
Cyanogen services shutting down - robin_reala
https://cyngn.com/blog/cyanogen-services-shutting-down
======
otalp
To avoid confusion, CynagenMod will still be available, but I don't know how
long it can continue without Cyanogen Inc. Cyanogen Inc. is what is shutting
down.

But this probably means no more OTA updates for current OnePlus's

~~~
Fej
OnePlus phones haven't used Cyanogen in a while. They run OnePlus' skin,
OxygenOS.

~~~
justincormack
Some of us still have the earlier models that do. (Although it seems they now
ship Oxygen backports for the One)

~~~
dorfsmay
I do.

Is there a way to "upgrade" to oxygenOS? Or even re-install with oxygenOS?

~~~
justincormack
Yes see [https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/oxygenos-2-1-4-for-the-
on...](https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/oxygenos-2-1-4-for-the-oneplus-
one.425544/)

Given this news will probably try this.

~~~
franciscop
I used Oxygen OS on my One Plus One since it was released and love it. Feels
much lighter than CyanogenMod. Also, I think only old Oxygen OS are available
and no newer ones

------
0x006A
As someone running CyanogenMod on a devices that shipped with CyanogenOS, I am
wondering what it means for CyanogenMod. The source is available today and
will continue to be available in the future, but what about nightly builds and
other infrastructure?

Steve Kondik wrote[1]:

    
    
        It costs a lot of money to keep the servers running at this scale, and I figure we have about two months to GTFO.
    

That at least suggests that nightly builds of CyanogenMod will not be
available until a new setup is put in place. Steve Kondik also suggest in that
post that CM will have to re-brand to avoid IP conflicts with Cyanogen Inc.

There is some speculation that Lineage Android Distribution might be the new
name. LineageOS on github[2] also uses that name and mirrors CM repositories.

[1] [http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/12/01/steve-kondik-
blames-...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/12/01/steve-kondik-blames-kirt-
mcmaster-for-cyanogen-incs-failure-cyanogenmod-to-reorganize-and-regroup/)

[2] [https://github.com/LineageOS](https://github.com/LineageOS)

~~~
BuuQu9hu
Speculation is confirmed by this:

[https://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/a-fork-in-the-
road](https://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/a-fork-in-the-road)

------
captn3m0
Here are some prior details on what is going on with the company:
[http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/12/01/steve-kondik-
blames-...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/12/01/steve-kondik-blames-kirt-
mcmaster-for-cyanogen-incs-failure-cyanogenmod-to-reorganize-and-regroup/)

------
kijin
The last two times I bought a smartphone, I deliberately chose a slightly
older model that was proven to be fully supported by Cyanogenmod. I never even
bothered to explore the stock ROM on those phones. I rooted them and installed
Cyanogenmod as soon as I confirmed that the hardware was working.

I'm planning to get a new phone sometime in the next 6 months, but I don't
plan to check for Cyanogenmod compatibility this time. I have no idea what's
going on with that company these days. The future of Cyanogenmod seems to be
getting more uncertain and less open every time I hear an announcement like
this.

We have no need for the Year of Linux on the Desktop anymore, because Linux on
the Phone already commands a very large market share. Unfortunately, every
year the Android ecosystem feels less like the Linux I know and love, and more
like just another proprietary platform. I hope I'm wrong. I hope Cyanogenmod
and other Android forks thrive. But in the meantime, I'll have to use a non-
Cyanogenmod phone.

~~~
Tajnymag
Sir, you are unfortunately misinterpreting the article. Cyanogen does not
equal Cyanogenmod. CyanogenOS is a Cyanogenmod fork with added binaries and
Microsoft apps added by default. It's available and maintained only for a
certain amount of devices. This news doesn't have any connection whatsoever to
the open-source project named Cyanogenmod

~~~
kijin
The leadership and financial stability of a major sponsor and decision-maker
does have an impact on the future of any open-source project. Especially if
said sponsor did their best to make it look like they were the official
guardian of the project.

~~~
sangnoir
Of note in this instance is that the VC-backed for-profit sponsor was
established _years_ after the project itself was self-sufficient. Also the
original project founder is onboard with the fork

------
traspler
Here is CyanogenMod's Post: [https://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/a-fork-in-the-
road](https://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/a-fork-in-the-road)

All of this is so sad. At least for me.

I've used Steve Kondik's CyanogenMod on my ADP1 and have used CM until I got a
Nexus 5. It was just so much better than anything the OEMs could produce at
that time and had great customization features. Only Android 6.0 has stopped
my yearning for CM. I think it had a profound impact on Android or at least
it's technically oriented community. Even MIUI started as a CyanogenMod Mod,
afaik, before Xiaomi even produced Android smartphones.

I couldn't understand the rage in the community when Steve wanted to create a
business around CM and to this day think that their business model has only
benefited CM. pfSense and nginx seem to do just fine with a similar approach.

Did Cyngn (Cyanogen Inc.) fuck up? Did Steve make mistakes along the way? Were
his business partners toxic to the company and CM? - Probably yes and no to
some degree to all of these questions but hey, it was mostly great I think.

Sad to see the company go and sad to see CM probably die slowly. At least in
the form it exists in today. Hope dies last so I hope that CM will somehow
survive...

------
kevinbowman
"As part of the ongoing consolidation of Cyanogen, all services and Cyanogen-
supported nightly builds will be discontinued no later than 12/31/16\. The
open source project and source code will remain available for anyone who wants
to build CyanogenMod personally."

It doesn't say very much, does this mean that CyanogenMod will no longer be
available? Or just the nightly build service will stop, therefore actual
releases will still be available?

