The current state..

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.

This entry was posted on September 27, 2009, 9:41 am and is filed under Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Twitter posts

@DanDroidOS I'm sure there will have to be a few changes.

@AndroidFeens everything is on github

@wesbalmer i have a .psd file of it if that helps: http://n0rp.chemlab.org/android/CyanLogo_huge.psd

@manup456 ended up changing a bunch of apps to add new italian translations

@csmocky try clockwork recovery, I don't maintain mine anymore.

@JonathanDumaine its something I've thought about but would require serious work on the way Android looks up resources.

RT @Amon_RA: RA-recovery Nexus one updated to v1.7.0 : http://is.gd/aRW8J (Support for new Apps2SD method as implemented in CM 5.0.5)

CyanogenMod-5.0.5.1-N1 is out! http://bit.ly/ark2JE - Now available from CM-Updater! (XDA: http://bit.ly/85yekr) #android

#1 by Daerl on September 27, 2009 - 10:26 pm

If you can do this, would we be able to get the updated market; thinking of unrooting and waiting for ota donut late in oct. I only use maybe 5-10 of my apps on a regular basis. thanks for all the work so far, the roms are great.

Quote

#2 by Dan-Raoul on September 27, 2009 - 10:31 pm

Thank you, Cyanogen. Now I can say that I still have an ADP, and _use_ it as an ADP!

#3 by ownjoouk on September 27, 2009 - 10:55 pm

Google will regret making you do this Cyanogen!

I just hope the community can come up with awesome alternative apps so we can all remove these google apps from our roms and rock a better more cyanogenized rom!! Who needs them eh?! Lets not join them if we can beat them and I’m sure your following could easily beat them!!

#4 by Cullen on September 27, 2009 - 10:55 pm

Cyan, you’re awesome man, keep up the great work!

#5 by toto on September 27, 2009 - 11:09 pm

Cyanogen you are the best, after I flashed your rome a couple of weeks ago I was amazed by the speed and power of my phone now, then I heard the news and was very disapointed. However I am glade now and very happy that you found a solution and will keep continuing with your super amazing work. Thank you.

#6 by Hellfire on September 27, 2009 - 11:40 pm

You are the man Cyan!!, we all really appreciate your work and I personally admire it

is really sad hear that Google who were spreading all this stuff about open-source project mobile OS, and now results that is as Symbian well-said once, is not open-source is just marketing, this guys are just hypocrites trying to sell their stuff under the concept of the open software, that’s so lame…

Your position man is really very grown up, showing your professionalism..

C’mon man!, carry on with the Cy-MOD

#7 by pturing on September 27, 2009 - 11:45 pm

I figured this would happen at some point. Glad you have a solution.

#8 by Aranea on September 27, 2009 - 11:46 pm

Thanks cyanogen! I understand what google is saying but as your solution puts out I should be able to keep the apps I paid for (be them from google or someone else) while I update the OS.

Even MS doesn’t make us buy new office when we upgrade windows. Why would google make us do that?

#9 by n3mo on September 28, 2009 - 12:23 am

That’s great news!

I think this is THE best solution possible. Google proved to be quite hypocritical not once in the past (the whole Chineese internet censorship deal for example), but I feel that they just shot their foot – Android devices are strongly community-dependent, and such moves don’t really make the community happy and eager to get involved.

But that’s their decision, they have every right to decide what to do with their code. My personal opinion – Google got too greedy and mad with power, just like Microsoft and Intel.

Anyway, I’m glad you managed to find a solution, I certainly hope it works out – your mods make android devices so much more useable.

#10 by Daniel James on September 28, 2009 - 12:30 am

Excellent! Sounds like a nice solutions.

Glad to hear that Google are being helpful.

#11 by Rene on September 28, 2009 - 12:38 am

Thank you for being very professional and finding a way to overcome this current situation.

Since i live in the carribean i use Slideme me anyways to buy apps, since Market does not give me an option to buy apps, only to download for free. I cannot understand why google would risk making profits from Market. Peace

#12 by Wilnotdie on September 28, 2009 - 12:39 am

We need to make some Mac/Microsoft commercials, OpenSource/Google… Let it be known.

#13 by Alex on September 28, 2009 - 12:51 am

You rock cyanogen, Thanks a lot for working on this. Another contribution is on its way for your legal issues. Great idea about barebones Cyanogenmod. I know what my phone will run in few weeks….cyanogenmodBB!!

