As time passes, CM fans around the community are often found pondering when a stable build of CyanogenMod will finally land for their favorite Android device. With the official announcement of CyanogenMod 11 M6, CM also announced major changes coming to their community distribution channel in the future (that’s ROMs to you and me). We won’t be seeing release candidate builds for devices in the future, nor will we even see a build tagged as stable. The M-series builds have served as a “stable” release channel for some time now and are aimed at replacing it altogether.

According to CyanogenMod, labeling a build as stable was a bit of a misnomer as it doesn’t mean completely bug free and it doesn’t mean that new features won’t arise in the future – just like firmware released from the big boys Samsung, HTC, Motorola, etc.

Like the ‘stables’ before it, ‘M’ releases are built off the ‘stable/CM-##.#’ branches – the only difference is now frequency and label. We could have chosen to remove ‘M’ releases and stick with the ‘stable’ tag instead for these monthlies, but the word ‘stable’ itself is a misnomer – it doesn’t mean bug free and it certainly never meant feature complete; but with the name ‘stable’ it gave the false impression that it did mean those things – especially to those risk-adverse that would only hop from ‘stable’ to ‘stable’.

Currently, M-series releases tend to come about once a month. If waiting about four weeks is too long for you between milestone builds, CM has plans to get a more “stable” build out the door more frequently for users. Once CyanogenMod has all of the kinks worked out of their new plan, we should see quality releases come every two weeks. This type of release schedule allows bugs to be submitted, tracked, and fixed in an timely manner.

This type of rapid release schedule sounds like CyanogenMod is gearing up support for the upcoming OnePlus One with CyanogenMod 11S and they’re doing everything in their power to ensure a positive future of the CyanogenMod community ROM. This shouldn’t be surprising seeing as Cyanogen Inc. is an actual company with funding now. Cyanogen Inc. has the means to hire talented staff members to fill needs and close any gaps that might exist, taking away pain points for both users and their company.

Source: CyanogenMod