The apparent end of CyanogenMod

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The world is full of successful corporations built with free software and, as a general rule, the free-software community has benefited from the existence of those companies. But the intersection of corporate interest and free software can be a risky place where economic interests may be pursued to the detriment of the underlying software and its community. Arguably, that is what has happened with the CyanogenMod project , which is now faced with finding a new home and, probably, a new name.

CyanogenMod is an alternative build of the Android operating system; it got its start in 2009. It quickly grew to become the most popular of the Android "mods", with a substantial community of contributors and support for a wide range of devices. Early users appreciated its extensive configurability, user-interface improvements, lack of dubious vendor add-on software, and occasionally, privacy improvements. For many users, CyanogenMod was a clear upgrade from whatever version of Android originally shipped on their devices.

In 2013, CyanogenMod founder Steve Kondik obtained some venture capital and started Cyanogen Inc. as a vehicle to further develop the CyanogenMod distribution. The initial focus was on providing a better Android to handset manufacturers, who would choose to ship it instead of stock Android from Google. There was a scattering of initial successes, including the OnePlus One handset, but the list of devices shipping with CyanogenMod never did get that long.

Recently there have been signs of trouble at Cyanogen; these include layoffs in July and, most recently, the news that Steve Kondik has left the company. Cyanogen Inc. will now proceed without its founder and, seemingly, with relatively little interest in the CyanogenMod distribution, which, arguably, has lost much of the prominence it once had. Devices running CyanogenMod were once easily found at free-software gatherings; now they are somewhat scarce. Anecdotally, it would seem that far fewer people care about the continued existence of CyanogenMod than did a few years ago.

There are certainly numerous reasons for interest in CyanogenMod to have declined. Perhaps at the top of the list is actions on Google's part. The Android experience has improved, sometimes by borrowing ideas that appeared in CyanogenMod first. We no longer have to install CyanogenMod to gain (some) control over application permissions, block unwanted notifications, or get quick access to flashlight functionality. Meanwhile, Google's licensing rules for Android and, in particular, for the proprietary layers at the top of the stack constitute a strong disincentive for vendors thinking about experimenting with alternatives like CyanogenMod.

But actions at Cyanogen Inc. are also certainly a part of this picture. The pace of development for CyanogenMod appears to have slowed; there is still no release based on Android 7 ("Nougat") available outside of the nightly builds. In general, CyanogenMod releases have been de-emphasized in favor of those nightly builds — a discouraging development for users who are unwilling to risk bricking their devices with a random snapshot. When releases do happen, the headline features show a different set of priorities. The current release, Cyanogen OS 13.1, adds the ability to "view trending Tweets right on your lock screen." This feature is likely to be useful for the US President-elect when his staff changes his lock code again, but it's not likely to be the sort of thing traditional CyanogenMod users were looking for; neither are the new Skype and Cortana integration features.

In other words, Cyanogen Inc. would appear to have left its user base behind in its pursuit of revenue. That change has resulted in tension within the company, no doubt exacerbated by the failure of that revenue to arrive. Now, this process has culminated in a change of control at the company, a new focus on its "MOD" initiative, and Kondik's departure.

Kondik expressed a fair amount of bitterness over the end of Cyanogen Inc. as he had envisioned it. But he is also worried about the future of CyanogenMod as a community. He did not say outright that Cyanogen Inc. would no longer support the project, but he does say that the project has "about two months" to find new servers. So it is not unreasonable to believe that, if CyanogenMod is to continue as an even remotely community-oriented project, it needs to arrange for a new home.

It also most likely needs a new name, since Kondik signed the existing name over to the company he is now estranged from. Name changes for prominent projects are possible, but they are not easy; witness how long LibreOffice has struggled against the OpenOffice name, for example. A rebooted CyanogenMod will have to fight a similar battle while trying to win back the community mindshare it once had.

One can only hope that the project succeeds. Android has been massively beneficial to the free-software community, but we absolutely need a more open, community-oriented alternative. We need a place where new features and new approaches to privacy can be tried out. We need an alternative for users whose devices are no longer supported by their vendors. We need a mobile distribution that is managed with its users' interest in mind. We need, in other words, a mobile distribution that brings us all of the benefits that we expect from free software.

CyanogenMod was never a perfect community-oriented distribution, but it is still the best we have in this area. Without it, mobile systems, even Android, would be that much more proprietary and that much harder to control. CyanogenMod is an expression of just the sort of freedom we have been working for all these years; let us hope that its next phase of existence will be successful.

