Jolla Sailfish Will Build A Google-Free Mobile OS For China (silicon.co.uk)

Jolla released their Android-free mobile Linux OS (Sailfish) on their own smartphones, "but has always intended to offer it to other manufacturers," according to Silicon. The next Sailfish smartphone was the Inex Aqua Fish, and people with Sony Xperia phones can now also run Sailfish through the Sony Open Devices Program. But their next big customer is the nation of China. Mickeycaskill quotes Silicon. The Sailfish China Consortium has gained the exclusive rights and license to develop a Chinese operating system based on Sailfish. Russia is also using Sailfish to build a national mobile OS in a bid to reduce its reliance on Western technology and reduce the risk of foreign surveillance. Jolla claimed that there have been many attempts to build a national OS on Android but these had been unsuccessful because of Google's control over the code.
One of the consortium's investors claims "several" major Chinese companies are already interested in joining them, adding "I have been closely following Sailfish OS development, and seen many Chinese projects fail, while Jolla's Sailfish OS has been steadily progressing. Sailfish OS is the only viable alternative for China."

Comments

Re:How is google controlling the code?

[Anonymous Coward]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/

Still the same core.

[DrYak]

Is stuff like that still possible on Sailfish . . . ?

Basically: yes .

Jolla's Sailfish OS is based on a GNU/Linux base called "mer", a direct descendent of the Meego / Maemo that was featured on Nokia Nxxx devices.
Actually written by the same exact people. (When Nokia left their R&D department, the engineer started Jolla and kept working on the same).

You can indeed run most of regular Linux software on it.
There's even an "openbuild system" server that can produce appropriate RPMs for you (no need to locally compile them with the SDK) and a 3rd party repos for the RPMs. (openrepos, just like to good old Maemo days).

The only key difference is that they have switch their interface from GTK to Qt-Quick / QML.
And though it's not released under a Free/libre license yet, you can still see the source and hack it due to the textual representation of QML.