Why the Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500 Is Not Getting AOSP Love

If you do not love custom AOSP Android ROMs like CyanogenMod and AOKP then please do not read ahead and if you do then you must read ahead.

Samsung launched the Galaxy S4 a few months ago and multiple versions of the phone were launched, most the variants of the Galaxy S4 have got custom AOSP ROM love except for the i9500. The Galaxy S4 i9500 runs Samsung’s home brewed Exynos 5 Octa core 5410 processor whereas all the other variants run the quad core Snapdragon 600 processor made by Qualcomm.

If you go over to xda developers all the Snapdragon based Galaxy S4 variants have custom AOSP ROM love inspite of locked bootloaders on the AT&T and Verizon variants, but if you go to the i9500 development section, it’s a ghost town. There are no custom AOSP ROMs available for the i9500 variant. The reason, as the Exynos Octa core is Samsung’s home brewed Samsung doesn’t seem to care about releasing the sources and even if they do the sources are not complete.

AOSP Custom ROM developers do rely on sources and Samsung ain’t releasing the sources, even if they are it’s not the sources are incomplete and developers have to spend days on trying to figure out how to make it work. If you have a look at Samsung’s git source for the Exynos 4, it was last updated on 12-12-2012. Samsung did release source for the Exynos 4 but it was not complete and developers spent 2 years trying to complete it and get fully working ROMs but eventually gave up. It was not worth wasting more time on trying to complete Samsung’s half released code. We need to keep in mind that custom ROM developers do this in there free time and it’s a hobby for them so it’s understandable for them to just do away with it at some point in time. Let me quote xda elite recognized developer Entropy512:-

We wasted more than two ****ing years on exynos4 to still wind up with a half-working mess that is only partially working – no one wants to waste their lives on exynos5. Meanwhile, TI and Qualcomm-based devices can go from new device to stable in a matter of months thanks to CAF.

 

With the Exynos 5 it’s even worse, there are sources as of now, but it’s not enough for the developers to even build a half working custom ROM for the Galaxy S4 i9500. Samsung does try to come across as a developer friendly manufacturer but the reality is they are not. And I quote Entropy512 again:-

We do not have more than enough code for it. We have no code whatsoever at the platform HAL level for 5410, not even the halfassed crap we had for exynos4.

Samsung is also known for not keeping the promises they made to the developer community, for them it’s all about selling the devices and then going back on their promises. Last year Samsung did say that Exynos will go open source but incomplete sources which do not build are of no use to the developers. Let me quote Entropy512 for one last time:-

Just another of a long list of promises that Samsung has failed to keep. Just like they were “working hard” on Superbrick for affected devices, only to throw a grenade in our faces with XWLPM by endangering the I9100 too (prior to XWLPM, all I9100 stock kernels were safe and would prevent anything from triggering Superbrick).

And they make these promises for marketing – for example, the Exynos4 source code promises were made just before the Note 2 was released – almost surely a marketing stunt to sell some more Note2 units to people who actually expected them to keep their promises.

In short: If Samsung ever makes a promise or tells you something is coming eventually, don’t believe them. They have a LONG established track record of not delivering.

I guess it’s clear the Samsung does not want to work with the developers like Sony does; they just want to sell more and more Galaxy devices. They clearly do not want to help the custom ROM community. Well it’s tit for tat Samsung.

Just to let you peeps know the Google Edition Samsung Galaxy S4 which will be running stock Android is powered by the Snapdragon which brings Galaxy S4 i9500 users back to square one.

Disclaimer

Please note we are not saying that custom AOSP ROMS will never come to the Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500 and neither did Entropy512.

Source:-xda