The current state..

September 27th, 2009
287

The last few days have been difficult. What has become clear now is that the Android Open Source Project is a framework. It’s licensed in such a way so that anyone can take it, modify it to their needs, and redistribute it as they please. Android belongs to everyone. This also means that big companies likes Google, HTC, Motorola, and whomever else can add their own pieces to it and share these pieces under whatever license they choose.

I’ve made lots of changes myself to the AOSP code, and added in code from lots of others. Building a better Droid, right?

The issue that’s raised is the redistribution of Google’s proprietary applications like Maps, GTalk, Market, and YouTube. These are not part of the open source project and are only part of “Google Experience” devices. They are Google’s intellectual property and I intend to respect that. I will no longer be distributing these applications as part of CyanogenMod. But it’s OK. None of the go-fast stuff that I do involves any of this stuff anyway. We need these applications though, because we all rely so heavily on their functionality. I’d love for Google to hand over the keys to the kingdom and let us all have it for free, but that’s not going to happen. And who can blame them?

There are lots of things we can do as end-users and modders, though, without violating anyones rights. Most importantly, we are entitled to back up our software. Since I don’t work with any of these closed source applications directly, what I intend to do is simply ship the next version of CyanogenMod as a “bare bones” ROM. You’ll be able to make calls, MMS, take photos, etc. In order to get our beloved Google sync and applications back, you’ll need to make a backup first. I’m working on an application that will do this for you.

The idea is that you’ll be able to Google-ify your CyanogenMod installation, with the applications and files that shipped on YOUR device already. Or, you can just use the basic ROM if you want. It will be perfectly functional if you don’t use the Google parts. I will include an alternative app store (SlideMe, or AndAppStore, not decided yet) with the basic ROM so that you can get your applications in case you don’t have a Google Experience device.

I’ll have more updates soon as I get all the code hammered out.

Thanks for all the support thru all of this.

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  • yeor

    Constructive, I like it!

    Too bad Google decided to keep the asshat on, but hey if they do extraordinary things in other regards then we might just learn to live with the stinky parts of the Google Empire.

  • http://MurderFeed.com MurderDeathKill

    As a heavy user of your roms, I can only thank you for putting you neck out there. I will be donating to show my thanks.

  • Bouke van der Bijl

    Way to go cyan!

    Im going to donate to you, definitely :)

  • Andrés

    Awesome! Thanks so much Cyanogen! I really appreciate what you are doing for us. I think you’ve been able to overcome all the crap that’s come your way and in the end you’ve found a solution. Once again, thanks for your dedication to the community. You’ve made my day :)

    Keep up the good work! I’ll be seriously considering a contribution to your beer fund :)

  • DonPablo50

    You, sir, are a professional!

  • Cedric

    It’s really sad that Google just don’t allows you and other community for-free modders to redistribute their apps :(

    Other than that, it’s great to see you found a solution that allows you to continue your fantastic work!

  • Alistair

    … this is a really poor decision by google, and I hope they come to their senses and give you a license to shut their legal team up.

    There is something inherantly wrong about an open source project with closed source parts… I know it exists elsewhere, but its always at the cost of the end user’s “experience” which is unfair to the consumer.

    In the meanwhile, I am happy to hear you are working on a way to continue in light of this. I have tried many ROMs and felt yours were the most stable, and provided me with the best user experience. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for 4.2 :) keep up the great work! Thanks!

  • http://twitter.com/elmeraculous Elmer

    Good luck, man.

  • Mark

    Great to hear the project will live on. Just one of probably many bumps in the road to building Android into the best handset os available. (Not that it isn’t already, just plenty of room for growth and expansion)

  • Waskonator

    This sounds like a viable and well thought out plan.

    I’m glad to see you have kept your cool and also not just “rolled over” through all of this.

    Your ROM’s have been and still are the best alternative to Google’s standard OS. Keep up the great work! I have much faith in you. I think everyone does.

  • ChevyCowboyUSA

    Very well put! You really do an outstanding job! Thank you!

  • fabsn

    why dont we just remove all closed-source-apks from our roms and MERGE these roms with the OFFICIAL roms we have on our phones?
    i have no idea if its technically possible but couldtn we edit the recovery image so that you have to backup your current rom, the program then merges the backed-up legal rom with our modified one? It practically moves the google-apks right from your prior rom to the new one.

