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All Cyanogen Services Are Shutting Down (cyngn.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the attention-open-source-developers dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader Nemosoft Unv. writes: A very brief post on Cyanogen's blog says it all really: "As part of the ongoing consolidation of Cyanogen, all services and Cyanogen-supported nightly builds will be discontinued no later than 12/31/16. The open source project and source code will remain available for anyone who wants to build CyanogenMod personally." Of course, with no focused team behind the CyanogenMod project it's effectively dead. Building an Android OS from scratch is no mean feat and most users won't be able to pull this off, let alone make fixes and updates. So what will happen next? Cyanogen had already laid off 20% of its workforce in July, and in November announced they had "separated ties" with Cyanogen founder and primary contributor Steve Kondik. One Android site quoted Kondik as saying "what I was trying to do, is over" in a private Google+ community, and the same day Kondik posted on Twitter, "Time for the next adventure." He hasn't posted since, so it's not clear what he's up to now. But the more important question is whether anyone will continue developing CyanogenMod.

UPDATE: Android Police reports that the CyanogenMod team "has posted an update of their own, confirming the shutdown of the CM infrastructure and outlining a plan to continue the open-source initiative as Lineage." The team posts on their blog that "we the community of developers, designers, device maintainers and translators have taken the steps necessary to produce a fork of the CM source code and pending patches."

63 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Well.... damn! by ichthus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One of my criteria for buying a phone was that it had CM available -- my latest being the OnePlus X. Every Android phone I've owned has run CM. This is very disappointing.

    --
    sig: sauer
    1. Re:Well.... damn! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Except it has had zero effect on Google which is the only realistic target for MS doing an embrace, extend extinguish.
      And, during that time period, windowsphone was extinguished.

      No, this was just mismanagement by the CM guys.

    2. Re:Well.... damn! by MrKaos · · Score: 2

      One of my criteria for buying a phone was that it had CM available -- my latest being the OnePlus X. Every Android phone I've owned has run CM.

      Dammit, I just bought an S5 for that very same reason, a OnePlus X is a much nicer phone. The later S5 I have seems to have partitioning issues with CM, but I will keep chipping away, have you tried it with the 1+X yet?.

      I think the idea behind CM is a really good one, except that the market isn't ready. The market impetus for CM is to have more control over the device. As technologists we are probably more easily frustrated by this as we are supposed to be ahead of developments. However I think more people will become more frustrated and they will start to demand better control over a device they pay for.

      Case in point a neighbor of my friend surprised me just a week ago when he told me that he had installed CM on his phone. This guy knows nothing about computers (except for playing games) yet was driven enough to find CM and install it on his phone. That is what tells me that CM is an idea ahead of its time.

      Frankly I think that freeing this project from MS is a good idea and that its time back inside a community of people interested in the idea, as opposed to commercializing it, will be a good thing for a CM fork. This recent development has just encouraged me to get more involved.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    3. Re:Well.... damn! by murdocj · · Score: 2

      Except it has had zero effect on Google which is the only realistic target for MS doing an embrace, extend extinguish.
      And, during that time period, windowsphone was extinguished.

      No, this was just mismanagement by the CM guys.

      wish I had points to mod the parent up. Not everything is an evil M$ plan.

    4. Re:Well.... damn! by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 1

      Well if simply uttering a three-word meme was the only proof of any wrongdoing then it deserved to be "punish-modded" then as it does now.

    5. Re:Well.... damn! by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Well if simply uttering a three-word meme was the only proof of any wrongdoing then it deserved to be "punish-modded" then as it does now.

      Why?

      People get modded Insightful on herd all the time for repeating ridiculous memes about Apple.

    6. Re:Well.... damn! by CRC'99 · · Score: 1

      One of my criteria for buying a phone was that it had CM available -- my latest being the OnePlus X. Every Android phone I've owned has run CM. This is very disappointing.

      Check OmniROM - https://omnirom.org/

      It forked from CM quite a while ago - and it'd be swell if the active CM crowd just continued there.....

