Motorola Releases Nougat’s Kernel Source Code for the Moto Z2 Play and G5S Plus

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Thanks to the General Public License (GPL), the developer community here at XDA has been able to grow into what it is today. While most of the well-known OEMs continue to abide by the GPL (with varying timeliness), many have ignored its requirements even though it is seen as violating a legally binding contract. Companies like Samsung and Motorola are generally good at following the license laid out for Android devices they sell, but even they have slipped up from time to time. This week though, Motorola has uploaded the Android 7.1.1 Nougat kernel source code for both the Moto Z2 Play and the Moto G5S Plus.

It’s not that the kernel source code for Android devices are required in order to release functional custom ROMs. But when the code isn’t available this job becomes harder to pull off and usually ends up having hacked together bits of code just to get certain hardware working. This results in various bugs within the custom ROM software due to the kernel not interfacing with the hardware the way it was intended to.

This is why we appreciate it when companies like Motorola release the kernel source code for their devices in a timely manner (and also why we criticize them when they don’t). This move will likely boost the developer community of these two devices so if you own either of these then it will be a good idea to keep an eye on the development subforum for both the Moto Z2 Play as well as the Moto G5S.

You can find these right on Motorola’s GitHub profile (MotorolaMobilityLLC) and we have provided links directly to both devices (the Moto G5S Plus and the Moto Z2 Play) down below. Let’s hope other current and future Moto devices get the same treatment!