While Cyanogen, Inc has been the source of many
headlines lately, there seems to be a lot of
confusion regarding the differences between
Cyanogen, Inc and CyanogenMod developers, as
well as Cyanogen OS and the CyanogenMod ROM
that so many XDA users love. The entities
surrounding each of these are sometimes different
and sometimes intertwined. We’ve gotten messages
and comments requesting for a clearer distinction
between these for future reference, which is why we
are writing this feature. Let’s start from the
beginning.
Some History and Perspective
Soon after the first
Android device
launched (the
famous HTC
Dream), root
access was
achieved to allow
for all the things
that our XDA hobby
is founded upon.
Throughout the
following years, many modified firmware builds or
“custom ROMs” started being developed for Android
devices, and around the middle of 2009, Steve
Kondik’s (a.k.a Cyanogen) ROM started gaining
popularity due to its modifications to XDA
Recognized Developer JesusFreke’s customizations
on the original G1. This ROM (known as
CyanogenMod for obvious reasons) eventually had
“Team Douche” behind it, which formed the core of
what would become the Cyanogen Team. With the
help of many volunteers, the ROM kept getting
better and better, and it was ported to more and
more devices to the point where it became the
popular piece of software that it is today.
CyanogenMod is an open source project where
volunteers can submit their own code to help create
a stabler or more feature-packed iteration. It has the
typical model of repositories and distributed revision
control, and the contributions can be tested,
commented on, voted and then merged into the full
body of code by the developers with the right
permissions. So far, so good. It is a model that has
worked well enough to bring us one of the most
notable custom ROMs out there. Nightly and
milestone builds spring from these developments,
and then other developers (like many at XDA) can
grab CyanogenMod and port it to other devices
unofficially, as well as fork it and create their own
variations and continue the development. In fact,
Kondik has been known to respond to people upset
about how CyanogenMod did things with “then fork
it!”, giving de facto approval for enterprising
developers to take and build upon, which is the core
of what open source is.
While the model remained similar in essence
throughout the years, the players behind the scenes
saw drastic changes. By now, most of us know
about Kirt McMaster for his outspoken comments
against Google. Cyanogen, Inc is a venture funded
company founded in 2013 which, at the moment,
has Kondik as CTO and McMaster as CEO. The idea
came from McMaster, who found Kondik’s profile
through LinkedIn and gave him a call to turn the
open source project into a company. McMaster
remembers saying “I’ll be CEO; you’ll be CTO. I’ll get
some money. Let’s go” . Those words alone would
reflect the discord that soon followed, as the
volunteer developers felt betrayed and asserted
concerns regarding the ethos of the project.
You might remember
the controversy
surrounding Focal
camera, for
example, where
Cyanogen tried to re-
license the open
source contribution,
add closed source
modifications and
claim it to be
“Cyanogen’s” camera. This is a theme that still
circumvents Cyanogen discussions: contributor
recognition, as there are many many people building
the ROM through volunteer work . Guillaume Lesniak
(a.k.a XpLoDWilD) made a heart-wrenching post on
Google+ that speaks about the concerns behind the
creation of corporate Cyanogen and its treatment to
the very contributors that made it what it is today.
While some things have changed since then, a lot
remains the same, and I urge you to read it at some
point as it puts many things into perspective.
What are the differences?
Now that we know more about CyanogenMod, the
open source project, its developers and Cyanogen,
Inc, we can begin talking about Cyanogen OS. This
piece of software is, to put it simply, a modded
CyanogenMod for OEMs to put on their phones,
straight out of the box. Cyanogen OS features
proprietary features and services, too, something
we discussed not too long ago as we saw
Microsoft’s partnership with Cyanogen become a
reality. What this means for users is that there will
be bundled apps and services in Cyanogen OS
releases, which to many means that Cyanogen is
transgressing on the spirit of their original project.
Cyanogen, Inc has paid
developers, including many
hired away from popular
Android ROM projects, who
help build and maintain
CyanogenMod as well as
Cyanogen OS, while the
rest of CyanogenMod
contributors are volunteers.
Like Guillaume Lesniak’s post predicted, the
developments that come from Cyanogen, Inc
do help the ROM (they just recently expanded their
CyanogenMod Team even further), and today their
Lollipop builds are among the top ROMs for both
users and developers. But like previously stated,
CyanogenMod contributors go largely
unacknowledged, and unrewarded too. Some
CyanogenMod volunteer developers are rewarded
with test devices and other neat presents, but in a
sense it is still largely unfair. Consider the following:
CyanogenMod volunteer contributors add new code
to a project that is open source, but that is
ultimately controlled by Cyanogen, Inc and their
contributions can (and in most cases will)
eventually be merged with a commercial Cyanogen
OS build for Cyanogen, Inc’s profit. We discussed
some of this in a feature where we said that this is
key for Cyanogen to build its commercial ROM, and
it is perhaps one of the biggest strengths the
company has. It is important to point out that the
contributors are not enslaved by Cyanogen, and
while they do not get paid, the CyanogenMod
project ends up benefiting thousands of users –
and developers – around the globe. That being
said, they do not get direct rewards for their hard
work.
A large part of
CyanogenMod
makes it into
Cyanogen OS,
so it can be
said that a
large part of
Cyanogen OS
is not made by
hired
Cyanogen
developers but
rather independent volunteers. This is one of those
things that make Cyanogen’s attacks against other
developers or manufacturers all the more ironic (for
example, McMaster claimed that “Samsung couldn’t
build a good OS if they tried” ) . Cyanogen, Inc’s
mission of an open Android also takes a hit with the
newer corporate schemes that they have going for
their Cyanogen OS, but luckily their community ROM
is mostly unaffected. Many claim that Cyanogen’s
project is not open given that they have the last say
on code merges and they can “shut it down” if they
want to, but Google’s open source project isn’t truly
free from these concerns either.
So, in easy terms: Cyanogen, Inc is a company that
has developers who build, maintain and support
CyanogenMod, which is also largely dependent on
volunteer developers. CyanogenMod is an open
source project, but Cyanogen OS contains closed
source services and bundled apps that are also
integrated into the system. Cyanogen OS benefits
from CyanogenMod as it is a modification that
builds upon it, but with additional proprietary
software and exclusive features. CyanogenMod
interacts with both the corporation and the team of
contributors and the company also rewards some of
the volunteers. CyanogenMod and the corporation’s
additions result in Cyanogen OS, which means that
the contributors indirectly add to the commercial
software.
This is, in general terms, the relationship between
the different names. At least, this is what is mostly
perceived, as we cannot know many of the internal
mechanisms that go on at Cyanogen, Inc nor all of
their interactions with the contributors. Whether this
model is unfair for contributors or not is up to you.
We hope that his cleared some things up!
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