Distributions

An early CyanogenMod 9.0 review

The CyanogenMod project produces the best-known rebuild of the Android operating system; unlike a lot of other "modders," CyanogenMod rebuilds its distribution from the Android Open Source Project source and functions increasingly like an ordinary free software project. The announcement for the first CyanogenMod 9.0 release candidate hit the net on June 26. Your editor, never one to miss a chance to brick a nice handset with pre-release software, decided it was time to see how CM9.0-rc1 would behave on a Galaxy Nexus device.

The current stable CyanogenMod release is 7.2.0, based on the Android "Gingerbread" release. 7.2.0 adds a lot to stock Android, making the switch to CyanogenMod worthwhile even for those with reasonably good stock Android installations. Given that the project is going from 7.2.0 to the upcoming 9.0 release, one might well wonder what happened to 8.0; might the CyanogenMod developers be engaging in some sort of version number inflation? The truth is rather more boring than that. CyanogenMod release numbers are tied to the first letter of the associated Android release name. CM8.x would have been based on the Honeycomb release, but, since that release never happened, CM8.x didn't happen either. The upcoming CM9.0 release, of course, is based on the famous Android "Ice Cream Sandwich" version.

One of the advantages of buying an Android device directly from Google is that there is very little hassle involved in unlocking the device. No jailbreaking required. A simple fastboot command is enough to unlock the bootloader; one should take the warning that the device will be wiped seriously, though. Another fastboot command installs the ClockworkMod recovery image which, in turn, can be used to flash the actual CM9.0 installation. The hardest part, arguably, is figuring out the magic sequence needed by each device to get it into the recovery mode; with the Galaxy Nexus, one has to use the volume keys to scroll through hidden options to get to the "recovery" choice. That done, the CM9.0-rc1 installation went without a hitch.

Except, of course, for the part about having to completely reconfigure the device from scratch again. Lots of the requisite information is now helpfully stored on the Google mothership, offering a degree of convenience that can make one overlook the fact that somebody else is holding a lot of your important data. But one still must configure K9, re-pair Bluetooth devices, set various display options, turn off annoying notifications, and so on. The life of a device distribution reviewer is often difficult and unglamorous, but somebody has to do it.

What's new

Previous CyanogenMod releases have featured vast numbers of configuration options, allowing the user to tweak just about any aspect of the experience. For 9.x, the developers have decided that maybe they needed to cut back a bit. Such a decision might lead one to fear a GNOME-like dedication to removing any feature that proves unable to run away quickly enough. The truth of the matter, though, is that, from your editor's point of view, they have not taken away much of great importance. The knobs that really make a difference are still there; a lot of clutter is gone. So far, so good.

But one interesting result of this decision is that CyanogenMod 9.x actually looks a lot like the Android release upon which is it based. It is much closer to the original than 7.x ever was. It is, in fact, close enough that one might well wonder whether it's worth the trouble to make the change. What does CM9.x provide that an Android device doesn't offer from the outset — beyond the new, slightly creepy mascot?

To start with, there's still a higher degree of control over the interface. There are little things, like the ability to get a numeric percentage value for the current battery charge, for example. The "Trebuchet" launcher, while lacking the massive set of configuration options found in previous CyanogenMod launchers, still allows a lot of basic tweaks, including the number of rows and columns on the home screen. Trebuchet restores the ability for the home screen to rotate to match the handset's orientation. It also allows the removal of the Google search bar at the top of the home screen, something Google's own distribution won't let the user do.

There is a built-in "profiles" feature that can be used to store and load sets of configuration options for different places. As with traditional cellphone profile implementations, basic features like ringer volume can be controlled, but there is lot more than that. Profiles can control wireless behavior, synchronization, notifications on a per-application level, and more. One could easily set up, for example, an "international travel" profile that turns off synchronization and cuts out most, but not all, notifications. Unlike the profiles implemented by some add-on applications, CyanogenMod profiles can't be tied to times or locations, but that is probably good enough for most users.

Your editor still misses the highly configurable CM7.x power widget; 9.0-rc1 only contains the stock Android version. There is, however, a separate power widget that can be enabled when the notification bar is dragged down, and that one is configurable indeed. That makes it easily to quickly toggle features like airplane mode or mobile data. (Those wanting a massively configurable power widget can get it by installing an application like Widgetsoid).

Stock Android on this device included an option to go straight into the camera application from the lock screen—useful for grabbing a quick picture. CyanogenMod extends that functionality to make it possible to go directly to a number of applications directly from the lock screen—or that's what the intent seems to be; it did not want to work on your editor's device. One can also do some limited reconfiguration of the dedicated buttons at the bottom of the screen; if one really wants the search button back, one can have it.

Those who truly want to tweak things can go into the "performance" menu, ignoring the scary warning on the way in. There, things like CPU frequency policies can be tweaked. It is also possible to turn on kernel samepage merging (KSM), allowing the kernel to merge pages with duplicate contents and making more memory available. Unlike sometimes in the past, there is little in this menu that looks truly scary.

There's one other thing worth mentioning, even though it's not really a CyanogenMod feature: recent versions of the Android browser have a "quick controls" option found under "Labs" in the settings menu. Turning that on enables a nice two-dimensional menu obtained by swiping in from the side; it makes the browsing experience much faster and more straightforward.

In summary: CyanogenMod 9.0 looks set to be another solid release with some nice functionality and little in the way of obvious problems. Users who appreciate the more open nature of the CyanogenMod community or who want the extra configurability will certainly want to make the switch at some point. For the rest, given how stock Android has caught up to CyanogenMod in a number of ways, it may well be worth asking whether switching to CyanogenMod is worth the effort. Gaining control over a mobile device and flashing new firmware into it is not always a simple or stress-free exercise, after all. Users who have a pure Android installation to start with (as found on devices from Google, for example) might happily stay where they are. On the other hand, devices afflicted with extra "features" imposed by carriers, or those that will not otherwise be upgraded to a current Android release, may be significantly improved by a CyanogenMod installation. Either way, the upcoming CyanogenMod 9.0 release will be a nice option to have.

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Brief items

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Newsletters and articles of interest

Distribution newsletters

• DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 463 (July 2)
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Page editor: Rebecca Sobol
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