Back in the day, we shared some great CyanogenMod ROMs with you for the first generation sets of the Galaxy S lineup: the Galaxy S1 and Galaxy S2. Those were the times when Samsung used to be lenient as regards sharing the source code for its devices, which helped hard-working developers to cook an ASOP ROM that worked well. Not such is the case now a days, as a result of which, we can’t be hoping for great CyanogenMod 14 ROM for dear Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S7 sets of ours.
With the production of in-house Exynos brand of processors, over the time, Samsung stopped sharing the source code with the world, which led to much cry in the development community.
It was a telling difference at the time of Galaxy S4, when users of Samsung’s own US-only S4 set, which was based on Qualcomm’s processor, were cheering one cool AOSP ROM after another, packing the latest update (5.1 Lollipop!), while their helpless counterparts who bought the Exynos processor housing S4 set — this humble author included — were left scratching their heads on the non-availability of any good AOSP ROM that would allow them to taste the latest and greatest of Android, with Samsung dropping support for that OS version.
Also read: Galaxy S6 Nougat release date
So, if you were hoping for a good test run of Nougat update via the custom ROM route, the Galaxy S6 CM14 or Galaxy S7 CM14, then we’d suggest you don’t hold on to those hopes!
If an Android 7.0 Nougat AOSP ROM does comes out for either of S6 and S7, it will be far from becoming your daily driver, and would have many, many things broken, including mainstream features such as RIL (network), Camera, etc. Definitely not worth for the developers either to spend their time fighting a losing battle!
If you believe in miracles, though, then pray that Samsung starts sharing the source code of its Exynos brand of processors, which would bring us back to those glory days of rocking the major Android OS updates, long before Samsung wakes up and releases it after few months. And that UI, the stock Android one, is a touch of beauty — one that we’d prefer over TouchWiz, anytime!
Also read:Â Galaxy S7 Nougat release expectations
What are your views on this? We’d love to hear that!