  • http://blackgins.wordpress.com blackgin

    Hi! I red that you want to create an app that backups google apps. I can do that if you need. (I’m the creator of backup for root users).
    I’ll be happy to give my contribute

  • Willi

    This way seems a good compromise. I’ve seen similar ways to solve closed-source problems long time ago, like the Linux-Dbox2 Project in Europe. They backed up the closed firmware parts from the original system, and re-integrated it into the linux system later. Just one more script to run, and 100% legal.
    I’m looking forward to see more :)

    Cheers

  • PenguinRage

    Wow nice way to go about it! Sad though that it has come down to this though..

  • http://www.androidappcritic.com/ Android App Critic

    Thank you so much for all your hard work. I know not how or why you work so hard for others but you can rest assured that you are well appreciated in my family. Another donation will be coming your way. I am looking forward to seeing your solution.

  • Waldo

    This sounds okay– but I heard that basic stuff like syncing contacts and gmail notifications won’t work even once the .apks are added back in. True?

    Glad to hear the phone will work. I also heard basic stuff like getting the phone to BOOT wouldn’t work w/o proprietary google stuff..

    Anyway, glad nandroid isn’t illegal. :/

    W

  • tr_tr

    Thanks cyanogen!
    Lots of us were afraid you were abandoning the Android ship, I am very glad you can live with the workaround and continue to produce your quality mods.
    This might work out very well in the long run and inspire people to create OS alternatives for the closed sourced Google apps.

    Looking forward to new releases.

  • Ahmed.S

    A mature and thoughtful decision Cyan. As I and many others have made it clear, we’re sticking with CM period, be it barebones or whatever. The performance and stability we’ve seen with your roms are clearly above those provided by Tmobile/HTC currently, and many can attest to this.
    I look forward to how this new solution develops over the course of the next few days/weeks. You’ve got the community’s support. Keep up the great work.

  • Paulmathijs

    Thank god, I was almost affraid that the CyanogenMod era had come to an end. Long live Cyanogen!

  • happydan

    So will we be able to pick and choose what apps to back up? Me, I’m not bothered about Amazon MP3 or th IM app. Also, Google should just stick them in a repo to be retrieved.

  • Dan aka DiningInHell aka bolmedias

    Sweet one, Cyanogen, once again you’re gonna be at the forefront of the Android dev community. Get this one right and you’ll be the new JF or Haykuro.

    @DiningInHell on Twitter.

    bolmedias on XDA-Devs

  • http://markalcalaramos.blogspot.com Mark Ramos

    This is great! It’s really nice that you still found a way through this problem! I admire your passion! More power!

  • ildennis

    Tank’s Cyanogen!!!

  • sunil

    Steve, You’ve made a very impressive move yet difficult to help entire community. I would urge all guys to donate whatever you could to help steve make this possible.

  • elzee

    Proud of you Cyanogen.

    I have contributed to your beer fund in the past and will continue to contribute to the occasional demise of your brain cells, as needed and required! ;)

    Cheers cobber!

  • Andreas Rosander

    Good work Steve!

  • Fugita

    YES I so look forward to this! If your new Google reinstall application would allow us to select which applications we wanted like if we don’t want GTalk then we don’t need to install it. What do you think? A possibility?

  • http://blog.jl42.de Jakob Lenfers

    It’s too bad that its getting complicated installing a mod now, but well, its their right and even if I think its not the way you are using their stuff, googles afraid in what ways others might use it and try to stop it right here. :(

  • farmatito

    If this can help you feel free to use it.
    http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=565054

  • http://www.caiwangqin.com Jesse Cai

    Thanks cyanogen for the good job!

  • http://www.michaelmanning.org/ Michael Manning

    This is one of those situations where the professional approach which you have always taken is shining through. It is great that you will continue to develop and release these ROMs and we will all be supporting you :-)

    The Google stance is something that we should understand, but they should also realise that their apps are a key part of the “experience” and that the redistribution or availability of these can only benefit Google. It would be great if they could make these available via the Android market (even for a fee), or through some other means by working with the community and not putting a blocker on it.

    Here’s to more great Cyanogen releases!

  • Ben, UK

    Great News. THANKS CYANOGEN! (Steve!)

    I for one will be donating a beer or two.

    Hell, Id be happy to pay a subscription for decent updates to the G1!!!

  • Al

    Such a shame that you’re having to take time out of your usual dev work on Android to add in this functionality, but I’m glad it’s hopefully all working out.

