AsteroidOS

AsteroidOS

AsteroidOS 1.0 default watchface
Developer	Florent Revest[1] and the AsteroidOS community
Written in	Qt/QML
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Active
Source model	Open source[2]
Marketing target	Smartwatch
Official website	asteroidos.org

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]

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

Software Architecture

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

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

• Wear OS
• Sailfish OS
• Ubuntu Touch
• OpenEmbedded
• Hybris (software)
• Qt (software)
• Linux(Kernel)

References

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. 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. "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.