#14 by Ambarish on September 28, 2009 - 12:56 am

Excellent solution!

Thanks a lot for all your great work! I was getting worried that I might start disliking my android phone, which would break my heart

#15 by Gabriel A. Zorrilla on September 28, 2009 - 3:31 am

Good to see that you cooled down and figured out to work without the propietary apps. Well done!

#16 by Dane Christiansen on September 28, 2009 - 3:55 am

Fantastic work, my friend. I’m truly sorry the ‘man’ had to step in. Keep up the awesome work!

#17 by badbob001 on September 28, 2009 - 4:09 am

This would be the perfect opportunity for companies to offer their google-alternatives to cyanogen. I would love to see google’s reaction if microsoft offers android apps for their search, email, and maps. Yahoo can step in too. Also a good time to show non-google market places.

#18 by interestedperson on September 28, 2009 - 4:12 am

Can’t those apps just be downloaded off the android market?

#19 by Matthew on September 28, 2009 - 5:23 am

Isn’t Google supposed to “do no evil”?

#20 by z@nm@ster on September 28, 2009 - 5:42 am

You are a true hacker. I greatly respect that.

#21 by Paul J R on September 28, 2009 - 5:45 am

I would LOVE someone to explain to me how google would “lose” from the distribution of their closed source apps. Can someone explain that to me? I mean google get a cut everytime someone buys from the marketplace right?

#22 by MoS on September 28, 2009 - 6:08 am

A Google free Android Phone? Great, that would be much better than anything I ever dreamed of
Go on and kick Google out

#23 by Ash on September 28, 2009 - 6:17 am

This has to be the best “rom” for the G1, just haven’t been able to find anything better since I flashed it.

Hope you keep up the good work, I’ll be sending beer your way shortly.

#24 by ari on September 28, 2009 - 6:24 am

Thank you, Cyanogen. I’m a bit of a newbie, but I appreciate your work and your willingness to work around this rather discouraging roadblock. Keep it up!

#25 by dhex on September 28, 2009 - 7:52 am

Sounds like cyanogen mod 5.0 is cooking =]

#26 by George Antoniadis on September 28, 2009 - 7:59 am

Bulk install apps with rooted phone with bisybox, from the terminal:
su
cd sdcard/apps
busybox install *.apk /data/app

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=530066

#27 by letsgocolts on September 28, 2009 - 8:45 am

Good work cyanogen. Good way to stay positive and not let “GOOGLE” Discourage you…
“What would you have me do alfred?…”
“Endure master wayne”

#28 by TDc on September 28, 2009 - 8:52 am

Good to hear you’re getting back on your feet.

#29 by proutt on September 28, 2009 - 9:16 am

Hi all.

I think you made the right decision. If Google don’t want you to publish their applications, even for REALLY good points, don’t do it. But Google HAVE to make them downloadable somewhere.
What I REALLY regret, is the manner they took ti express it.

Thank you very meuch for your mod.
Long live to you.

#30 by dav on September 28, 2009 - 9:46 am

Good to hear that you’re back!
u made a right choice,waiting the new version of CM,thank you for what you have done

#31 by Land-of-Mordor on September 28, 2009 - 10:16 am

I won’t blame Google for that, I would blame the operators (ATT, Vodafone, T.Movistar, T-Mobile, etc). They all want to sell phones and if you have an old Dream and you can update it to the break-new Android software, you won’t buy a new one.

Just an example, recently HTC has offer an update to cupcake (yes, 4 months later) for Spanish users (Telefónica Movistar) and they have eliminate the option to load a modified boot image through fastboot, making more difficult to flash an unnoficial rom, near impossible. They just want us to buy new phones, anything else, and they ask Google to make it easier for them.

#32 by Land-of-Mordor on September 28, 2009 - 10:17 am

I don’t know what’s doing that “…,anything else,…” in last comment, sorry

#33 by Kudos on September 28, 2009 - 10:28 am

Good news, I can understand why Google want to keep their apps from being distributed on phones that shouldn’t have them.

The work you’re doing is fantastic, at least we have a compromise.

#34 by Jason B on September 28, 2009 - 10:59 am

thats so low of Google to do that. its not open source at all if the most used Google apps cant be enhanced. I hope you and other amazing Dev’s find a way to render all Google utilities as a thing of the past and I’m sure it will happen. Thank you for making my G1 as well as many other android users have a great and fun experience. Keep it up.

