What actually is Aurora OS and who is using it?

Finally! Someone shared a QR-code for Beta-market (a teaser set of apps offered to beta testers) in telegram. Now private unlocked Aurora devices on sale can actually install Aurora apps. The catalog is rather limited. It includes some random sailfish apps AND some new Aurora stuff. Not all software at auroraos.ru/applications is included but there are some important things not listed there too. The Beta-market includes

  • Apps for the major Russian mobile operators
  • Banking: VTB app and webview apps of other popular banks (Sber, Alfa, Tinkoff),
  • Yandex Taxi (Yes!.. Sh*t, it enforces Yandex passport) Aeroflot (avia) and RZD (rail) tickets
  • Navigation: CityGuide (supports pro fuctionality for taxi drivers), Navitel, 2gis and more
  • MyOffice, R7 Office and multiple corporate document sharing and processing frameworks
  • Access to e-government, taxes
  • Press kiosk (needs paid subscription)
  • Retail chains and online malls: Magnit, Pyaterochka, Ozon, Yandex Market, LaModa, Apteka.ru

However some very useful SFOS apps are missing there, e.g. local commuter train shedules, Kodi remote, etc. etc.

4 Likes

Do some of these are actually Android apps? MyOffice or R7 for example. I’m curious if there’s AppSupport, of course.

1 Like

I was also wondering if they are android apps, especially the banking apps

No. AuroraOS has no Android support and never had it.
Alien Dalvik was the first (or one of the first) bits that got removed in Sailfish OS RUS even before the forked OS got rebranded as Aurora. Android emulation is not supported in any way.

In fact OMP tries to convert Android developers and make them port their Android apps to Aurora. Recentrly OMP announced support for Flutter and Kotlin in Aurora.

5 Likes

There is one real SFOS/Aurora banking app from VTB bank (It is a large bank under all imaginable EU suxxions). Another true Russian banking app is SBPay (payment service from the Russian national card processing center. Similar to GooglePay or ApplePay). It is supposed to be rolled out soon. Source 1 Source 2. Other banks still provide only webviews of their online pages. The difference is that there is some assurance that they work, while the same servers would not function under SFOS browser.

The largest bank in Russia Sberbank issued a public statement that they were going to create an official app for SFOS years ago, but they did nothing. The press release was revoked after my formal inquiry as a client about the state of development. Now Sber is a founding member of a consortium that declared creation of another mobile OS based on AOSP - StarOS. There are smartTVs and smart speakers from Sber in any large Russian electronics shop.

3 Likes

very cool, that they are all native apps

There is an android emulator application (called Avroid), but it was not published yet. We’re waiting for 18th, november for presentation of Aurora Rustore. And for whose who asked if the devises available on the market. They were, several hundred devices for discount price 155 - 170 € each. (R570Е phone and F+ Life Tab Plus (Мобильные устройства на платформе ОС Аврора) )

1 Like

I have finally this one. To me one bad things is Aurora Manager - any Aurora device must be activated and it is not the same as iPhone activation - governments spy vs commercial spy.

But UI is much betta than SFOS - icons finally as it must be

If compare it with INOI R7 then performance is more or less the same (i mean starting application).

There is lotta papers

R7 Office and Kaspersky and CryptoPro in free access (rpm).

I suppose it will be preinstalled. Have a blahblah with some gurl from Avroid. I don’t think it will be sold stand alone.

Some games for it

1 Like

that appears to be entirelly taken from openrepos

1 Like

Very nice to see some native apps for aurora os

1 Like

What is the browser version?

2 Likes

I sad bullshit. Its clear and not preactivated. Activation means corporate AMD (MDM) management. That is about those slides. But anyway it included Russians certs. So who don’t wanna this don’t use this.

Huh?
The (app) icons and the keyboard looks like a cheap Android phone.

4 Likes

oh cmon icons is anyway betta than SFOS mess. i’ve neva liked this ugly design way.
keyboard well yep so so…

1 Like

5.0 interface

Google translated: “Aurora” version five - what’s new in the interface of the Russian OS

That context menu looks like taken from Windows 10, pathetic.

1 Like

Thank you for trying out and reporting.
Regarding UI: besides from style issues (fonts, icons etc.) are there any different heuristics (e.g. gestures etc.?) that affect (or improve) the UX?