HarmonyOS 6 Full Overview: New Design, AI Features and Privacy Upgrades [video] (opens in new tab)

Additionally while much has improved on Harmony documentation it is still not that much available in English.

They said nothing about China pursuing openness and privacy but you're just so eager to present your own wishful thinking as better than theirs

I'm not sure I consider this view to be looking back far enough. Android as an OS that people use has been slowly growing more closed and controlled for... well, almost since its inception.

Google has kept an infamously tight leash that OEMs must not stray too far from; the Open Handset Alliance ensures certain Google apps come pre-installed, down to homescreen placement. The OHA mandates OEMs not release "incompatible" versions of Android, or other mobile OS', as well. Should an OEM want to sell Windows Mobile, Amazons FireOS, or Firefox's mobile OS, they will likely lose their license to sell anything with the brand name Android.

Google has also been moving away from the 'O' in AOSP for some time as well. Running many AOSP apps means dealing with what Google treats as abandonware, such as the eMail app, Contacts, and the open launcher (replaced with Google's proprietary launcher).

I'm certain I don't have to tell this crowd about the death of bootloader unlocking and the ROM scene. Telling me this isn't pushed by Google (which I agree with), and following up with "And Google has no way to prevent this" isn't something I see as believable. Google mandates where the YouTube and Chrome apps get placed on the homescreen; you're telling me that, in order to be licensed as Android, Google can't similarly mandate bootloader unlocking?

Nothing changed last week, or even the week before, but the direction isn't terribly difficult to see, IMO.

Okay so it won't run Android apps necessarily or be able to access the regular app stores/Play Store. It will need popular apps to be re-released for HarmonyOS NEXT

This is like responding to someone calling for an open alternative to Facebook by saying we have kubernetes. Linux is a helpful head start to solving the problems needed but it is not the full picture. And depending on what you need to build it might get in the way and require adjustment/fine tuning which is non trivial. There is just so much that goes into an OS in terms of polish beyond just getting some pixels on the screen and responding to input.

Without massive corporate funding for mobile apps, it doesn't have much chance on phones.

Linux is a kernel. We don’t have a usable operating system to go with it besides Android.