LineageOS

LineageOS, also known as LineageOS Android Distribution and Lineage (/ˈlɪn.i.ɪdÊ'/), is a free and open-source operating system for smartphones and tablet computers, based on the Android mobile platform. It is the successor to the highly popular custom ROM CyanogenMod, from which it was forked in December 2016 when Cyanogen Inc. announced it was discontinuing development and shut down the infrastructure behind the project. Since Cyanogen Inc. retained the rights to the Cyanogen name, the project rebranded its fork as LineageOS.

LineageOS was officially launched on December 24, 2016, with the source code available on GitHub. Since that time LineageOS development builds now cover more than 178 phone models with over 1.6 million installs, having doubled its user base in the month Februaryâ€"March 2017.

Background

CyanogenMod (often abbreviated "CM") was a highly popular open-source operating system for smartphones and tablet computers, based on the Android mobile platform. Although only a subset of total CyanogenMod users elected to report their use of the firmware, as of 23 March 2015, some reports indicated over 50 million people running CyanogenMod on their phones. It was also frequently used as a starting point by developers of other ROMs.

In 2013, the founder, Steve Kondik, obtained venture funding under the name Cyanogen Inc. to allow commercialization of the project. In his view, the company did not capitalize on the project's success, and in 2016 he either left, or was forced out as part of a corporate restructure which involved a change of CEO, closure of offices and projects, and cessation of services. The code itself, being both open source and popular, was quickly forked under the new name LineageOS and community efforts began to resume development as a community project.

CyanogenMod offered a number of features and options not available in the official firmware distributed by most mobile device vendors. Features supported by CyanogenMod included native theme support, FLAC audio codec support, a large Access Point Name list, Privacy Guard (per-application permission management application), support for tethering over common interfaces, CPU overclocking and other performance enhancements, root access, soft buttons and other "tablet tweaks", toggles in the notification pull-down (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS), and other interface enhancements. Many of the features from CyanogenMod would later be integrated into the official Android code base. CyanogenMod did not contain spyware or bloatware, according to its developers. CyanogenMod was also said to increase performance and reliability compared with official firmware releases.

Development

Similar to CyanogenMod, the project is developed by numerous device-specific maintainers and uses Gerrit for its code review process. It also retained the old versioning format (for example, Android 7.1 is LineageOS 14.1). Builds are released on a weekly basis and are signed with LineageOS' private keys.

Prior to the official launch of LineageOS, many developers from XDA had already developed unofficial versions of LineageOS from the source code.

Version history

The severe vulnerability of Android (and other) devices to the WiFi KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attack) was being addressed in the Lineage ROM as of 17 October 2017. It was expected that several devices for which LineageOS ROMs are available, particularly older ones, would not receive KRACK security updates for their stock ROM.

Preinstalled Apps

LineageOS includes many useful apps, but none of the bloatware that is normally pre-installed by the phone's manufacturer or carrier.

• AudioFX - Audio optimizer with presets to alter the music listening experience.
• Browser - A light-weight browser that relies on the System Webview, for low end devices, also known as Jelly.
• FlipFlap - An app for smart flip covers, only included on select devices.
• Calculator - which resembles a four-function calculator and offers some more advanced functions.
• Calendar - Calendar functionality with Day, Week Month, Year or Agenda views.
• Camera - Dependent on device specification will take video or photos, including panoramic.
• Clock - World clock, Countdown timer, Stopwatch and Alarms.
• Contacts - Phonebook for numbers and e-mail addresses.
• Email - Email client that handles POP3, IMAP and Exchange.
• Files - Simple File Manager to move copy and rename files on internal storage or SD-Card.
• Gallery - Organise photos and videos into a timeline or albums for easy viewing.
• Messaging - SMS messaging.
• Music - A music player, formerly known as Eleven.
• Phone - for making Calls. Includes Speed dial, Phone number lookups and call blocking.
• Recorder - A screen and/or sound recorder.
• Trebuchet - A customizable launcher that supports protected apps.

Although they are not included by default, users can flash the normal Google apps, including the Google Play Store and Play Apps with a gapps zip package.

Supported devices

As of 8 September 2017, LineageOS officially supports 190 devices, including Nexus and Google-released devices. Official builds on the current development branch are labeled as "nightly," although they are generally released once per week with builds for various devices staggered throughout the week to ease the load on the automated build infrastructure. For the first two months of the project, they also produced parallel experimental builds to allow in-place upgrades from previous CyanogenMod installations and ease migration to LineageOS.

See also

References

External links

• Official website
• GitHub source-code repository
• XDA-Developers - Index thread for unofficial LineageOS releases
• LineageOS Wiki