Slashdot Mirror
CyanogenMod 10.2 M1 Released
sfcrazy writes "CyanogenMod team has announced the release of version 10.2 M1, just after the release of Android 4.4 aka Kit Kat. In a post the team says, "With all the Android 4.4 hype, we haven't forgotten about CM 10.2. Tonight the buildbots will focus their efforts on building and shipping out CyanogenMod 10.2 M1. Builds are already hitting the servers (please be patient, this will take a while). We are targeting over 70 devices for this initial M-release.""
For the uninitiated...
Right now, CyanogenMod consists of three parallel and active major versions: CyanogenMod 7 is based on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), and CyanogenMod 10 is based on Android 4.1 (JB) and CyanogenMod 10.1 is based on Android 4.2; CM10.1-capable devices are being phased out of CM10.0 , but since thereâ(TM)s a large amount of devices still on the market that arenâ(TM)t capable of fully running Android 4.x, CyanogenMod 7 exists to support them.
That is from their "about" page, and now slightly out of date with the release of 10.2. That version is based off of Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean).
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
what is an M release? meta? mother? moon? that's no moon.
I'm sure CyanogenMod is awesome, but the CyanogenMod homepage doesn't do a good enough job of explaining WTF it is, and why anyone would want it. I'm thorougly unimpressed by "it has themes" and "it has a DSP equalizer" and "it has quick settings". There are no obvious videos showing how it works, so please help me understand why anyone would use it.
Can anyone here please ELI5 (explain like I'm five) what it is and why someone would want to use it?
You do know that pretty much any Android device imaginable has a CyanogenMod ROM or CyanogenMod-based ROM out for it, right? Of course not, you're a paid for and bought Apple shill.
I use it on both of my devices: A cheap phone and a Nook tablet. Neither are officially supported, but there seems to be a lot of unofficial ports for unsupported devices. In both cases, my devices have better performance and features that were not available in their stock format. Personally I wouldn't buy an Android device unless I was sure that someone out there has already forged a clear path to install CyanogenMod, but if the Mozilla people can make a better alternative, I'll be more than happy to give that one a shot as well.
It's pat of my long standing philosofy never to use the OS that came with any computing device I purchase.
Yawn. Apple doesn't bother with Slashdot, nor does any other major tech company. There are much, much more influential fish to fry.
That's sadly not remotely the case -- most popular or "nice" Android tablets and GSM phones do, but most inexpensive tablets or CDMA phones (even ones with a fully-supported GSM"twin") don't even have a port. That is to say: devices by a high-end company Samsung invariably do, but anything by one more like Coby is passed over as the developers reasonably/logically only work on things they own.
Now mostly at Usenet:comp.misc & SoylentNews.org (it's made of people!)
Every release since they announced selling out have been gutted (saving to SD card, root, camera app, etc). They are removing things that made Cyanogenmod popular just so they can please potential Carrier/manufacturer clients.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
but anything by one more like Coby is passed over as the developers reasonably/logically only work on things they own.
Developer Christian Troy has ported an early build of CyanogenMod 10 to run on devices with Allwinner A10 processors, bringing Android 4.1 to dozens of tablets and a few other devices.
The Allwinner A10 processor is an inexpensive ARM Cortex-A8 single core processor that’s proven popular with budget Android device makers. It’s shown up in low cost tablets from Ainol, Eken, Coby, and others, and the Allwinner A10 is also the chip used in the MK802 Mini PC stick and a number of similar PC-on-a-stick devices.
http://liliputing.com/2012/08/cyanogenmod-10-android-4-0-preview-for-allwinner-a10-devices.html
I'm sure all 12 users with all 3 supported devices will be very happy. :)
Actual stats, 4.8 million official installs, est. 3.9 million unofficial installs (ports to devices not officially supported, or mods to the Cyanogenmod base), 235 supported devices. Not all devices are supported at the latest version.
Apple compiles their software before release because they can. iOS only supports 8 models of phone (aside from carrier versions), 5 iPod models, 5 iPad models and 2 iPad Minis. Compiling them all is a day's work.
Android is supported on hundreds of devices. Each needs a kernel compatible with the hardware, just like on iOS. Any one model of Android phone is the same amount of work to support as any one model of iPhone.
Despite that, Android initially gained ground on iPhone ever since release and at some stages has been significantly ahead of iPhones on features. Right now, I'd say they are very close to par, with Android having some things a little better than iOS and iOS having some things a little better.
Has more stuff, works on more devices.
Meaning:
- Some of the extra stuff, you may or may not care about. YMMV
- Gadgets supporting Android, get an Android adapted to them by whoever makes them. When your gadget's maker stops giving you updates for whatever reason (like: laziness, or not caring anymore), you can use CyanogenMod to get the latest version of Android with all the patches, updates... and the extra stuff you may or may not care about.
Please pardon me because I am a total n00b
But what can a CyanogenMod ROM do that the Android ROM can't ?
No version of iOS has ever supported that many models.
I just upgraded on my galaxy nexus, and heaps of apps were no longer installed, and the internet doesn't work. Both WiFi and cellular icons are grey and all apps complain of no internet. Hoping a restart will help, I am traveling today so really need things to work.
TFA claims "over 70 devices" but less than half of devices currently for sale from phone carriers or independent stores are supported by CM. There are vast numbers of Chinese tablets and phones that have no CM ported to them. In practice, "any Android device imaginable" boils down to "premium brand devices that have been abandoned by their vendors for major version updates". I like CM and it's spinoffs, it's very good for the ecosystem and it forces vendors to stay alert and keep supporting their hardware. However, claiming it has support for everything and the kitchen sink is just wrong and it may hurt it's credibility. Supporting over 70 devices is amazing, but it's not the over 1000 devices that are out there.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Yeah, I suppose; I'm only an occasional iOS user. I pick up my wife's iPad maybe once a week. She has an iPhone but I only touch that to answer phone calls when she's in th shower. I was basing my (over)estimate on the number of devices that run ANY version of iOS. Though I think they call the system that runs on an AppleTV by that name too even though it's not perceptibly similar.
Indeed, I was motivated to switch to CM when Samsung and AT&T stopped supporting my older phone and a security bug was announced but the fix wasn't provided for my phone from either Samsung or AT&T. CM had it out very quickly.
I'm posting this from a Nexus 7 (the older model) that I purchased for less than $100. I installed Cyanogenmod, then an Archlinux chroot (with minimal pain, thanks to the Linux Deploy app), and right now I'm browsing Slashdot from inside Arch (midori browser) while pacman -Syu does its thing.
I also installed python, gcc, texlive and vim, so I have pretty much all I need to be productive. I use one of those keyboard cases with a gutter to stand the tablet, and an extermal bluetooth mouse (much more comfortable than using the screen as a touchpad). The keyboard is a bit cramped but not unusably so. I just tested myself with typeracer and did 53 wpm, which is about half my speed on a regular keyyboard.
For the first time since 1995, when my beloved Sharp PC-3100 (a clamshell, AA-powered MS-DOS palmtop computer) succumbed to a leaking alkaline cell) I have a usable development machine in my coat pocket.
Verizon and others would love you to upgrade your device so often. Usually if you want latest and greatest, that would be only way.
For example, device I bought in late 2011, came with Android 2.3 and had only one upgrade - to 4.0. Yet I'm still on the contract, and there were 4 Android releases.
Thanks to mods and CM, I got very stable version of Android 4.3, and I intend to keep my device for a while.
Thanks to Verizon and HTC, I got not much for my money.
This is one area where Apple excels, their device commonly have up to 3 yrs of updates.