      --
      Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.
    7. Re:Well.... damn! by ThePangolino · · Score: 1

      "No, this was mismanagement by the Nokia guys." FTFY

      --
      My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
    8. Re:Well.... damn! by guacamole · · Score: 1

      I used OmniROM during the KitKat era, and it felt like an extremely solid and fast ROM. I think they were closer to the stock Android even than Cyanogenmod. The only problem with OmniROM has always been a very poor device support. If you have a Nexus phone, then you're set. But it's pretty spotty/poor outside of Nexus devices.

    9. Re:Well.... damn! by CRC'99 · · Score: 1

      I used OmniROM during the KitKat era, and it felt like an extremely solid and fast ROM. I think they were closer to the stock Android even than Cyanogenmod. The only problem with OmniROM has always been a very poor device support. If you have a Nexus phone, then you're set. But it's pretty spotty/poor outside of Nexus devices.

      Yup - hence the best thing they could get is more support / contributions / patches.

      --
      Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.
    10. Re: Well.... damn! by umghhh · · Score: 1

      That is very new development I suppose? I mean just before xmas holidays I worked on a project with nokia guys installing their stuff on customer site. Or do you think they were not told they worked for free last few weeks?

    11. Re:Well.... damn! by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

      Well, actually there was a plan at one time for Microsoft to invest in Cyanogen, Inc. And there was much speculation that the reason for that investment was to prepare a Microsoft-friendly mainstream Android spin that would be there in case Windows Mobile tanked (it hadn't completely tanked yet at the time). The resultant outcry caused them to back off, but you don't go making statements like CM, Inc's CEO did about 'wresting Android from Google' without some viable alternative in the wings for Google services - which are a big part of what makes Android work.

      So at one point M$ had some contingency plans involving Cyanogenmod, Inc. Those didn't pan out - but they definitely have Android in their sights. Less so as a 'rival' OS these days, because MS is less and less in the OS business any more. But they sure want to get their mobile search, email and other apps to be standard issue on Android devices.

      --
      Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
    12. Re:Well.... damn! by samwichse · · Score: 1

      I bought a ZTE Axon 7 when reading that ZTE was actively working with Cyanogen Inc to get the device on the supported list.

      Maybe it will roll over into LineageOS (where Cyanogenmod's corpse is being reanimated)?

      Sam

    13. Re:Well.... damn! by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      I bought a ZTE Axon 7 when reading that ZTE was actively working with Cyanogen Inc to get the device on the supported list.

      Maybe it will roll over into LineageOS (where Cyanogenmod's corpse is being reanimated)?

      Sam

      I'm on the learning curve. I would like to see how many phones I can do, so if lineageOS is where the CM community is going, I will go there. If not, it might be time to look at an ubuntu phone.

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  2. Re: The Truth is Out There by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm glad this information is finally coming to light. I was looking for a good place to have dinner.

  3. Well shit, what do I do now? by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 1

    Damn, I've been using CM nightlies on my phone for the last year. Now what am I supposed to do? I was actually going to spend my day redoing my phone with 14 so I could get Android 7.

    What's a good alternative OS, given that I can not go back to stock? (No, really, there's a lock so I can't reflash the stock OS)

    --

    ---
    ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    1. Re:Well shit, what do I do now? by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      What phone? I've had the same nexus 5 since they came out and I always keep going back to slimkat.

    2. Re:Well shit, what do I do now? by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 1

      Hah, I've been beard-free since 2004. When my daughter was born, she cried every time she touched it.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    3. Re:Well shit, what do I do now? by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 1

      HTC One m8. They just pushed the 14 nightlies and I was looking forward to getting split-screens working.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    4. Re:Well shit, what do I do now? by execthis · · Score: 1

      There are a still a lot of AOSP-based custom ROMs and depending on your phone's maker modified stock ROMs. As usual, check xda-developers.com forum for your device...

