Nowadays, few people remember the old custom CyanogenMod firmware, but at one time it was the most popular third-party software for smartphones. Its community was so large that this firmware was released on almost every smartphone released, even if it often happened unofficially. However, at some point, it simply stopped receiving updates and was replaced by LineageOS, which turned out to be developed by the same people as CyanogenMod. We figure out why this happened and why everyone liked this firmware so much.
3 CyanogenMod features that made her loved
Cyanogen was not the only firmware with its own chips and unique capabilities, but in the end it turned out that its functions were to the liking of most users and enthusiasts. The rest of the firmwares were also loved, but often they were either overloaded with a huge number of extra chips, or did not have them at all, so they were not suitable for everyone.
A kind of unobtrusive customization options
First of all, it is worth remembering, of course, the possibilities of using themes based on the Substratum engine. Such themes allowed users to literally create their own skin – change fonts, icons, their degree of rounding, the appearance of the status bar and some small interface elements, like a brightness slider. While users of other firmware were forced to get Root and install Xposed, and then install the Substratum module there, CyanogenMod provided such features out of the box and without dancing with a tambourine – all they had to do was find the desired theme in the Play Store or on the Internet and apply it. Among other features, CyanogenMod allowed you to enable the display of weather and visualization of the spectrum of music on the lock screen, customize the status bar, and customize the navigation, power and volume buttons.
Ancestor “Trust” from LineageOS – item “Confidentiality”
This settings point anticipated today’s privacy hysteria – while Google and Apple did not even think about introducing such features, CyanogenMod already allowed you to set passwords for specific applications, as well as restrict access (in other words, block permissions) of everyone or separately selected programs to personal data such as contacts, messages or call log. Simply put, it was a kind of sandbox, calming with its work those users who had something to hide even from Cyanogen.
Beautiful and functional built-in programs
Despite the absence of GApps, which still in most cases means that the preinstalled programs will be terrible and awkward, in the case of CyanogenMod, the user was greeted with their own built-in applications developed specifically for this firmware, executed in the same style and not suffering from a lack of functions. For the most part, these were analogs of Google applications with open source, but also their own developments took a considerable share: a file manager, a voice recorder, a screen recorder, as well as a well-thought-out and functional AudioFX equalizer.
So why did CyanogenMod leave?
It would seem that there were so many good things in this firmware, but it still sank into oblivion. Despite huge community support and an incredible fan base, CyanogenMod needed a rethinking and rebranding because one day Cyanogen Inc. tried to play a big game, but could not stand it.
Крах Cyanogen OS
CyanogenMod was released in 2010 and began to build a fanbase with confidence. This went on for several years, and at one point, when a huge dedicated community had already formed, Cyanogen Inc. decided to start playing for high stakes. The consequence of this decision was Cyanogen OS – a commercial version of CyanogenMod, pre-installed on some then-released devices from companies such as Alcatel, BQ, OnePlus and others.
Alas, the project was not successful, as evidenced by the attempts of Cyanogen Inc. to deceive the public and overstate the number of users of the firmware. In 2015, the company reported that Cyanogen OS is used by 50 million users, although later it became known from the directors’ report that the real figure is half that – 25 million. Around this moment, the problems began.
Rethinking the idea and brand of Cyanogen
In June 2016 Cyanogen Inc. reported a reduction in staff by 20%, that is, about 30 employees of the company were subject to dismissal. At the same time, its leaders decided to end support for Cyanogen OS and its services, which happened on December 31, 2016. The official CyanogenMod website reported that the non-commercial version of the firmware will be killed along with this.
Shortly thereafter, a new website “lineageos.org” was created, which after the events described above showed the message “Yes, this is us”, and also told that the development team of CyanogenMod is working on a new firmware called LineageOS, which is a fork of Cyanogen. Thus, the team created the spiritual successor to CyanogenMod, which no longer has anything to do with Cyanogen Inc., which retained the rights to the corresponding brand.
Now LineageOS is not less, if not more popular than its predecessor, because they did not bring something radically new to the firmware – all the advantages listed above have survived, with the exception of the possibility of changing them, which in the end was partially implemented by Google themselves.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
