[G1 Apps and Games] cj chitwood:
The following are my thoughts on this thread and its subject in particular. In summary, I see both sides, but then I usually try to do so. If you want to quote me, please read my whole post first so you know where I stand on the issue.

I saw this app on the Market, and this was the first indicator I had that CM was in any kind of trouble. If not for this app, I wouldn't have known until today at the earliest because I simply don't have time to read upward of a hundred posts a day about various issues people are having because they did/did not wipe, or that can't figure out how to root because they didn't do the requisite research. Normally, I abhor "petition" apps because usually they serve little purpose and I have to wonder if any of the involved parties on the opposing side are even looking, in which case it turns into an app that "preaches to the choir" as it were. However, having CM on my phone, I decided to go ahead and get this app and comment on the slim chance Google has some technician somewhere reading the comments, preparing stats, and presenting them to a suit upstairs.

I think a lot of people are forgetting (or ignoring) that what is Open-Source on our phones is ANDROID, the operating system. This DOES NOT include applications, such as Market or non-Google apps like Advanced Task Manager, Firewallet, Sleepy Time Pro, etc. That means that NOT EVERYTHING IS FREE (speech). People accusing Google of going against Open-Source philosophy are simply misinformed or flat out ignorant of the facts. It's like saying Microsoft should offer Windows for free because they offer the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer for free. It's simply Google's right to decide what they provide for free or not for free. Their intent from the beginning, even before the G1 was available for preorder at T-Mobile, was to have third parties come in and provide key apps. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DEVELOPERS! I don't have the text of the C&D available to me, but from what I've been able to glean from the Internet, all Google said was to stop providing Google's closed-source apps in custom ROMs. They didn't say he couldn't continue making CyanogenMod... he just can't supply e.g. Market with the mod itself! People will need to acquire it either from a third party app like SlideMe or from the original app that came with the phone before it was modded to run CyanogenMod. Still, even at that, does ANYONE here think Google hasn't been watching all along? Why didn't they serve the C&D before now? Because before now, we didn't see the experimental New Market included in the ROM. I personally think Google didn't really care if the closed-source apps were included, as long as (1) they were the same, UNMODIFIED apps that were included with the T-Mobile Official Releases and (2) they WERE released for widespread public use as opposed to experimental apps released to a limited community (e.g. the manufacturers themselves, AKA the Open Handset Alliance) that weren't meant to be used by the public yet (for whatever reason that may be). Irrespective of the fact that Google can get "free beta testing" from the community at large who are using e.g. CyanogenMod, Google doesn't want the app out there yet. Maybe this is because the app, experimental this point, is accessing production equipment at Google (e.g. the Market servers) and maybe, just maybe, there could be a bug in it that would wreak havoc on the Market as a whole. I honestly don't know, and there may be other reasons, but this one alone would be enough for me not to want the app released to a very wide audience yet. Did I say "yet" yet?

What I think google is trying to do here isn't "stop Cyanogen from producing ROMs". I think they're trying to slow down a runaway train. I think Google is all for the open-source community altering their Android, and I think they're all for the use of Android custom ROMs in a wide audience. I also think that, had the new market not been included, they'd have turned a blind eye to the inclusion of their closed-source apps because, as has been stated many times on the 'Net, they were there in the original ROM as provided to non-customized phones. However, by including an app that wasn't meant even to be released yet (and I'm going on an assumption based on what I've read online), he's opened up a door to something that maybe Google wasn't quite sure they were ready for, and they just want to hold back a little before something big really does break.

From all that I've read, I think the previous paragraphs sum up my entire view. That said, I still support Cyanogen. I have noticed that my phone does seem much faster running CM than it did running other mods like JesusFreke's and the original T-Mobile (and a hell of a lot faster than the Haykuro Hero ROM I once tried). I'm in love with the fact that all I had to do was create an EXT3 partition on my SD card and the apps-to-sd bit was automatic on his ROM. However, I do see minor problems here and there. I have seen my contacts disappear entirely, unable to come back without a wipe-downgrade_to_stable-resync, and I've seen them disappear with only a resync needed to get them back. I've seen apps get updated, then downgraded (specifically Market) then updated again. I've seen the apps icons populate in the apps drawer with each reopen because I didn't realize some things had changed in the ROM (not having time to read 100 posts a day leads to that sort of thing ;)). I've seen a lot of quirky issues like that. HOWEVER, I've seen this ROM be

*B*L*A*Z*I*N*G*

fast in one version compared to others and I've seen this ROM be amazingly stable on the level of production, wide-audience release, professional-class quality. I support Cyanogen in his work, and I truly hope he continues working on the Android mods he does. To this end I've even donated a few quality import lagers through PayPal (a meager amount, really, but every bit helps, I'm sure).

WRT the comments I'm seeing, I wish a lot of those people would use at least a little punctuation and grammar. That way we wouldn't all look like teenage idiots. I'm not saying teenagers are idiots, but I AM saying that professionals (read: people in Google) are more likely to give credence to people who seem to be intelligent. Come to think of it, so do I! They (the people who seem to be intelligent) are more likely to know what they're doing, they're easier to comprehend, and they will be more likely to fully test something rather than finding out the twitter client is broken and claim the whole thing's a mess based on one little flaw. Maybe I'm being an elitist ass here, maybe I'm onto something, or maybe I'm way off in left field. Maybe eight graders are the target audience for Android, but I doubt they're more than a small percentage of the overall demographic. I think if we want to be taken seriously, we need 2 quit typin lyk we be txtin an dnt got no educatin.

My final thought I'd like to convey: This "crisis", as I've read it called, has reminded me of why I love the Open Source community. ALREADY there are people coming up with ways to keep this ball rolling in a MUTUALLY AMICABLE way so that Cyanogen can keep working on the mod while not infringing on Google's software rights. Most methods I've read about involve retaining the original, closed-source apps in their publicly-released form, applying an operating-system-only version of the mod (e.g., just Android, with no apps included), and then restoring the original apps (e.g. APKs) from the original unmodded phone. There are complications with this, but it can be done, and is the method I personally believe will be carried out. A close second is Google providing their closed-source binaries in publicly-released form so that Cyanogen doesn't have to include them in the mod. There are many more ideas floating about, but I personally think one of these two is most likely to succeed and I will expect to see this. The third is that third parties will write applications that will be Open-Source and provide the same functionality that the Google Closed-Source binaries provide and then some. The reason I don't see this being as successful is that usually the third-party apps simply aren't "as nice" as the professionally-prepared ones (notable exceptions exist, namely in the form of OpenOffice, Gnome, KDE, Mozilla, etc). Hopefully I'm wrong about this and we see a plethora of options presented to us, but at the same time what I don't want to see is a plethora of mediocrity, with apps half-finished and devs discouraged from continuance. If third parties are to be involved creating replacement apps, I would like to make a call that one app be worked on by a team of devs. Much like Linux was one O/S worked on by a team with a common goal, I think individual apps can succeed in much the same way (look at Mozilla, etc. for an example) in the Android world.

Ideally, I think it would be awesome to have a

ONE-HUNDRED-PERCENT FREE AND OPEN SOURCE

branch of Android, including all the necessary apps to make the system boot and be useful on typical devices such as the HTC Dream, Sapphire, and Hero. I would ultimately like to see this done on fully open hardware as well, but I realize I'm stretching pretty far.

[Edit: Hit the 10,000 character limit. Never done that before. Continued below...]