize that Windows, as one of the cornerstones of modern society, does not seem to be as reliable as everyone expected.

Just imagine that a collapse in just one day caused a large number of public facilities and transportation services to be seriously affected, resulting in billions of dollars in losses. How can people not worry about the serious consequences if there is a larger-scale paralysis or if it is invaded by criminals?

There is no absolutely reliable platform, whethercloud computingWhether it is AI, chips, networks, OS or software, how can we achieve greater reliability? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.So we see that the cloud computing industry has a "multi-cloud/multi-core strategy" - even the Lei Technology office is connected to the broadband of China Telecom and China Unicom at the same time to ensure network reliability.Similarly, in the OS area, all companies need more choices.

After the Windows crash, some people bluntly said that the implementation and popularization of domestic systems should be accelerated to avoid similar accidents in the country. Many of them placed their hopes on the Hongmeng PC version, hoping that it could replace it.

The Windows ecological barriers are deep, how can Hongmeng break through them?

Although the wish is good, the fact is that if Hongmeng PC version wants to replace Windows, it probably still has a very long way to go.

First of all, in terms of software, Windows has accumulated a large number of professional and entertainment software over the years, which Hongmeng cannot catch up with in a short period of time.It can be predicted that in the early stage of the release of the Hongmeng PC version, most of the native software should be compatible versions of MatePad, and it is very likely to be compatible with existing Windows system software through translation and other means.

Currently, most PC software only has two versions, Windows and macOS. If Huawei does not want users of Hongmeng PC to only use it for listening to music, typing, doing some light office work and entertainment, then compatibility with the Windows ecosystem is almost the only option - this is similar to the path taken by the Hongmeng mobile version, first compatible and then gradually independent.

However, this approach will lead to another problem: will Hongmeng PC use Kirin chips or Intel chips? The former is Arm architecture, while the latter is x86. If Kirin chips are used, then it is necessary to first convert from Windows to Arm, and then to Hongmeng. Whether the actual experience can be guaranteed after two rounds of translation will be the biggest problem.

The compatibility between Arm and the Windows ecosystem is still the biggest problem in deploying Windows on lightweight mobile devices. Even though Microsoft has been trying to cooperate with the Arm ecosystem, problems such as translation are difficult to solve perfectly.

Some people may ask: Isn’t the experience of switching between Android and Hongmeng good? In fact, it is not good enough, otherwise why would Hongmeng make the Next and the native pure-blooded Hongmeng? Moreover, the switching between Windows and Arm is very different from the switching between Android and Hongmeng OS by Huawei. Android and Hongmeng have different system bottom layers, but they are essentially based on the Arm architecture, so the key code execution level will not be affected too much.

However, Windows is different. Most Windows software is designed based on the x86 architecture and has never been considered to run on the Arm architecture processor, which means that it can only rely on the translation mechanism to run. If Huawei wants to provide a good enough experience, it must come up with a translation module that is much more efficient than before. To be honest, it is very difficult to do this without the assistance of Windows and Arm.

What if x86 chips are used? There is indeed no translation problem, but it puts forward very high requirements for the Hongmeng PC version. At present, Hongmeng OS basically runs on devices using Arm chips. Let Hongmeng OS support x86 chips, isn’t that the reverse version of the problem of Windows on Arm chips?How to adapt to the x86 instruction set? How to ensure perfect performance? Solving these problems is as difficult as translation adaptation.

Perhaps it is precisely to solve these problems that Hongmeng PC has been delayed so long compared to mobile phones and tablets and has still not been released. However, judging from the current information, Hongmeng should have found a feasible solution to solve these problems. Whether it is translation adaptation or other methods, it is still unknown.

However, as the most anticipated domestic PC system in China, it is not an exaggeration to say that Hongmeng PC is the "hope of the whole village." It is just recommended that everyone should not have too high expectations for the early version of Hongmeng PC. After all, Rome was not built in a day. If Hongmeng PC wants to reach or approach the level of Windows, it will also be a long and challenging road.