3 ms·

Is Cyanogen or any other Android distribution ready for prime time? I happily run Debian everywhere but my phone, but it seems like hardware is still changing

by ISL 13y ago

Is Cyanogen or any other Android distribution ready for prime time? I happily run Debian everywhere but my phone, but it seems like hardware is still changing too fast for FOSS to keep up and maintain stability. If there's a sustainable and usable open solution, please comment. I can't make the time/expertise to contribute directly to a project, but I'm happy to bug-test at the level of Debian 'testing' and do contribute monetarily to software/distros that work. One thing that must work, always: 911.

gbog 13y ago
I'm running CM since my first android, works well. I had some issues but apps are responsible, and nothing some googling on sda didn't fix, eventually.
Brakenshire 13y ago
> If there's a sustainable and usable open solution, please comment. I'm looking at the Jolla/Sailfish phone. Seems to be a lot of ex-Nokia engineers trying to reboot the N9/Maemo. They're also shipping with fork of Dalvik (though I don't know how well that will work now that many APIs are moving into Play Services). I couldn't say much about the details, but at the least I'm happier buying a phone from a company that makes its money from selling phone hardware and software, rather than from data aggregation and advertising.
- brian_cloutier 13y ago
  > now that many APIs are moving into Play Services Which APIs are you thinking of? As far as I know, only a couple location services are in play service for no good reason.
  - Brakenshire 13y ago
    There are examples on the recent ArsTechnica article: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/4/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-... As you say, advanced location services, and then Cloud Messaging (an upgraded Push Notifications API), and some APIs which do accelerometer/sensor analysis. Maps API, Play Store In-App purchasing and Play Games (user accounts, cloud saves etc for game developers) are already there. You're right to pull me up on the post, though. It's not really correct to talk about moving the APIs into Play Services, so much as developing what's there, and creating new interfaces with new, advanced features. But still, that doesn't alter the basic point, which is that a lot of Android Apps won't work on systems which do not have Play Services installed.
jval 13y ago
Firefox OS?
alextingle 13y ago
I've only ever used CyanogenMod (with no Google Apps). It works perfectly well. The only really important component I've swapped out is the e-mail client - I use "K9 Mail", mainly because it supports IMAP push.
justincormack 13y ago
Sure it works fine. I think as Google has forked the core apps some more community work on them would be useful. Unless we are all going to move to other OSs - seems like Ubuntu will be usable soon.

by ISL 13y ago

gbog 13y ago

I'm running CM since my first android, works well. I had some issues but apps are responsible, and nothing some googling on sda didn't fix, eventually.

Brakenshire 13y ago

> If there's a sustainable and usable open solution, please comment. I'm looking at the Jolla/Sailfish phone. Seems to be a lot of ex-Nokia engineers trying to reboot the N9/Maemo. They're also shipping with fork of Dalvik (though I don't know how well that will work now that many APIs are moving into Play Services). I couldn't say much about the details, but at the least I'm happier buying a phone from a company that makes its money from selling phone hardware and software, rather than from data aggregation and advertising.

brian_cloutier 13y ago
> now that many APIs are moving into Play Services Which APIs are you thinking of? As far as I know, only a couple location services are in play service for no good reason.
- Brakenshire 13y ago
  There are examples on the recent ArsTechnica article: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/4/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-... As you say, advanced location services, and then Cloud Messaging (an upgraded Push Notifications API), and some APIs which do accelerometer/sensor analysis. Maps API, Play Store In-App purchasing and Play Games (user accounts, cloud saves etc for game developers) are already there. You're right to pull me up on the post, though. It's not really correct to talk about moving the APIs into Play Services, so much as developing what's there, and creating new interfaces with new, advanced features. But still, that doesn't alter the basic point, which is that a lot of Android Apps won't work on systems which do not have Play Services installed.

jval 13y ago

Firefox OS?

alextingle 13y ago

I've only ever used CyanogenMod (with no Google Apps). It works perfectly well. The only really important component I've swapped out is the e-mail client - I use "K9 Mail", mainly because it supports IMAP push.

justincormack 13y ago

Sure it works fine. I think as Google has forked the core apps some more community work on them would be useful. Unless we are all going to move to other OSs - seems like Ubuntu will be usable soon.