LineageOS

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LineageOS Android Distribution 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 1.7 million installs, having doubled its user base in the month February-March 2017.

Video LineageOS

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.

Maps LineageOS

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.

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Community

LineageOS allows the community to get involved with the development in various ways. Gerrit is used for the code review process of either the operating system and the infrastructure.

The Wiki, containing information regarding installation, support and development of LineageOS is also open to contributions through Gerrit. Other Lineage platforms include Crowdin for managing translations, Jira for bug tracking, a CVE tracker page for checking out what kernel vulnerabilities have been addressed in a specific kernel (note that this page does not always reflect the real status of the kernel because it has to be updated manually by the maintainer). There is also an official subreddit, r/lineageos, and two IRC channels, hosted on Freenode (#lineageos and #lineageos-dev).

During the month of August, in 2017, LineageOS team held a Summer Survey in which they asked users some feedback to improve the development of the operating system. The results were later published in the month of October, and according to the team, they'll use the gathered data to improve the upcoming LineageOS 15 release.

LineageOS is also known for posting a "regularly irregular review" in their blog in which they expose the work done since the previous post.

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Version history

The severe vulnerability of Android (and other) devices to the WiFi KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attack) was addressed in the Lineage ROM as of 16 October 2017. Many devices, which will not receive a patch for the manufacturers' stock ROM, can be protected against KRACK by installing a LineageOS ROM.

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Preinstalled Apps

LineageOS includes many useful apps, but, like its predecessor CyanogenMod, claims to be free from the bloatware often pre-installed by a phone's manufacturer or carrier.

• AudioFX - Audio optimizer with presets to alter the listening experience.
• Browser - A lightweight 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 email 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 due to legal issues, users can flash the normal Google apps, including the Google Play Store and Play Apps with a gapps zip package.

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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.

src: thedroidguru.com

Lineage OS 15

LineageOS 15 is the coming release which is going to be based on Android Oreo(8.0).

With LineageOS 15 right around the corner there are devices which are confirmed to support LineageOS 15 with the initial build.

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See also

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References

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External links

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

Source of article : Wikipedia