Samsung Tizen Operating System.

What is Tizen OS?

Tizen has been in development for years. We saw some phones running it at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, where Samsung also announced the Tizen-powered Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo. Finally Samsung has launched the world's first Tizen OS smartphone in Russia —  the Samsung Z.

Up until now Samsung has been using Google's Android OS to run its range of Galaxy smartphones and tablets. However, the Korean manufacturer has confirmed its intent to go it alone, offering an alternative to Google’s mobile OS, iOS and Windows Phone.

So how does Tizen differ from Android? Here’s six things we know so far about the operating system that joins Firefox OS, Jolla Sailfish and Ubuntu Touch in the bid to shake things up.

1. Its Open Source:

 Samsung has worked with Intel to develop Tizen. It is Linux-based platform built from Nokia and Intel’s ditched MeeGo. The fact it is open-source, like Android, means that hardware manufacturers that choose to adopt it are free to tinker with the interface and the UI to make it as unique as they like. 

Samsung has also taken some of the more interesting features that cropped up in Bada, its first attempt to go it alone on an operating sytem and built them into Tizen.

2. HTML 5:

Tizen is a HTML5-based operating system. This is good news for content creators since the platform should allow for shorter development cycles, works intuitively with the web and should lower the cost of making apps. 

3. Tizen look like Android TouchWiz:

The real question as to whether users will adopt Tizen has to do with how intuitive and experience it will provide. Can it be as user-friendly as iOS or Android’s 4.4 Kitkat operating systems? In its latest guise 2.2.1, Tizen doesn’t look entirely different from a TouchWiz-layered Android.

Tizen will also include the swipe down notification bar with toggle bar as used in the TouchWiz UI and is set to support multitasking, integrated power saving, a firewall to block sites and other features already available in current Samsung phones.

4. The Future of the Tizen:

While Samusng has dipped its toe in the water with its first devices running the OS there's still a long way to go before we see it as the main platform.  Will we see it in the Samsung Galaxy S6? It's too early to tell but the Galaxy S5 maker is looking at where to go next with Tizen. Version 3.0 is already in the works and some details were revealed at its Tizen developer summit back in late 2013, including support for 64-bit processors. We know that Google is also busy getting ready to release a 64-bit enabled version of Android. 

Like Android, there will be multi-user profiles as well as support for games and app that require more advanced 3D graphics. This update is expected in early 2015.