CyanogenMod crew split if they should bother developing custom ROMs for the Samsung Galaxy S 4
Nobody at Team Hacksung (the team behind Galaxy S2, Note, S3, Note2, G Tabs… official CM ports) plans to buy it, neither develop for it. There are two variants which will be a pain to maintain, [and] the bugs we have on the S3 will probably be there on S4, too (camera), and we all know Samsung ability to release sources while staying in line with mainline. Yes Qualcomm releases sources, but Exynos sources we had were far from [working on] actual Galaxy products. I’m pretty sure the same will happen for this one.
That’s a uniform “no” from us.
The CyanogenMod crew, however, was quick to issue a rebuttal that says it's premature to judge whether or not the S 4 will be good for hacking and modding:
Setting Device Expectations
Let’s start with the simplest form of this: CyanogenMod does not pre-announce support or lack of support for devices. Ever. Even for the Nexus 4, we did not announce support until a nightly build was available. Further, any announcement regarding the ‘dropping’ of device support will be communicated via this Google+ page, Twitter, Facebook, our blog, or a combination of those; it will not be something buried in a forum post.
This morning, a comment from a CM collaborator on XDA was taken to be as an ‘absolute’ in regards to support of the S4. He offered the opinion of four TeamHacksung maintainers, their frustrations and lack of interest in supporting the S4. What’s seemingly lost on those reading this is that his comments as an individual do not speak for CyanogenMod as an organization.
As for the team’s stance on the S4, there isn’t one at this time, and most definitely won’t be one before the device is sold at retail.
- The CyanogenMod Team
Let’s start with the simplest form of this: CyanogenMod does not pre-announce support or lack of support for devices. Ever. Even for the Nexus 4, we did not announce support until a nightly build was available. Further, any announcement regarding the ‘dropping’ of device support will be communicated via this Google+ page, Twitter, Facebook, our blog, or a combination of those; it will not be something buried in a forum post.
This morning, a comment from a CM collaborator on XDA was taken to be as an ‘absolute’ in regards to support of the S4. He offered the opinion of four TeamHacksung maintainers, their frustrations and lack of interest in supporting the S4. What’s seemingly lost on those reading this is that his comments as an individual do not speak for CyanogenMod as an organization.
As for the team’s stance on the S4, there isn’t one at this time, and most definitely won’t be one before the device is sold at retail.
- The CyanogenMod Team
Given that one of the many attractions of buying a Samsung flagship has so far been developer and custom ROM support that squeeze every last mile out of the hardware, and iron out the software kinks faster than Samsung does, an eventual developer reluctance is not good news for future S 4 owners that like to tweak. Most buyers aren't hacking and modding, though, so this might not be a dealbreaker for them. What do you think?
source: CM (G+) via MobileSyrup
Related phones
- Display 5.0 inches 1920 x 1080 pixels
- Camera 13 MP (Single camera) 2 MP front
- Hardware Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 2GB RAM
- Storage 64GB, microSDXC
- Battery 2600 mAh
- OS Android 5.0 Lollipop
