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posted by CoolHand on Wednesday December 07 2016, @08:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the thanks-for-the-memories dept.

Mobile OS outfit Cyanogen has made further sackings and parted ways with founder Steve Kondik.

A post by CEO Lior Tal says the company is closing its Seattle office and consolidating a single Palo Alto abode.

"The purpose of the change is to improve the communication and performance of the team which will now operate under one roof," Tal writes. "This consolidation effort will allow us to build in greater efficiencies and reduce restrictions in our product development lifecycle. Understandably some are unable to follow their role and relocate. We appreciate and value all of the amazing work these individuals have provided to the growth and success of Cyanogen."

Folks who work in Seattle will be offered the chance to make the move south.

Tal also says "With these changes, Cyanogen has separated ties with Steve Kondik, allowing him to continue to forge his path as he sees fit. We wish him the best of luck in his next venture."


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @08:58PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @08:58PM (#438511)

    The commercialization of Cyanogen basically killed it for anything I was interested in. I also remember reading a comment on the green site or a linked article's comments section by someone who had been a contributor to Cyanogen in the early days and was responsible for one of the major features touted it in explaining how the CM guys including Kondik claimed the features for themselves and forgot about all the other contributors who helped make it a success while commercializing it for their own benefit, rather than that of the community. The result of it was a lot of previously enthusiastic talent throwing in the towel on android development or CM development, leading to it falling behind. Combined with the majority of developers only developing for fancy higher-end phones and ignoring the (at the time) still 'insecure' low end phones, many of which could have been fully imaged, firmware'd, and supported without signed bootloaders, kernels, or other firmware, and you get an ecosystem which became toxic to itself and its users, leaving us with the morass of proprietary and insecure android cellphones we have today.

    Finding a way to fund open source projects is important, but going the for-profit route, unless you draft a corporate charter and only crowdsource investment, to keep control and vision on 'making great open source software, monetized only as much that I can live modestly and produce.' Doing otherwise results in a loss of vision, a focus on next quarter profits or earnings, and a slowly dwindling supporter base as you stop providing what the 'customer' wants, and instead decide you know what the customer needs.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:44PM

      by Nerdfest (80) on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:44PM (#438525)

      I don't mind fair commercialization, especially if it's for supporting the servers, paying the lead devs maybe, that sort of thing. Jumping in bed with Microsoft is a completely different matter though.

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday December 07 2016, @10:12PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday December 07 2016, @10:12PM (#438536)

      > stop providing what the 'customer' wants, and instead decide you know what the customer needs

      Nobody ever got fired for thinking like Apple.

    • (Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:30AM

      by stormwyrm (717) on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:30AM (#438581) Journal

      …and you get an ecosystem which became toxic to itself and its users…

      Rather an ironic statement, considering how the chemical they named themselves after [wikipedia.org] is in fact extremely poisonous and flammable. It will very quickly reduce to cyanide

      --
      Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Alphatool on Thursday December 08 2016, @06:16AM

      by Alphatool (1145) on Thursday December 08 2016, @06:16AM (#438644)

      I don't think that it was the commercialization that killed Cyanogen, rather it was management stuff ups. There have been plenty of examples of open source projects successfully commercializing, and I think that Cyanogen had a good chance of success if they had focused on pushing their openness, flexibility and continuous updates, i.e. once you get a phone running Cyanogen it will be kept up to date basically forever without any need for manufacturer involvement. Instead they focused on custom features like themes that were never much use and entered into insane exclusivity deals [medianama.com]. After that there was no chance that phone manufacturers would ever choose to work with them again, killing any chance of selling Cyanogen as a product. Without something to sell the final demise of Cyanogen is just a formality.

  • (Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:03PM (#438512)

    ... then you don't understand the Information Age, let alone "mobile".

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:41PM

      by edIII (791) on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:41PM (#438523)

      LOL, yeah, there just Luddites right?

      There are many advantages to being all in the same place, at the same time, providing the environment is NOT corporate slave cubic hovels with toxic executives running around looking important and making the hard short term decisions. It does distract you having the listen to some suckhead going on about "TPS reports".

      Being able to see and talk to each other is pretty cool, not to mention effective for getting shit done. Talking with people works, which I understand is hard for the young crowd that cannot even talk to good friends without their comfort blanket. Excuse me, I mean smart phone.

      What you fail to leave out, is the ridiculous fucking cost of technologies designed to bring collaboration over large distances. If you have investor money and don't give a shit, then why not, spend a few million dollars on Cisco IP conference phones and telepresence enabled white boards. Depending on the level of executive suckheads involved, why not a nice beautiful Surface like you see in the movies, such as Avatar? In all fairness, without an office and stupidity, you don't spend 100,000 fucking dollars on just chairs. Holy shit, the money pit that is just chairs is astounding.

      All of that shit costs a lot of fucking money, and what you are left with in practical outfits is a mix of email, Skype, collaboration platforms like Google Docs/Owncloud, instant messaging, and phones. It's not as easy as you think to accomplish a lot when you NEVER meet, and that is all you have. Possible? Yes. Superior? That's debatable.

      If you want to get a lot of shit done, you create an environment where everybody can come and work together. IMO, the biggest appeal to working like that in the first place was that you got to get away from the corporate vileness in an office building. Which leads me to my original point, that a good enthusiastic crew with decent managers, and a decent environment, can get a lot done.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:47PM

        by Nerdfest (80) on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:47PM (#438528)

        I work at home some of the time and love it, but yeah, it's better for a lot of thing to get together with a bunch of other developers, or even with a bunch of users, and design something. The efficiency is much higher, assuming you know how to keep things on track. Working remotely is better when you have all the information you need and want get in the zone and write code. A place with private offices and common meeting/design areas would be perfect, although commuting still sucks.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:58PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 07 2016, @09:58PM (#438530)

          Yup I will echo Nerdfest here. Ideally working in one location is great if everyone is able to focus and have their own space. Remote is tricky to get the workflow set right, but with group chat services it really does not disrupt teamwork that much. Better to have happy devs!

        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday December 08 2016, @12:47AM

          by Gaaark (41) on Thursday December 08 2016, @12:47AM (#438567) Journal

          I'm just wondering who's mom's basement they all moved into!

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:05AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:05AM (#438574)

            Your mom's basement, obviously.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:30AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:30AM (#438580)

              Awww, does somebody work at Cyanogen?

              • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday December 08 2016, @07:47AM

                by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday December 08 2016, @07:47AM (#438660) Journal

                Not anymore :D

                --
                I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
  • (Score: 1) by AssCork on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:42PM

    by AssCork (6255) on Thursday December 08 2016, @01:42PM (#438719) Journal

    I remember when I first started following Cyanogen. The excitement as my trembling hands bricked my old Android 2.x phone. The self-blaming, re-researching, finding out where I went wrong.
    The elation when I got things right.

    Now that they're basically dead - what's the next 'best' thing for those trapped with an Android that hasn't seen a security update since 2015? *cough* Samsung *cough*

    If only the Note7 hadn't been such a carpet-bomb...

    --
    Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.