Tizen Operating System

What is the Tizen Operating System?

The operating system, also known as OS, it's software that acts as an interface between computer hardware and the users. It performs the tasks such as file management, process management, handling input, and output, etc. Every computer must need at least one OS to work.

The Tizen is an open-source, Linux-based operating system funded by the Linux Foundation. The Tizen project was mainly built to succeed MeeGo as an HTML5-based mobile platform.

Then Samsung came into the game and incorporated its' earlier version to Linux-based OS project Tizen to use with the smart devices. It's mainly used by Samsung electronics and then gained momentum in the market. Tizen has evolved to connect everything from smart TVs to smartphones and from wearables to IoT gadgets.

Tizen-based devices can provide seamless connectivity between different types of devices for users and Tizen developers.

The developer community designed this as an open source and flexible OS because it's open source which means it is available for all the developers. They can also develop and design according to their needs and use cases. It's a multipurpose operating system. That means it's a core OS with different versions, depending on the device it's on. It is a Core OS with diverse profiles based on industry requirements.

The fact is not only used by Samsung because many companies use its core OS by customizing it according to their needs. Device manufacturers can use one of the Tizen profiles and build and modify it to serve their own needs or they can use the Tizen base to meet memory, processing, and power requirements by developing a new profile according to their needs and quickly bringing it to the market.

History of Tizen Operating System

The history of Tizen OS is quite exciting, and it has evolved a lot as it is not developed as an OS that smart devices will use. Companies maintained the Tizen project from time to time and left until Samsung showed interest in it. It gained market popularity when Samsung merged its Bada OS with Tizen OS and used it in its smart products.

Now you know that the history of Tizen OS is quite interesting. Let's see how it evolved and gained popularity among smart devices and wearables. Take a look at the below infographics which briefly show the Tizen OS development timeline.

The above infographics briefly show the Tizen OS timeline, and we will discuss it in more detail.

The journey of Tizen OS can be categorized into three parts:

1. The Beginning days
2. The rejection and evolvement
3. Popularity in the market

1. The Beginning Days

The Tizen project began in July 2007 as Mobile Linux by Intel and was updated by Intel in April 2009 to version 2, based initially on Fedora. Eventually, that same month Intel handed over Mobilin to the Linux Foundation for future development and improvement.

The OS then merged with Nokia Maemo, a Debian-based Linux distribution, which developed another OS MeeGo, primarily developed by Intel, the Linux Foundation, and Nokia.

2. The Rejection and Evolvement

Nokia abandoned the project in 2011, and the Linux Foundation, along with Intel, founded the Tizen project as a replacement for Meego (a mobile OS based on Linux) and Samsung Electronics along with its other primary funder and commercial partners Access Company, NEC Casio, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile, SK Telecom, Telefonica and Vodafone.

Tizen OS will be built primarily with HTML5 apps and targeted at mobile and embedded platforms such as netbooks, tablets, smart TVs, cell phones, and in-car entertainment systems.

In May 2012, Sprint Corporation became a member of the Tizen Association. In early 2013 Samsung announced the launch of several Tizen OS-based mobile phones and merged its Bada OS into Tizen OS in February 2013. systena released Tablets based on Tizen OS in October 2013, and the following year 2014, Samsung released the Gear 2 smartwatch, which runs Tizen-based OS instead of Android OS.

3. Popularity in the Market

Samsung focused on Tizen OS and, on February 21 2016 announced another product Samsung Connect Auto, a connected automobile solution. Later that year, Samsung announced the addition of .NET Core support to Tizen OS in collaboration with Microsoft.

Samsung has been working with Tizen for a long time, with about 21% of smart TVs sold in 2018 running on the Tizen platform, making it the most popular smart TV platform. On May 19, 2021, Google revealed that Samsung has agreed to work on implementing Tizen capabilities in the next version of the Wear operating system and has agreed to use the Wear operating system for its future wearable products. Tizen will continue to be used in Samsung's smart TVs.

Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4 smartwatch has transitioned to Google's Wear OS 3 platform. Samsung Z4 is the latest smartphone to use Tizen OS. The Tizen App Store was permanently shut down on December 31, 2021.

