Google has done a very silly thing: they served Cyanogen, ordering him to cease and desist distribution of his CyanogenMod roms for Android phones.
CyanogenMod is an unofficial modification of the Android OS. Where Cyanogen (aka Steve Kondik ) went afoul with Google was by his inclusion of their closed-source applications (Market, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk).
Of course, Google was well within their rights to tell Cyanogen to stop, but this defeats the very nature of what Google is attempting to do: compete in an already crowded market.
CyanogenMods have been very fast, very stable, and fixed a lot of the core “bugginess” that naturally come with a young operating system and platform. In short, he’s been helping Google play catch-up with Windows Mobile and iPhone.
If you have an Android phone (or have been considering one), or if you think Google should encourage development of the Android platform by enthusiasts, please help by:
- Downloading the (free) “Save CyanogenMod” app from the Android Market via this link:
- Donating to Cyanogen via PayPal:
Thank you, Cyanogen, for all your work. I stand with you.
