Other aftermarket Android: http://replicant.us/

Posted Apr 11, 2011 14:11 UTC (Mon) by coriordan (guest, #7544)
Parent article: CyanogenMod 7.0 released

The Replicant project makes a fully free software Android-based stack.

I can't find anything on CyanogenMod's website about being exclusively free software. That usually means it isn't :-/ Anyone know better?

(I only skimmed the two previous LWN articles - 1, 2 - but didn't see it there either. I'll give them another read later.)

Other aftermarket Android: http://replicant.us/

Posted Apr 11, 2011 14:40 UTC (Mon) by cowsandmilk (guest, #55475) [Link]

no idea, but they do have an Apache license in their source tree https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_vendor_cyanogen/bl...

Free software in mobile phones

Posted Apr 11, 2011 15:33 UTC (Mon) by rvfh (guest, #31018) [Link]

If they have 3D support (and you would definitely notice if you hadn't), then they at least use Imagination's closed-source binary drivers.

Other aftermarket Android: http://replicant.us/

Posted Apr 11, 2011 16:01 UTC (Mon) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (7 responses)

I think they're "as free as practical and constantly improving", like most mainstream Linux distributions. They start with the open-source Android code released by Google, and add more open-source code on there. But drivers for specific hardware, as usual, can be a problem. One situation I'm aware of is that CyanogenMod 6 used a binary-only GPS driver from HTC on HTC's Evo phones; in CM7 that has been replaced with an open-source version (which apparently still has trouble with early versions of the hardware).

Other aftermarket Android: http://replicant.us/

Posted Apr 11, 2011 16:10 UTC (Mon) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (6 responses)

Found the official line:

"CyanogenMod does still include various hardware-specific code, which is also slowly being open-sourced anyway."

Other aftermarket Android: http://replicant.us/

Posted Apr 12, 2011 11:08 UTC (Tue) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (5 responses)

Well, that confirms it. Pity.

Other aftermarket Android: http://replicant.us/

Posted Apr 12, 2011 18:26 UTC (Tue) by yokem_55 (subscriber, #10498) [Link] (4 responses)

I tend to think that having an android distribution that allows people to become less dependent on the proprietary software pieces of a typical android computer (i.e the inevitable vendor developed shell & associated apps, etc.) and supporting FOSS replacements, while still keeping the hardware useful, is a good thing and the real pity is that some can only see this issue as black & white.

Other aftermarket Android: http://replicant.us/

Posted Apr 12, 2011 19:43 UTC (Tue) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (3 responses)

If the project stated that the proprietary parts of their stack were a problem, and that eliminating them was top priority, then it could be useful.

Rather than seeing any similar commitment, their website ignores the issue, seeming to pretend there's no problem. That indicates that they've no interest in software freedom, and the situation could get worse rather than better.

I don't know the project well. Maybe they're a great team, but from their website, all I can tell is that it has proprietary software and there's nothing to say that they don't intend on adding more and more proprietary software.

Open Source & CyanogenMod

Posted Apr 12, 2011 19:45 UTC (Tue) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (2 responses)

You're reading the text differently than I am. I read it as trying to increase the amount that's open-source, but also trying to, you know, *actually work* on as much hardware as possible.

Open Source & CyanogenMod

Posted Apr 12, 2011 20:04 UTC (Tue) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (1 responses)

Sure, maybe the idea in the developers' heads is "Let's free the phone!" or "Let's bring the available free software to as many platforms as possible!". Those could be great goals, but there's no mention of anything like that on their website. When a project says nothing in their public material about valuing freedom, that usually means they don't value freedom.

Replicant seems like a way more interesting project.

Open Source & CyanogenMod

Posted Apr 13, 2011 20:03 UTC (Wed) by tetromino (guest, #33846) [Link]

> Replicant seems like a way more interesting project.

I suppose that depends on your definition of "interesting". As far as I am concerned, a mobile phone operating system fully supports only ONE phone model - HTC Dream/G1, which by now is completely obsolete, out of production, and cannot be bought in mainstream stores - is pretty much of zero interest to anyone other than diehard Dream owners.

Is cyanogen free software?

Posted Apr 12, 2011 13:07 UTC (Tue) by kay (subscriber, #1362) [Link] (1 responses)

the goal of cyanogen mod is NOT to create a completly free android distribution with open source hardware drivers (for 1 or 2 devices).

It's more about "mod"ify existing android to get the best out of as many as posible devices.

Kay

Is cyanogen free software?

Posted Apr 14, 2011 3:48 UTC (Thu) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

Just about. I doubt they have the resources to really pursue a full OSS hardware stack, even if they wanted to.