Features of the Tizen Operating System

There are various features of the Tizen operating system, some of which are the same as the other OS because it's not completely different from the other OS.

Here are the primary features of Tizen OS:-

• Tizen OS works across devices such as wearables, smart TVs, smart cameras, tablets, appliances, smartphones, and more as it gives a better experience and universal and flexible support for users due to the stability across different devices, Meaning that it is not only for smartphones.
• Tizen is a mobile OS based on HTML5 that allows content providers to have faster development cycles and cheaper development costs when developing mobile applications. Additionally, Tizen OS supports cross-platform, meaning apps developed with it are used with Android or iOS with little or zero cost.
• Tizen OS is an open-source operating system, allowing developers to customize and personalize the user face or software according to the target audience. Developers can make changes and experiment with various new ideas.
• The application built on Tizen OS will work well with Android as it supports cross-platform, and you can implement it with little or zero cost.
• Samsung offers huge support for Tizen OS, so it works consistently perfectly with all Samsung devices.

Overall, Tizen OS is similar to Android and may be slightly different from other OS, but it does the right thing and ultimately depends on personal preferences.

What Devices is the Tizen Operating System Good For?

Tizen is an open-source operating system and supports a variety of devices. Still, initially, you only see it in Samsung Electronics products as Samsung primarily used it, and later it gained popularity in the market. The support is widely available now and is also used by other manufacturers.

Tizen OS is an open-source, standards-based software platform for a wide range of device categories. It even provides applications with an innovative OS and a consistent user experience.

Here are the common devices that support Tizen OS:-

• Wearables
• Smartphones
• Netbooks
• Smart TV
• In-Vehicle infotainment systems
• Smart TV

Tizen OS is open source and can be easily customized by developers to use on their devices. Tizen Core OS provides various profiles to develop and design it according to their needs and use cases.

Overall, Tizen OS can be used on any electronic device as it is not limited to apps only and gives you a chance to reach out to the audience.

How Is Tizen Different from Other OS?

Some experts claim that Tizen Os is not as good as Android or IOS, and well, it's somewhere true, but Tizen is growing fast, and in the future, it will expand its functionality.

We have already talked about the features of Tizen OS, but some supports are widely only available in Tizen, such as IoT and Tizen Studio.

IoT

IoT (Internet of Things) is something you cannot find on a large scale in any other OS. IoT in Tizen is important because of Device convergence and Connectivity.

Device convergence means that all devices are interconnected, giving vast possibilities to extend control across multiple devices. And with device convergence comes another feature Connectivity, which allows all your devices to be connected with Tizen, creating a unified system. You can connect and synchronize all the smart devices in your home. Imagine a connected home where you can control music devices, home gates, and vacuum cleaners while taking baths.

Tizen OS is a significant advantage in IoT compared to other operating systems as it syncs various devices and devices seamlessly. Tizen OS and IoT combined to create a better experience and easier life.

Tizen Studio

Tizen Studio is the IDE or development platform. It allows developers to develop, build, debug, profile and emulate Tizen web and native applications. Tizen Studio is a comprehensive set of tools and has 200 online sample applications for developing Tizen web applications and native applications. And all these samples help you better understand the framework and experiment with your new ideas.

Advantages of Tizen Operating System

The Tizen operating system came with pretty handy advantages over any other OS.

Here are some of them as follows:-

• Tizen OS offers support for touch gestures, which means tablets and smartphones are common devices you can use, and multitasking enhances the user experience.
• It easily supports games and apps that require 3D full graphics by providing 3D window effects.
• It provides a customizable interface that can be done quickly with knowledge of HTML5.
• Tizen is very similar to android, but in terms of design, it is better than android.
• Provides quick access to Tizen settings options and its lightweight OS.
• some experiments prove that Tizen consumes less battery than other OS.

Disadvantages of Tizen Operating System

Tizen OS delivers more benefits than disadvantages, but some common ones still need to be improved for a better experience for developers and users.

• It supports cross-platform with less use of third parties but still has minimum application support and availability.
• Tizen is still in the improvement stage, and its performance needs a lot of improvement, but soon it will be further expanded in the future.