The great Ars experiment—free and open source software on a smartphone?!

Android minus the Google Apps. We've got some work to do.

Ron Amadeo

Android is a Google productit's designed and built from the ground up tointegrate with Google services andbe a cloud-powered OS. A lot of Android is open source, though, and there's nothing that says youhave to use it the way that Google would prefer.With some work, its possible to turn a modern Android smartphone into a Google-less, completely open deviceso we wanted to try just that. Afterdusting off the Nexus 4 and grabbing a copy of the open source parts of Android,we jumped off the grid and dumped all theproprietaryGoogle and cloud-based services you'd normally use on Android. Instead, this experiment runs entirely onopen source alternatives. FOSS or bust!

But, wait... did we say we'd dump "all" services? Not going to happen. Almostinstantly, wehad tocompromise our open source ideals due to hardware.The SoC in the Nexus 4 is made by Qualcomm, and manyof the drivers for it are closed source(this is the case with nearly all smartphones, not just our sacrificial Nexus 4). The firmware and drivers for the cellular modem, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, and camera are closed source, too. The CyanogenModrepository has a list of closed source drivers ineach device branch called "proprietary-blobs.txt." You can see the list for our Nexus 4 here, which is 184 items long.

These chunks of proprietary code come from the component manufacturers themselves (Qualcomm, Broadcom, Synaptics, Sony, Samsung), and seeing what's in them usually requires you to be a big developer with an NDA in place. While some of this code is locked downfor competitive reasons,there's also a concern that modifying the firmware for basic components could damage the device or, in the case of the modem,disrupt the cellular network. There is reallyno escaping proprietary component firmwareon any device (though some are trying), so we had to hold our nose and just deal with it. With that disclaimer, the journey begins:

It starts withCyanogenMod (CM), what we're going with for our software build. The "Android" that ships on phones today is a mix of open source software from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and proprietary Google software. CyanogenMod takes AOSP, adds a bunch of handy enhancements, and ports it to tons of devices.While most people install CyanogenMod and immediately sideloadthe proprietary Google Apps, that's an extra, optional step. This experience isall about FOSS, so we're going to skip the Googley parts and just run raw AOSP-based CM.

Installing CyanogenMod today is a relatively simple affair, thanks to the CyanogenMod installer.If you're interested in what installing CM looks like, check out our previous article on the process.

Ron Amadeo

Time to install, boot up, andhey, this doesn't look so bad! At only one page, theapp selection is a little sparse, but it looks like we're starting with a good amount of base functionality. We still get software buttons and a status bar. The home screen (CM's "Trebuchet")even looks like Google's KitKat version, minus the Google Now integration.

Even with the seriously slimmed down app selection, a lot of these apps are junk. DSP Manager isCyanogenMod's audio equalizer, which really belongs in thesettings somewhereinstead of theapp drawer. Movie Studio, Sound Recorder, and Voice Dialerare part of AOSP, but like a lot of AOSP apps, they aren't actively developed and aren't meant to be taken seriously. Terminal Emulator is definitely one of those apps that belongs in an app store, since the majority of users won't touch it.

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The great Ars experiment—free and open source software on a smartphone?!