#35 by kernel on September 28, 2009 - 12:05 pm

What about the closed parts of system? They are IMO not distributable as like the other goog espionage crap;-) I.e. without the ril daemon you have barelly an mobile phone …

#36 by Nerd Uno on September 28, 2009 - 2:15 pm

Just when we were falling in love with Android. But it looks like you came to the same conclusion we did. If you own a phone and already can make a backup of it with the Android SDK, it shouldn’t be too difficult to extract proprietary pieces from your backup and add them to a barebones ROM. This also encourages other players such as Microsoft and Apple to stick it to the man by providing access to their own cool apps. Can’t wait!

#37 by Russ C on September 28, 2009 - 2:18 pm

I for one would welcome with open arms the chance to run my phone without the google apps. I don’t really use them much anyway.
Cyanogen thanks for all your hard work to date and I look forward to your future work.

#38 by Nerd Uno on September 28, 2009 - 2:28 pm

Hopefully the new design also will provide a way to retain the provider’s preconfigured radio frequencies. For example, in the U.S., to use AT&T’s 3G service with Android, you really need a Rogers (Canadian) phone that supports the correct frequencies since all of the T-Mobile devices sold in the U.S. only support T-Mobile’s 3G frequency which is next to non-existent in most parts of the country. See today’s Nerd Vittles article for more detail.

#39 by Paul Mazzano on September 28, 2009 - 2:29 pm

Happy Days, Cyanogen have to say very professional in your handling of all this, i only used gmail but i dont anymore( Thats just my little reaction!!) on my G1 all other google apps i dont use so this new Rom will be cool for my use. Thanks for sticking with it man

#40 by Greg R on September 28, 2009 - 2:57 pm

Thanks for the great work. Finding this rom made my phone a joy to use. The stock OS on the mytouch has a lot of lag and was difficult to use on a daily basis. It was great to be able to use one device for my personal google account and be able to use touchdown to get work information on the same device. This whole thing really makes me look at google differently. I saw google as the best place to go opposed to the alternatives. I think I will be switching from google apps and going back to microsoft live or yahoo… maybe someone will make a great yahoo mail implementation or live implementation for the new rom.

#41 by lbcoder on September 28, 2009 - 3:04 pm

Commendable Cy! This is a perfect solution.

I look forward to updates.

#42 by Chad on September 28, 2009 - 3:04 pm

Hey instead of just adding to the gushing support you’re seeing I want to do a couple things.. 1, Google has to protect it’s work from companies that would steal it and use it and in so doing, they also have to stop small guys like Cyan and whoever from using their code. If they let Cyan use their code, they won’t have a case against companies who steal it so.. that said. 2, I’m putting my money where my mouth is and donating to you Cyan. Keep up the good work and I’m sorry you have to work-around Google’s antics but I’m happy you are.

#43 by Chris on September 28, 2009 - 3:18 pm

This is an excellent alternative to a tight spot. Thank you for your hard work and for finding a way to keep our phones alive.

#44 by steeef on September 28, 2009 - 3:31 pm

Donation coming your way, dude. Thanks for all your work, and I respect that you’re continuing your work and trying to do the right thing despite Google being dicks about the whole issue.

#45 by subterraneus on September 28, 2009 - 8:05 pm

Thanks for the best ROM and for maintain it !!

#46 by Marcelo da Silva on September 28, 2009 - 9:22 pm

Sorry my English, I’m Brazilian.
Is it possible to port this OS for Chinese phones that use RTOS (VAIC, YPHONE)?

#47 by bbart1968 on September 28, 2009 - 9:49 pm

Great work Cyanogen, Note to GOOGLE: If i wanted a phone that I couldnt customize and make my own I would have bought an IPhone. Leave Android it open source.

#48 by said malki on September 28, 2009 - 10:36 pm

THANK YOU CYAN and i will be doing a donaion soon and i hope everyone does a donation too for the hard work that Cyan is doing!

#49 by Anonymous Insider on September 28, 2009 - 11:32 pm

Hello freetards, at times like this, you need dudes like Stallman and Moglen, not those fags like Raymond and Perens.

#50 by Karlis on September 28, 2009 - 11:35 pm

You rock, too bad for google, it’s their loss, not yours. What they could have done is given you some kudos for doing this.