AsteroidOS is an open source operating system designed for smartwatches.[3][4] It is available as a firmware replacement for some Android Wear devices.[5] The motto for the AsteroidOS project is "Free your wrist."[6]

AsteroidOS
AsteroidOS 1.0 default watchface
DeveloperFlorent Revest[1] and the AsteroidOS community
Written inQt/QML
OS familyUnix-like
Working stateActive
Source modelOpen source[2]
Marketing targetSmartwatch
Official websiteasteroidos.org

Wareable.com reviewed version 1.0 and gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars.[7]

Software Architecture

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AsteroidOS is built like an embedded Linux distribution with OpenEmbedded.[8] It works on top of the Linux kernel and the systemd service manager.[9] AsteroidOS also includes various mobile Linux middlewares originally developed for Mer and Nemo Mobile such as lipstick and MCE.[10]

The user interface is completely written with the Qt5 framework.[8][11] Applications are coded in QML with graphic components coming from Qt Quick and QML-Asteroid. An SDK with a cross-compilation toolchain integrated to Qt Creator can be generated from OpenEmbedded for easier development.[12]

Asteroid-launcher is a Wayland compositor and customizable home screen managing applications, watchfaces, notifications and quick settings. Asteroid-launcher runs on top of the libhybris compatibility layer to make use of Bionic GPU drivers.[13]

AsteroidOS offers Bluetooth Low Energy synchronization capabilities with the asteroid-btsyncd daemon running on top of BlueZ5.[14] A reference client named AsteroidOS Sync is available for Android users.[14][15] There is also a Companion App for Sailfish OS(Starship) and one for Ubuntu Touch(Telescope), but it has not yet been updated to the current release of Ubuntu Touch. An app for Linux-based smartphones like the Librem 5 distributed by Purism is also in the making(Buran), but cannot be used due to a currently still unfixed bug in QT5.

Shipped Applications

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As of the 1.1 nightly release, the following applications are shipped and pre-installed by default in AsteroidOS:[16]

  • Agenda: Provides simple event scheduling capabilities
  • Alarm Clock: Makes the watch vibrate at a specific time of day
  • Calculator: Allows basic calculations
  • Compass: A functional Compass app (only preinstalled on devices with supported sensors)
  • Diamonds: A game, which is inspired by 2048.
  • Flashlight: A simple flashlight app where the screen acts as a light source.
  • Heart Rate: An app for heart-rate-monitor bpm retrieval
  • Music: Controls a synchronized device's music player
  • Settings: Configures Time, Date, Language, Bluetooth, Brightness, AOD(on supported devices), Nightstand, Wallpapers, Custom Launchers, Watch faces and USB Modes (Charging,ADB ,SSH ,MTP)
  • Stopwatch: Measures an elapsed time
  • Timer: Counts down a specified time interval
  • Weather: Provides weather forecast for five days

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "AsteroidOS is an Open Source OS for Smartwatches". xda-developers. 2016-12-08. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  2. ^ "Licenses – AsteroidOS". asteroidos.org. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  3. ^ "An open-source alternative to Android Wear OS for smartwatches emerges".
  4. ^ "AsteroidOS: An Open Source Alternative to Android Wear". 1 March 2016.
  5. ^ "Install – AsteroidOS".
  6. ^ "AsteroidOS Homepage".
  7. ^ "AsteroidOS review". Wareable. June 19, 2018.
  8. ^ a b Brown, Eric (May 23, 2018). "AsteroidOS and OpenWatch Aim to Open Up Smartwatch Market".
  9. ^ "Boot Process – AsteroidOS". asteroidos.org. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  10. ^ "AsteroidOS/meta-asteroid". GitHub. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  11. ^ "qtcon: QtCon Program". conf.qtcon.org. Archived from the original on 2016-12-08. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  12. ^ "Creating an Asteroid App – AsteroidOS". asteroidos.org. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  13. ^ Prakash, Abhishek (20 January 2016). "AsteroidOS: An Open Source Smartwatch Operating System - It's FOSS".
  14. ^ a b "Wear OS alternative AsteroidOS is available for several smartwatches". May 16, 2018.
  15. ^ "AsteroidOS Sync - F-Droid". f-droid.org. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  16. ^ Revest, Florent (2018-05-15). "AsteroidOS 1.0 released - AsteroidOS". asteroidos.org. Retrieved 2018-05-15.