Although Google recently affirmed that it is prepared to work with CCI, the company is also coming under a lot of criticism because of its monopoly in the smartphone OS market and its practice of forcing its own apps as standard services on Android-based devices. BharOS, a new operating system created by IIT-Madras, is expected to provide a more private and secure mobile operating system for India’s 100 crore smartphone consumers.
Can BharOS compete with Android from Google? Is BharOS really safe to use in the present world and how different is it from Google’s Android? Since BharOS’s announcement, you have asked many questions regarding it, and we have attempted to address them all.
What is BharOS?
An operating system called BharOS is built on the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) but without any Google programs or services. It is created by the nonprofit JandK Operations Private Limited (JandKops), which was born out of IIT Madras.
How is BharOS different from Android?
Technically speaking, Google OS for Android and BharOS are very similar. In actuality, it is based on AOSP (Android Open Source Project). As a barebones operating system that let users to install apps of their own choosing, BharOS differs significantly from Google’s Android OS in that it does not ship with Google services.
Despite being a native operating system, BharOS is still based on AOSP, therefore its functionality and UI are similar to those of Google’s standard Android. Additionally, BharOS does not include any pre-built applications. Users will be able to sideload an app of their choice if there are no pre-installed programs on the device.The security of the device, however, could be jeopardized and made more susceptible to hacking if an APK is sideloaded.
It is not yet apparent how BharOS can replace a pre-installed operating system. Does it necessitate bootloader unlocking, which could further jeopardize the security of the device? How long will operating system updates for software and security last, too? The BharOS creator needs to provide answers to these queries.
It’s also intriguing to note that the default browser and chat software on the current version of BharOS are third-party programs like DuckDuckGo and Signal. It will be intriguing to watch if the BharOS development team collaborates with OEMs to introduce BharOS-powered phones.
How to install BharOS on your phone?
Information regarding the BharOS’s release date is not yet known. A single build of BharOS cannot be loaded on all Android phones, unlike Windows OS, hence the BharOS development team must tailor the OS for each smartphone type in order for it to function properly. As a result, at launch, the BharOS might only be offered for a few phones.
It will be fascinating to see if the BharOS team partners with an existing service or builds one from scratch, even if they have spoken about the need for an app-store-like service for BharOS. The bootloader may need to be unlocked and a custom recovery image installed before BharOS can be flashed onto an Android smartphone when it becomes available.
