[Android Apps and Games] Mike B.:
<RANT>

I've tried very hard to ignore all the brouhaha in this thread but frustration compels me to make one last post.

AdAway (a terribly inaccurate name!) is simply a convenient tool that helps gather and manage hosts lists and include them in /system/etc/hosts. In the right configuration, it does that job efficiently and painlessly.

As long as it has online access to grab hosts lists, AdAway merely needs the ability to edit /system/etc/hosts to accomplish its main function. The optional webserver could easily be a separate service and its simple functionality is already available via other means.

Discussions about how to block "ads" from specific apps or on specific web sites probably belong in a separate generic DNS-related thread since AdAway is not needed at all to do that and some users prefer (or are forced to) edit their hosts file directly. After all, as mentioned countless times previously, AdAway doesn't know or care about ads and doesn't block or redirect anything on its own.

Discussions about "root" or "systemless" are irrelevant in an AdAway thread. In an ideal world, a rooted device would allow selected process full access to the hosts file, but not all root methods and implementations grant that access for a variety of reasons. Technically, the device doesn't even need to be rooted even though all current Android implementations make that a requirement. The currently available AdAway option of selecting a target file already allows the savvy user to point to any location he/she wishes.

The ability to edit files in /system/etc is a great feature for much more than the hosts file (gps.conf, mixer_paths.xml, countless configuration files, etc.). For configurations that limit that ability, it seems odd and somewhat counter-productive to add all sort of circumvoluted "tricks" into AdAway when they are mostly only needed once and would need to be tweaked regularly to cope with the fashionable root scheme du jour, not to mention that it won't help users who need to edit anything else in /etc.

Why this ranting? Because it's extremely frustrating and disheartening to see a wonderfully simple and efficient app such as AdAway get increasingly bogged down in a plethora of pointless arguments and watch it get bloated for no clear benefit. Find the way to edit /system/etc/hosts that works for your configuration, whether it is rooted or not, systemless or not, SuperSU-based or not, using whatever works for you (select a different target file, create a symlink, bind/mount, etc.), then AdAway will do its job quickly and painlessly without all the drama. If you don't know how to do that, ask whoever committed your current ROM/root. If THEY don't have an answer, don't expect poor little AdAway to solve those problems unilaterally.

My personal approach: I use a version largely based on [MENTION=3355398]mrRobinson[/MENTION]'s v3.1.2 (minus the IPv6 part) which works fine on every 5.x, 6.x, and 7.x ROM/device/root I've been able to test ,as long that ROM/device/root allows RW access to /system/etc/hosts one way or another. Some devices and configurations are more stubborn than others, as expected, but that's not really an AdAway problem. I hope that a similarly simple no-thrill version will be always publicly offered and that AdAway won't grow into a clumsy monstrosity. Please, [MENTION=3355398]mrRobinson[/MENTION] et al, don't ruin AdAway!!

</RANT>

No need to respond, feel free to ignore... ;)