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

Posted Apr 12, 2011 19:43 UTC (Tue) by coriordan (guest, #7544)
In reply to: Other aftermarket Android: http://replicant.us/ by yokem_55
Parent article: CyanogenMod 7.0 released

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.