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> (1) there are only about 3 big browser vendors in the world, and even Firefox and Safari are lagging in features and bug fixes

Are you forgetting WeChat? Because that's all they likely care about.

The X5 browser core in WeChat seems to be based on Chromium (and was vulnerable to Chromium-only vulnerability CVE-2023-4357)

Do they ship their own browser?

WeChat is a 'super app' to the point that you don't need really a browser in China anymore. It's a mobile first based ecosystem (WeChat, XHS, Douban, Taobao, etc)

I know that. But is there no web access at all?

> This needs a lot more context. My understanding is that at this time HarmonyOS is still fully compatible with Android and you can just install apk files like you would do on any other Android device. They are doing their own stuff at low level, and it is reported that "HarmonyOS Next" will be incompatible with Android (no idea what that will look like), but to say HarmonyOS 4.2 is "not-Android" means as much as saying Amazon's Fire tablets are not using Android.

This largely matches my understanding. NEXT is supposed to be 5.x, until then it still has APK compatibility and AOSP compatibility (no Play services of course).

> And I am skeptical about the HarmonyOS Next thing and can't see how its fate could be different from Windows Phone if Android apps are out of the question...

Their approach is a little different than throwing something new at the wall and hoping it sticks and I actually see it working. E.g. HarmonyOS 4.x can and does already run non-APK Harmony apps, it just also runs APKs. This is why the article notes the growth of native Harmony apps prior to Harmony NEXT even launching - the transition already started. This also means Huawei has had time to do things like have the existing nweb (Chromium based browser) port while working on ArkWeb (in house browser) to replace the outside dependency wholesale. The browsers are great examples of the progressive strategy - slowly build more independent options over the years at the same time you slowly replace the backend OS over years and now you've done all of these "impossible" things without ever having the "big moment" replacement people can easily reject.

AIUI, HarmonyOS is a microkernel, multiserver OS developed by a team in Europe which includes developers who were or are still involved in HelenOS.

Such a system would be, at a fundamental level, better than Android and IOS.

better in what way?

It has the word “microkernel” in it and that sounds cool.