Huawei's creation of Hongmeng should not be praised in a flattering way

Recently, Huawei's Hongmeng system has become a hot topic in public opinion. Microkernel, Ark compiler, 60% performance improvement, compatibility with Android applications, and integration with all platforms have become the five key words that must be mentioned when mentioning Hongmeng system.

The public opinion is filled with arguments such as Huawei's microkernel and new compiler are fundamental victories, Hongmeng will basically replace Android in five years, and Huawei is making Google unable to remain calm.

At present, some statements about Hongmeng may be out of touch with reality.

Huawei Hongmeng's use of a microkernel may not have a significant performance advantage

When mentioning that Huawei Hongmeng adopts the microkernel technology route, almost all domestic media will emphasize that the microkernel is more advanced, represents the future, has stronger performance, and is very extensible. However, as far as the operating systems currently in use are concerned, the operating systems using microkernels do not have an advantage in performance.

Most people may not be familiar with microkernels and macrokernels, but almost everyone has used Windows, and the kernel of Windows is a microkernel. Compared with Linux, Windows has almost no performance advantage.

Taking the supercomputing field, where performance is highly adjusted, as an example, in 2018, the macro-kernel Linux completely monopolized the operating systems of the Top 500 supercomputers.

Therefore, Hongmeng's use of a microkernel may have some advantages, but we should not exaggerate this advantage. The performance experience that Hongmeng will ultimately have depends on the optimizations Huawei has made for it, rather than its strong performance just because it is a microkernel.

The pressure of ecosystem management will be greater after adopting the microkernel

The macro kernel is to integrate many parts required by the system into the kernel. Taking the Linux system as an example, the process, thread management, memory management, file system, driver, network protocol and other parts are all in the kernel.

A microkernel is a kernel that only has the most basic scheduling functions, and other system modules are made into a process outside the kernel.

In principle, a microkernel is more flexible and easier to modify than a macrokernel (and the macrokernel is not almost impossible to modify as some media claim).

The building block-style microkernel is much easier. You just need to remove a piece and replace it with a new one.

However, this convenience places high demands on the ecosystem control capabilities of manufacturers. For example, after installing too many software or rogue software on Windows, the system will become stuck, and even if these software are uninstalled, it cannot be completely restored to its previous state.

This is because the Windows microkernel allows software vendors to write startup items and other content into the system process. With the addition of these "external building blocks", the microkernel will inevitably become larger and larger, and the speed will be seriously affected.

Although the Android system allows all applications to run in their own virtual machines, greatly reducing security risks and the difficulty of ecosystem management, the application software can directly use some system middleware, so problems such as self-starting at startup and unauthorized recording and video recording have been recurring.

If Huawei uses a microkernel, how it will manage its ecosystem when it is not as strong as Microsoft and Google is also a question worth pondering.

Ark compiler compatibility is a problem

According to the PPT, smartphones equipped with Huawei's Hongmeng system have a system running speed 60% higher than the former!

However, this does not mean that Tencent's software can be compiled directly with the Ark compiler and run on the Hongmeng system without modification, nor does it mean that the commands and parameters used when compiling with Google's original zygote compiler should be consistent. Of course, it is also unknown whether programs compiled with the Ark compiler can run on ordinary Android systems.

On the other hand, Hongmeng is compatible with Android according to current news, but can all applications run on Hongmeng without modification?

These issues are the main issues that small and medium-sized software companies consider when deciding to migrate to the Hongmeng platform or develop Ark compiler versions. If they are not solved well, software vendors will have worries.

In addition, there are many companies or groups in the world that write their own compilers, such as Intel's ICC, Sunwin's SWCC, and Loongson's LCC. However, due to software compatibility and other reasons, ICC is only used in a small range, and GCC is widely used.

There is nothing wrong with praising and commending Hongmeng. At the same time, we should also see that it is also important to support Huawei in gradually resolving the problems it may face.