The Huawei Problem and Open Source Software

As part of his erratic policy, American President Donald Trump has placed the Chinese company Huawei under previously unfounded suspicion of equipping its devices with spy software and used his extensive powers to prohibit American companies from collaborating with Huawei. As a result, Google, Intel, Qualcomm, Microsoft, and other US companies have to withdraw their support for Huawei devices - with worldwide consequences and potential repercussions for everyone.

At a time when more or less democratically elected would-be autocrats are springing up all over the world, such scenarios are becoming more and more conceivable: China has a digital Chinese Internet wall, Russia wants to build and promote "its own Internet", In many countries, the Internet will be restricted, blocked, etc. In the event of this political influence by Trump in the USA, Google will no longer be allowed to provide Huawei its own tools (the Play Store and the other Google apps), Intel and Qualcomm will no longer be able to supply chips and it already says that Microsoft will turn off Windows activation on Huawei devices.

At least Google should not have any influence on devices already sold by Huawei, except as far as future system updates are concerned, but that is only a small consolation. Google and the others cannot limit the effects of the actions they are forced to carry out to the USA: there will be victims all over the world, including private individuals with Huawei smartphones and computers as well as large companies that work with Huawei and theirs, for example, refer all IT there.

The US has just granted a delay of 90 days "so that those affected can look for alternatives" (what a mockery), but if this nonsense is not completely stopped, the result will remain the same.

The situation can therefore result in Huawei cell phones no longer being able to use the Play Store and other Google services, or Huawei Windows computers possibly stopping working as if they were running a pirated copy of the operating system.

That would not have happened with (pure) open-source

What is interesting about the notifications about the implementation of the sanctions on the part of Google is that Google can prevent the use of its services, but not the use of Android itself, the operating system on which Google services such as Play Store and Gmail run. Android is in its basic version of open-source software. As a rule, open-source software does not belong to any company, at least not in the sense of a protected resource that is a locked, exclusive property of this company. The term "open source" means "open source"; This means that the actual program code is publicly and freely available and can be used and changed by anyone.

In the case of Android, this has been happening for a long time. If you like, you can "root" your mobile phone (ie gain full access to the system) and install a completely different Android system instead of the Android system used by Google with all Google services and those that the manufacturer and, if necessary, the phone provider preinstall, so-called custom ROMs.

Such a system is protected from any arbitrariness on the part of governments and companies. A Huawei phone equipped with a custom ROM would simply continue to do its job even if the Android versions installed by Huawei were completely separated from the Google services.

The same applies to computers that use the free Linux as the operating system instead of Windows. While a Huawei computer equipped with Windows is only a paperweight after subsequent license revocation for Windows, the same computer with Linux could simply continue to be used normally. Linux is not a company's product, even if many companies have made it their central product: the operating system is open-source and free and cannot be politically or economically restricted as long as a spark of the rule of law is still guaranteed because anyone can take the code and bring out its own Linux.

Open-source software is, therefore, more secure from access by states, secret services, and also companies, and thus also our data processed with this software. We know that the software from Google and Microsoft transfers a lot of data to these companies. We can use their software as long as they let us, and they make use of our data, which we more or less willingly - and often even without knowing it - give out. Open-source systems and programs, on the other hand, do not do this, especially not in secret, because since the code is openly visible, any hidden functions can be found and would sooner or later be discovered.

This is just one of many reasons why choosing open source software is a sensible decision. Linux instead of Windows, Firefox instead of Edge, Libre Office instead of Microsoft Office, Thunderbird instead of Outlook - the world of open-source software is rich and we have it under our own control.

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Addendum on May 22, 2019: According to initial announcements, Huawei is working on its own operating system, which should be able to run Android apps, up to 60% faster. It is easy to imagine that the basis for this system is the open-source Android and not a completely new development. Here, too, the value of the open-source software is evident.