    5. Re:Well shit, what do I do now? by FrankHaynes · · Score: 1

      My Motorola X-10 bag phone still works fine. Motorola has not released a firmware upgrade for it in decades so I assume it has been perfected.

      --
      slashdot: A failed experiment.
  4. LibreOffice by mentil · · Score: 1, Informative

    Remember LibreOffice? Someone will pick this up and keep developing it.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re: LibreOffice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      that was more of a fork but i agree this is popular enough that some one will continue it im sure.

    2. Re: LibreOffice by jordanjay29 · · Score: 2

      That's typical when the original trademark/brand is still with the original license-holder. Forking with a new name allows the work to continue without a legal fight.

    3. Re:LibreOffice by Desler · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that's exactly what the last part of the submission already says. Way to be insightful there, brah.

    4. Re: LibreOffice by samwichse · · Score: 1

      They've already announced a fork of the project. It's called Lineage OS:

      Tagline "Yes, this is us. We aren't going anywhere."
      http://lineageos.org/

  5. Continuing via fork under new name 'LineageOS' by Athanasius · · Score: 5, Informative

    We will take pride in our Lineage as we move forward and continue to build on its legacy.

    So not 100% dead, just not using the CyanogenMod brand any more because it's become tainted.

    1. Re:Continuing via fork under new name 'LineageOS' by unrtst · · Score: 2

      This is a double blessing then. I could never wrap my brain around the name cyanogenmod, could never remember it, had few friends that ever even heard of it, etc. People would just say (incorrectly), "root your phone", rather than something like, "install cyanogenmod or another alternative OS". LineageOS sounds like a great name.

    2. Re:Continuing via fork under new name 'LineageOS' by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      So not 100% dead

      Just pinin' for the fjords.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    3. Re:Continuing via fork under new name 'LineageOS' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Github says, "This organization has no public members. You must be a member to see who’s a part of this organization." Are there any serious efforts to pick this up by the open source community?

    4. Re:Continuing via fork under new name 'LineageOS' by Athanasius · · Score: 1

      The loss of the infrastructure, especially the build servers and distribution network, is going to hurt them badly.

      Agreed. I tried, and failed, to find anything OTHER than that github account yesterday. No social media accounts, no new blog, no website. I only hope that this is because they're not "ready" yet, and the announcement yesterday was rushed due to pending loss of access to the old site(s).

    5. Re:Continuing via fork under new name 'LineageOS' by Athanasius · · Score: 1

      In fact there's now a tweet:

      UPDATE: As of this morning we have lost DNS and Gerrit is now offline - with little doubt as a reaction to our blog post yesterday. Goodbye

  6. Not quite by klingens · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Cyanogen Inc. the company is dead and bankrupt. Good riddance. This has of course repercussions for the community project cyanogenmod as well. Especially for the name "cyanogen" itself, which belongs to the company but also infrastructure like servers which were used by the community project.
    But the people behind cyanogenmod, the ones doing the actual work for many phones, not the guys who wanted to simply sell that work, will continue:

    A quote from a blog entry at https://www.cyanogenmod.org/bl...
    "Embracing that spirit, we the community of developers, designers, device maintainers and translators have taken the steps necessary to produce a fork of the CM source code and pending patches. This is more than just a ‘rebrand’. This fork will return to the grassroots community effort that used to define CM while maintaining the professional quality and reliability you have come to expect more recently."

    So the name cyanogen/cyanogenmod is dead, the project itself is hopefully not.

    1. Re:Not quite by queazocotal · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course, the problem here is that development of huge massive codebases involve needing people to work on the boring stuff.
      If this doesn't happen, then no, the code doesn't immediately break.
      But over time, it gets harder and harder for the average developer to build.
      And at some point, you have a couple of die-hards working on it, at which point it may as well be dead.
      I

    2. Re:Not quite by klingens · · Score: 1

      CM people did the hard stuff before Cyanogen Inc. came along, there is reasonable hope they will do it after Cyanogen Inc. is gone as well.
      CM isn't even the only group doing custom Android Firmwares, just the biggest.