~~~
Namidairo
The speculation is that the name and logo all belonged to the company, so
apparently most/all the devs are upping and leaving with the open source
portions of the code and rebranding as Lineage OS.

The domain is registered, github organisation created and currently tracking
with CM's repos, and the channels are registered on freenode.

~~~
ntauthority
I'm mainly hoping that there'll be someone willing to pay for all the build
hosts tracking the mainline repositories and churning out 'known-clean' builds
for all the 'officially-supported' devices.

Android is a beast to build by hand.

------
suryakumar1
The company also confirmed its next open-source initiative Lineage OS with
some of the original team on board carrying forward CyanogenMod development,
however, in a new avatar: "Embracing that spirit, we the community of
developers, designers, device maintainers and translators have taken the steps
necessary to produce a fork of the CM source code and pending patches. This is
more than just a 'rebrand'. This fork will return to the grassroots community
effort that used to define CM while maintaining the professional quality and
reliability you have come to expect more recently," added the team in <a
href="[http://www.latestone.com/power-banks"](http://www.latestone.com/power-
banks") rel="nofollow">blog post</a>.

------
whyagaindavid
Perhaps this would be useful these days to find stock AOSP type devices
[https://www.stockdroids.com/](https://www.stockdroids.com/)

Was posted in hn
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13000120](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13000120)

------
xorcist
No big surprise. Their business model was to add a lot of "value added
software" back to Cyanogenmod, which absolutely nobody wants. The first thing
to do if you bought a phone with their commerical offering was to install the
open source version instead.

The question now is how this will affect the open source version. I understand
they have become quite reliant on infrastructure from the commercial company.
I also think the founder sold all the trademarks and so on, but should they
have to change their name it can only be for the better. A poisonous gas might
be a cool name for a certain demographic, but it's not likely to mainstream
very well.

------
tschellenbach
Looks like they were going after a solid market but failed to execute. This
happens all the time. Pity though, could have been a great company and
product.

------
lima
Whom to contact to help with the open source effort?

~~~
sangnoir
Probably cyanogen himself [1].

1\. aka Steve Kondik: the original founder of the open source project which
preceeded Cyanogen Inc, of which he was a co-founder before he bailed.

------
shade23
So the OnePlus team took away the Paranoid Android team and now CM too. I
understand the difference between CynaogenMod and Cynaogen. But cyanogen is
the only popular AOSP fork on which a huge number of AOKP projects are based.
This would have a massive effect on the xda community.

But I guess this gives more space for the new OSs like Sailfish, nextbit Etc.

Also in IMHO, AOSP was useful majorly because of CM. Even though this decision
might not close CM. It's affect on the self hacking Android community would be
interesting

~~~
fencepost
What?

What does OnePlus have to do with this? I'll admit I'm not down in the
trenches on ROMs, etc. but my understanding from what I've read over time is
that it runs like this:

CyanogenMod is a popular and widely used ROM

Core developers of CyanogenMod and possibly some business folks decide to turn
it into a company and provide said ROM (with customer-desired tweaks) to small
hardware vendors who don't want to do their own in-house development

Two of the client companies are OnePlus and someone in India, but contract
screwups mean that because of this OnePlus can't sell their phones in India.
Displeased with losing a huge market for inexpensive phones, they drop
Cyanogen and go their own way for future products.

Further drama and possibly not enough sales ensue

Internal drama at Cyanogen leads to the founder of CyanogenMod leaving

Cyanogen the company shuts down.

I'm sure there's a ton of nuance, hurt feelings, betrayal, etc. involved (aka
"drama"), but blaming OnePlus for Cyanogen shutting down makes no more sense
than blaming Cyanogen for OnePlus shutting down if they'd gone under due to
the whole "can't sell in India" thing.

~~~
shade23
>What does OnePlus have to do with this?

They have nothing to do with this. I was merely stating that out of the 2
biggest AOSP forks, OnePlus bought the entire PA team to make OxygenOS[1]

CyanogenMod was the official ROM of OnePlus One till they signed a side deal
which brought about OxygenOS.

They have done nothing here directly. But the AOSP project could sure do with
some diversity which this move just might bring in.

[1]:[http://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-paranoid-android-
tea...](http://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-paranoid-android-team-587101/)

------
Fnoord
Didn't Microsoft want to buy this company in the past?

~~~
dabockster
Microsoft gave Cyanogen a partnership that allowed them to bundle some
Microsoft IP in their ROM. Don't know how much it really helped in the end.

As for a full buyout, I didn't see anything indicating that.

~~~
Fnoord
Sorry for not bothering to find a source on it in my orig post. Here it is
[1].

[1] [http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Wants-to-Buy-
Custom...](http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Wants-to-Buy-Custom-
Android-Build-Maker-Cyanogen-457013.shtml)

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Pritishx
What about yuphoria ??

------
necessity
Site is broken.

