CyanogenMod 9.0-rc1 available [LWN.net]

CyanogenMod 9.0-rc1 available

Posted Jun 27, 2012 15:18 UTC (Wed) by clump (subscriber, #27801)
In reply to: CyanogenMod 9.0-rc1 available by drag
Parent article: CyanogenMod 9.0-rc1 available

It's also safe to say that CM has a much wider audience and possibly more users then Debian ever had.

I've never liked this argument because a traditional Linux distribution has vastly different goals than Android. Linux distributions are often user-installed and often appeal to a technical audience. Android has vastly different goals, and is far from a traditional distribution in maintenance and behaviour. Comparing Android to traditional distributions only makes sense in that both share the same kernel.

I have a feeling that a 'Debian-style' system would run rampant and start eliminating and changing android subsystems in a effort to force it to conform to a political viewpoint. Which would then pretty much ruin it completely for most people.

Android has benefited from those of us that ran Debian on ARM well before there was such a thing as Android. While I'm thankful for both traditional distributions like Debian *and* for Android, I certainly wish Android would be more like traditional distributions.

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OT: CyanogenMod, Debian, etc.

Posted Jun 27, 2012 15:51 UTC (Wed) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

Essentially, yes. Since it appears that the original poster is lamenting that there isn't the equivalent of Debian for Android, as a alternative to using the anarchistic model that Cyanogenmod uses.

Personally I think that Linux distributions can learn a lot from Android. Specifically: that package consistency and compatibility between distributions matters massively even though everybody pretends it doesn't.

OT: CyanogenMod, Debian, etc.

Posted Jun 27, 2012 21:38 UTC (Wed) by rodgerd (guest, #58896) [Link]

Never mind the packaging, the ability to instal and upgrade applications independent of the OS, and vice versa.

My first Android device was an X10 mini pro running 1.6. I upgraded to 2.1. Then I upgraded to one of the Cyanogen-derived X10 2.2 releases. Then I got an Xperia Mini Pro running 2.3. Now I have 4.0 on it. Through that time I've been able to install and write applications that ran on 1.6 through to 4.0 without recompiling, and upgrade the OS under them; conversely I've been able to upgrade some applications to significant new releases without having to upgrade my whole operating system.

Desktop Linux is a pile of shit by comparison, from a user perspective, no matter how many times people stick their fingers in their ears and chant "la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you-users-don't-want-that".

OT: CyanogenMod, Debian, etc.

Posted Jun 28, 2012 9:19 UTC (Thu) by dgm (subscriber, #49227) [Link]

There's actually few people that goes like that. Even some hight profile kernel hackers have acknowledged that distros have to change their desktop efforts in that direction. See https://plus.google.com/111049168280159033135/posts/V2t57... for reference.

But one thing is realizing that something has to be done, and another completely different is making it happen. Distros here are in fact part of the problem, because for many current Linux users they are "good enough".
Also, distro developers tend to like the way they do things now.

OT: CyanogenMod, Debian, etc.

Posted Jun 27, 2012 18:57 UTC (Wed) by clump (subscriber, #27801) [Link]

For the point I was trying to make, there's not a difference between Android and CM. CM is much more transparent and friendly than its upstream Android, certainly. But it wouldn't be accurate to owe application compatibility, for example, simply to CM. CM and Android are more alike than different; they're related.

drag has a point that traditional distributions can learn from Android. Fair enough. Android, and its derivatives, could learn a lot from traditional distributions. I don't like the popularity argument for reasons I explained in another post.

I would argue that the success of Android isn't tied to its development model, its tied to the resources of Google. On the contrary, I see success despite its development model.

OT: CyanogenMod, Debian, etc.

Posted Jun 27, 2012 19:24 UTC (Wed) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]

As Linus pointed out in a recent interview, it boils down to what system is shipped pre-installed.