The past two days have been an agonising test of my patience, and it's not going well. The XDA build server is down, which means the one feature I was working on for two weeks has come to a stop for some time. That sucks. That sucks balls. You wouldn't know how I feel unless you have valuable work stored on a server that crashes (with all your work) and you are unable to compile and test important functions.
However this server-crash-period (I'll coin that term one day) has provided a window of time to let me express my views on the Android world. Let's get started.
CyanogenMOD becomes a crowd-funded company and their irrational decisions
Seriously CyanogenMOD has come a long way. They are now Cyanogen Inc. Props to them. Gives us new developers the encouragement needed to pursue our dream. Well done CyanogenMOD.
However when things go big, the problems evolve into giant f**king walls that obstruct any further good. Such was the case when CyanogenMOD became a company.
CyanogenMOD originated in 2009 (no I didn't know of it then), and the community was happy and eager to help by pushing patches or at the least by providing feedback, but that's not the point. Everything was open-source (except for a few nasty binaries and maybe kernel sources for a few devices), so devs could not complain about "not being open", "not helping the community improve the project" and all that bullcrap people complain about sometimes.
As Android and CyanogenMOD evolved they got into arguments with a few developers who shall not be named. I'd like to mark this as the point CyanogenMOD started their downfall. Later in 2013, when they decide to become a company, a few of the most talented developers ditched the team. Why? Because their contributions weren't going to be fully recognised. CM was going to relicense some stuff, and one developer (whose post I read today) felt like he was being screwed out of his rights as a team member. That saw said developer leaving the team (and giving birth to Omni with a few other talented developers, some of who were part of the CM team). Over the years CM has become a massive aftermarket firmware that nearly 95% of all Android customisers and hackers (and whatever you guys like to call yourselves) have used at least once. Do you know how? Numerous people have contributed code that bring up a device tree, fix vital components, stabilise a build, get a build booting and even get a device building properly. With CM becoming a company, the efforts of these people are not going to be recognised at all, because face it the public usually don't care about what goes into making the ROM (or software as people call it in general) as much as they care about the finished product.
Can you blame the people? Yes. Can you blame CM? Also yes. Both parties are responsible IMHO. I'm not going to say anymore about this.
Let's look at another one of CM's weird decisions (IMO). Remember when CM kernels for MSM devices were based on the Google source code. Pepperidge Farm, a few of you and this one individual remembers. Now it's based on CAF. And look at all the f**ks I give (I don't own an MSM device :win:). But look at the fragmentation it has resulted in, especially in the Nexus 7 (2013) forum. Why did the CM team feel the need to do this? I have no clue, but it certainly didn't turn out the way they expected (or did it ....?).
BUT (yes there's always a but (that's not what she said)) as with all great companies, after every fall comes great success. Will CM become the most used, the most popular ROM once again? Or will it be suppressed by the likes of Omni (a serious competitor now), PA, AOKP, Carbon, Slim etc.? Only time will tell.
Enter OMNI: the minimalist's ROM
Remember what I was saying about a few CM devs dropping out? If you don't. dude(tte) shut down the monitor, take a whiff of the fresh outside air and get your brain scanned for defects (no offence intended). If you do, well this should explain a lot that's going on your mind. These devs joined up and at the BABBQ 2013 unveiled Omni, a ROM that's minimalist and yet extremely powerful. The devs behind this project are top-of-the-class developers, and therefore even if crappy patches are submitted (please don't do this people), each line will be thoroughly reviewed and not just dismissed "because it compiles". If you're a ROM fan, this is the one ROM you should look out for. Trust me when I say this, this project is going to be big. I wish the developers the best of luck in their venture and with this I end my first part of the SCP (server-crash-period) blog here.
Stay tuned for part two.