    3. Re:Not quite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And we have absolutely 0 examples of a successful 'huge complicated project to develop an end-user, server, embedded OS with complete User Interface, tools etc. that runs on x86, x64, ARM & probably 10 other processors'....

      Wow, you're on /. you'd think you'd have some clue about the state of OpenSource software...but just in case I suggest you google Linux as a start.

    4. Re:Not quite by queazocotal · · Score: 1

      Android is very, very different to mainstream linux.
      The presence of much greater platform diversity, and massive revisions dropped from above with no warning or care about your fixes is a massive problem.

      The number of people working on linux distributions is also far more than those working on android ones.

    5. Re:Not quite by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      The number of people working on linux distributions is also far more than those working on android ones.

      Plus many of them are paid. Look at the kernel change logs - or those for many of the popular packages people usually install with Linux - and start counting the mentions of Red Hat (or other corporate) employees.

      People get tired of working on the boring stuff, but that's often what's necessary to keep a project moving forward. For volunteers, there's often little motivation to work on things which don't hold some intellectual interest for them.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    6. Re: Not quite by samjam · · Score: 1

      And the kernel is also used by Android

      --
      blog.sam.liddicott.com
    7. Re:Not quite by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      and massive revisions dropped from above with no warning or care about your fixes is a massive problem.

      Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me of yet another reason I hate Google (and if anyone is thinking about modding me down, first consider whether you enjoy it when people/companies do that to you).

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    8. Re:Not quite by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      People get tired of working on the boring stuff, but that's often what's necessary to keep a project moving forward. For volunteers, there's often little motivation to work on things which don't hold some intellectual interest for them.

      I would like to point out that a lot of the 'boring stuff' is interoperability with other crappy systems, which wouldn't be necessary with a little care and thought.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    9. Re:Not quite by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      We do have another example of an end user phone, embedded OS that probably runs on x86, ARM and MIPS, it was Firefox OS and it dropped dead like a flying brick.

      I wonder if the same will happen, or maybe the list of compatible hardware will be even more and more restricted till a handful of Samsung and Nexus are left standing, and slowly dying.

  7. It was only a matter of time by drewsup · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once MS got involved, it was going to be game over, man.
    I'm hoping Sailfish continues to evolve....

    1. Re:It was only a matter of time by germansausage · · Score: 1

      Oh no. He did bring enough for the whole class. It's just that he took it all at recess.

  8. Thanks, Obama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Obama is still the president for another month, so this is his fault. :-p

    1. Re:Thanks, Obama by hackus · · Score: 2

      You are mistaken.

      The Russians did it.

      --
      Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
    2. Re:Thanks, Obama by grcumb · · Score: 1

      You are mistaken.

      The Russians did it.

      Wait—Obama is Russian?

      Wait—Russians are MUSLIM?!?

      Suddenly, it all make sense!!!

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
    3. Re:Thanks, Obama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Russians were actually all born in Kenya

  9. Re:At least iOS is still around. by Lisandro · · Score: 2

    Ever notice how the FBI never goes after Google/Android/Samsung/etc. for access to their phones? Apple has a much smaller market share and the feds are all over them?

    Because Android is like a screen door. The feds don't need to sue, they just walk in.

    No, it is because Android doesn't do encryption by default - the "why" beats me. Enable it and it is as strong as any Apple offering.

  10. Re: At least iOS is still around. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    New devices, since Android 6.0 Marshmallow, do encrypt by default. Custom ROMs often turn this off, CyanogenMod left it on.

  11. Replicant by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Has that project actually gone anywhere?

  12. Re:Just as expected by hackus · · Score: 1

    You're a mean one....Mr. Grinch.....

    --
    Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
  13. Terrible News for Android Fans... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

    Now if only there was a Mobile Platform that has a longstanding history of providing Updates for reasonable periods of time...

    Oh, wait...

  14. Re:At least iOS is still around. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    Ever notice how the FBI never goes after Google/Android/Samsung/etc. for access to their phones? Apple has a much smaller market share and the feds are all over them?