    As someone said earlier it’s be nice (although not vital in the first release) to be able to pick and choose what’s backed up, as Amazon MP3 Store doesn’t work here in the UK anyway (although the song previews do).

    That brings me to another point. Shouldn’t anyone now on one of your ‘warez’ ROMs now go back to an OTA update in order to get back their origianl legal Google Experience apps so they can do this backup/restore legally?

    I’m on CM 4.1.11.1, and if I did this backup/restore I’d technically still be illegal as I have your ‘warez’ and (for example) the Amazon MP3 store that I never had a license for in the first place.

    Not that I want to cause you extra headaches, and I have no moral problem with it at all. Just putting it out there as no-one else seems to have done so yet in all I’ve read.

    Thanks for all the hard work, I’ll certainly be donating! And I hope we don’t have to go back to an OTA as I really hate wiping and reinstalling apps!

  • nebelig

    Great Idea! After enjoying a lot with the experience your ROM provided me, I thank you for your work and I’m sure this will not be difficult for you!

  • koe

    Sounds good, please continue your great work!

    BTW, have you heard about http://code.google.com/p/osmdroid/ ?
    It looks like a good (API compatible) replacement for Google Maps.

  • Justin

    Such fantastic news, I knew that there were good solutions to be had.

    I still have a few usability questions but am completely stoked the CM is still on the mission!

  • Nigel

    Great news. Made my day better.

  • Adam Oram

    Yes!! way to go cyan!

    We will get cm 4.2 after all! I’m so happy!

    who needs shitty Gmail, Google Maps, and Youtube anyways?? ;)

    can’t wait!

  • Chrigi

    Nice to hear that you found a way. You also said that Nandroid would be illegal. So will there also be a de-nandroidified Recovery?

  • Hel

    Awesome! I’m REALLY happy this hasn’t knocked you out of the Android game. If it weren’t for you and your efforts, my phone would not be the piece of purely awesome technology I can’t live without that it is. If I’ve got to take the extra step of pulling gmail out of an image file to be able to use your ROM, then that’s what I’m going to do.

  • Tony

    Dude.. I’m totally broke/jobless. I will still donate!!

  • ei8htohms

    You’ve made my day yet again and continue to be the single best reason to stick with Android.

    Re: The suggestion that we all need to “legalify” our current ROMs by going back to stock before applying your next “legal” update seems sound, but it’s not your responsibility of course except perhaps as a suggestion to all former and continuing CM users. It’s up to us to do so as long as the “illegal” versions are no longer distributed. Just my $0.02.

  • Boris

    Cyanogen, thank you for your great work! I´m happy again on my Phone and your upcoming release! Thank you very much. I will donate after my business-trip to US next week.

  • utard

    Good to hear. Glad things are working out. I understand their stance but other than the Market (didnt know there were alternates) and GMap I didn’t use their apps anyway. Suggestion if you havent considered this: let us choose what to back up and restore. I have no need for the Amazon MP3 app and such, no need to backup and restore that.

    Good work sir.

  • http://www.dundervik.no dDon

    I just love your calmness. And you, instead of feeling neglected for your hard work, you manage to be positive and understanding.

    What I don’t get is that…since we bought the phones with the non-open-source google apps, hence we are entitled to them. I can’t imagine HTC paying Google again when they release an upgrade to their HTC Sense UI. So why is this different?

    I wish this never happened so that you could use your time and energy on providing us with the best possible ROM’s out there.

  • Brahmson

    The question is not whether Google is within its legal rights, but what they do with their rights. Their complaint against you, CYANOGEN, teaches us that Google is trying to control the Android market and the Android user experience. Exactly like Apple controls the iPhone market.

    This opens the door for for Apple and AT&T to go back to the FCC and say that they are exactly like Google and there is no merit to the complaint about GoogleVoice. AT&A already calling Google a hypocrite (see http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10362148-266.html) and this just gives them more ammunition.

    If Google attorneys contact you again, please communicate this comment to them. Their attorneys will then have the obligation to tell their client, Google, about this. This may well force Google to rethink.

  • pconwell

    I’m excited about this move. I’ve wanted a bare bones system for a while. I don’t use amazon mp3 or some other stuff. I just hope that we can pick and choose our backed-up apps.

    Thanks for everything you do.

  • Daniele

    great!
    you’re really the best ;)
    appreciate your way to make it work everytime and in any condition, even the worst ;)

  • http://www.mediavida.com TaMy

    I rly like your Roms. Continue doing it. It’s fantastic.

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