A Lineage OS was announced a few hours after the announcement of Cyanogens Inc shutting shop. It will be run by people who have previously worked with Cyanogens Inc on the development of the CyanogenMod. In other words, OS Lineage carries forward the legacy of what the Cyanogens. It’s made an announcement that stunned tens of thousands of their followers. The name behind the popular Android mod of that bid a tearful goodbye to the users. For hours after this, there was chaos among the users who were confused on where the future now lies. While the feeling was that the legacy of that would be carried forward by the community of Modder.
The Android OS is very flexible and has a lot of room for modifications. Custom ROMs are empowering, and allow the users to take better control of their own smart phones. It was with this vision in mind that the CyanogenMod was formed. Lineage Os, which takes the carries forward the legacy of Cyanogens, is all set to help give a more structured approach to community- driven custom ROMs and Mods for the Android OS.
NEW FEATURES
The ability to install a custom ROM on your Android device has been a key benefit for tinkerers and developers since the early days of the platform. The selection of ROMs has changed over the years, but through it all there’s been CyanogenMod. This ROM has supported the most devices and introduced the most features of any custom build of Android. However, there is no more. Say hello to its successor, Lineage OS.
If you can do without a rooted Smartphone, you had better not install it as an extra. Google has recently implemented even stricter measures against device tampering and expanded the Android Safety Net, which performs a comprehensive integrity check. The Safety Net check was successful with an LG G3 we tested which still had the factory settings. After the extra was installed the Safety Net authentication failed, even if the root was uninstalled. Only a complete factory reset allowed us to conduct a successful test. It’s still unclear whether an OTA update will interfere with the Safety Net check.
Lineage OS is still just getting up and running, so there are only a few supported devices in the first release. You can download Lineage OS if you’ve got a Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, One plus One, Moto G4, or a few other phones. One of the strengths of there was always its extensive device support-other ROM projects often used CM’s device trees as a starting point for their own development. Hopefully more devices can be supported as the project gains steam.
If you do have a compatible device and decide to install Lineage OS, be aware you’ll need to have an unlocked boot loader. Additionally, the ROM does not come with Google apps pre-installed. You’ll have to grab that elsewhere.
It goes without saying that in the last few years custom ROMs have declined in popularity as Android itself has improved. These days, custom ROMs are much more about getting an updated version of Android than they are about plugging the holes left in Android by Google (just don’t get me started on Google’s shift to proprietary Pixel features).
These devices are supported
Since the dust has settled somewhat after the demise of CyanogenMod, the Lineage OS infrastructure is now under construction. In the meantime, the first regular builds of the firmware are available, and around 80 devices are already supported by the project. This includes several Nexus Smartphone’s and tablets (4, 5, 7 (2013), 6, 5X and 6P), LG’s G2, G3 and G4, HTC One M7 and One M8, some Motorola Smartphone’s (including Moto G3, Moto G4, G4 Plus and second generation Moto X) and the One plus One, One plus 2, One Plus X.
CyanogenMod experts will find their way around quickly. As usual, there’s official support for various Smartphone’s, and firmware is generated for them on a regular basis. Experimental builds are used to enable the transition from that to Lineage OS. A real fresh start can be found with nightly builds, a wipe and Gepps. The download servers are already switched on, and you can download the firmware for your Smartphone’s and tablets at a reasonable speed. Once you have installed Lineage the OTA update function also becomes available.
ABOUT LINEAGE OS
The principals of Lineage OS download would be the same as Cyanogen OS but instead of following the basic things, this Lineage OS would be an advanced OS which would give a tough time to Android Operating Systems, indirectly or directly, to Google in short.
Lineage OS download to get live would take some time so the Lineage OS ROMs would be. The community of developers working on it hasn’t made any announcement on the release date of Lineage OS download and Lineage OS ROMs. So we need to wait until there’s an official announcement made by the Lineage OS developers! Meanwhile, you can have a glimpse at the devices supported by lineage OS and will get lineage OS ROM soon.