    Because Android is like a screen door. The feds don't need to sue, they just walk in.

    No, it is because Android doesn't do encryption by default - the "why" beats me. Enable it and it is as strong as any Apple offering.

    While I agree it would be significantly stronger than not having encryption enabled, how much stronger it is entirely dependent on the particular device's hardware.

    And in any event, it is not likely to be "as strong as any Apple offering", sorry.

  15. Re:At least iOS is still around. by Lisandro · · Score: 1

    While I agree it would be significantly stronger than not having encryption enabled, how much stronger it is entirely dependent on the particular device's hardware.

    Wrong. Android uses AES via dm-crypt, which is the same cipher used by iOS - the difference is that not all devices have hardware crypto support. IIRC this is one of the reasons Android doesn't enable it by default; it comes with a performance hit.

  16. Re:At least iOS is still around. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    While I agree it would be significantly stronger than not having encryption enabled, how much stronger it is entirely dependent on the particular device's hardware.

    Wrong. Android uses AES via dm-crypt, which is the same cipher used by iOS - the difference is that not all devices have hardware crypto support. IIRC this is one of the reasons Android doesn't enable it by default; it comes with a performance hit.

    I was thinking about the Secure Enclave chip that Apple uses. How many Android devices have that sort of thing?

  17. Re:At least iOS is still around. by Lisandro · · Score: 1

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... . Any device using Android 6.0 onwards.

  18. Everybody calm you peepees by cloud.pt · · Score: 1

    It's Christmas, so take that Christmas chill pill and relax. There will always be free ROMs as long as Google doesn't shut off AOSP completely. And unlike the article says, you don't need an Android system most people can build from scratch: what you do need is Android free as it is today, OEMs providing open drivers or at least driver packages that can be bundle with custom ROMs, and the dedicated developers on XDA that will have your back because they love what they do and they have the time. I know how selfish that sounds, but I have been spoiled and I know the official CM team has long done nothing different than what other non-CM based ROMs have.

  19. Correction by invictusvoyd · · Score: 2

    wish I had points to mod the parent up. Not everything is an evil M$ plan.

    wish I had points to mod the parent up. Not every evil is a M$ plan.

  20. Re:At least iOS is still around. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... . Any device using Android 6.0 onwards.

    It sounds like that is half of the system that Apple has implemented. Apple's Axx SoC's have a TEE, but they also have the "Secure Enclave" (SE) CHIP. What is still missing in Android's implementation is the SEPERATE Secure Enclave chip.

    I'm not a security expert, but from what I understand, the SE holds the key (literally) to decryption, and there is no direct or even indirect path to that key. That provides an important additional level of abstraction and security that no "on chip" solution can provide. And, according to those who ARE Security Experts, that is a significant advantage.

  21. Sometimes,,, by DrYak · · Score: 3, Funny

    wish I had points to mod the parent up. Not everything is an evil M$ plan.

    Yup, there is sometimes an evil M$ coincidence...

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  22. Re:At least iOS is still around. by Lisandro · · Score: 1

    They're literally the same thing. Apple's "secure enclave" uses the ARM A7's TrustZone/SecurCore tech, which is basically an independent CPU in the same die. There's nothing magical about it - Android's been supporting it for eons now: https://source.android.com/sec...

  23. Re:At least iOS is still around. by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    They're literally the same thing. Apple's "secure enclave" uses the ARM A7's TrustZone/SecurCore tech, which is basically an independent CPU in the same die. There's nothing magical about it - Android's been supporting it for eons now: https://source.android.com/sec...

    Sorry, still incorrect. Although Android is (gradually) getting better, slowly, it still is hit and miss, depending on which SoC your device OEM decides to use.

    The only thing I was incorrect about is that I was under the impression that the SE was a separate component, rather than being implemented on-die in the Axx SoC. Other than that, my assertion that iOS' Security is more robust than Android's, stands.

    Tomorrow may be different; but we're living in today...