Hello,
as written above.
Thanks in advance
AOSP is not going to be closed source. See Google will move Android AOSP development behind closed doors
This does not mean that Google is making Android a closed-source platform, but rather that the open-source aspect will only be released when a new branch is released to AOSP with those changes, including when new full versions or maintenance releases are finished.
A bigger issue is Android 16 and Pixel Support. See
- this commit: Diff - refs/heads/android16-release^! - platform/manifest - Git at Google
- this news from CalyxOS web site:
Android 16 and Pixel Support
That will have implications for custom ROM makers, including LineageOS and ROMs - including IodéOS - based on it. I don’t know for certain what those implications are, but they are being discussed in the LineageOS development channels (on irc and Discord). Maybe go looking there if you are worried about IodéOS on Pixel devices. Or buy a Sony device instead 
Thanks for clearing this up. So I can’t install iode on my pixel 8pro in the future?
That’s not what I wrote, and not what I meant. Pixel 8 Pro, and all the other PIxel devices are supported by LineageOS, currently at version 22.2 / Android 15.1 (and Iodé 6). LOS, and presumably IodéOS also, will continue to make 22..2 / Iodé 6 builds using the current Pixel sources, which will remain available.
What is not clear is what will happen with Android 16, for which the sources have not been made available by Google (for now at least - that may change in future):
- LOS may decide to continue supporting Pixel devices at v6 / LOS 22.2 using the existing sources OR
- the LOS developers may be able to create their own versions of the Android 16 Pixel source code, by adapting the Android 15 code, which can then be used to make LOS 23 builds. This is what happens for a lot of devices from manufacturers other than Google.
What happens with IodéOS depends on what LOS choose to do (and whether or not they succeed). If LineageOS are able to make Android 16 / LOS 23 builds then IodéOS could choose to use the LOS sources to make Iodé 7 builds (assuming Iodé choose to make IodéOS for any devices - that hasn’t been announced, and might not happen, though personally I think it will). If there are no LOS 23 sources and builds for Pixels (or for any other devices), then there will probably not be Iodé 7 builds either: Iodé could try to adapt the Android 15 / LOS sources themselves, but in my opinion, they don’t have either the resources or the motivation to do that successfully.
In summary, at the moment nobody knows what will happen with LineageOS, IodéOS or any other custom ROM builds for the Pixel devices. If anyone claims to know at this point then I would be very sceptical of that, and of any other statement they might make.
As users of these custom ROMs. all we can do is wait and see how the situation develops - maybe Google will release the sources later - and how the custom ROM developers decide to handle the situation, whatever the situation turns out to be.
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Buying a Sony (or some other such non-pixel device), may come as standard anyway if the DOJ get their way by forcing Google’s monopoly to be broken up. Whoever the buyers of the pixel side of the business are they may not be too keen on leaving the ‘unlock bootloader’ option on the table just to see their latest investment cloned by the likes of Graphene.
There’s a lot going on at the moment in both the business and political worlds as the apple fanboys are finding out. Very difficult to predict just as to how it will all pan out but having no dependencies on either Google or Apple for hardware or software just has to be the best place to be.
Might end up having to dust off my old Sailfish XA2 after all.
Sony Xperia & Sailfish 5.x marks a milestone in the development of the Jollaboys’ mobile operating system and represents a huge step forward for users looking for an alternative to traditional mobile operating systems. Running Android apps along with microoG is now seamless in my Xperia 10 (kirin) with official paid license without container-based Waydroid and everything runs very smoothly and is also visually appealing.
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Was refering to the phone rather than the OS when I described it as ‘old’. Is still supported though and came in handy when my daily iode XA2 was hit by the v6 bug. I loaded up a Petefoth iode kirin build about this time last year on a 10 and used it as a daily for a while before offering it out as a demo and that ran very well too. It’s a nice phone if you don’t need a high spec’ device. Buy one for less than an XA2 on ebay at the mo’ which TBH is a little surprising as it’s the later model (XA3), so more bang for your buck.
Thank both for bringing up Sailfish OS. Looking into that again has been on my to-do list for a while (though quite low on the list 
) and your posts have prompted me to do some reading, and join their community forums.
I came across Sailfish after a brief flirtation with Ubuntu Touch and Wayland on my oneplus 3T which although wasn’t a disaster, just didn’t give me daily driver functionality. Not a big fan of Ubuntu TBH and Wayland was awful buggy back in 2019. I’m a Debian fanboy though with some flavor of it on all my PC’s (Parrot OS, LMDE and MX at the mo’). Discovering Sailfish on the XA2 was a milestone for me at the time, quite the opposite of UT/wayland. Only bug for me is that it’s not truly open source and its long term future is questionable as maintenance is still dependent upon Jolla and their ongoing commitment to the Mer linux sub-system.
Ironically I bought an Xp’5 over the weekend as a friend of mine tells me that he is using a Poco M2 as a daily driver with Droidian and further investigation reveals that Droidian supports Sony Xp’ 5. He also claims that Wayland 2025 should not be confused with that of 2019. So there’s only one way to find out and I’m feeling another flirtation coming on. Flirting with anything at my age (67) brings on overwhelming excitement just at the very thought of it. 
Sad though, isn’t it.
Debian sub-system running Android on a Sony Xperia?.. what’s not to like? 
AOSP is not closed source and iode OS still exists. So there’s no need to philosophize about it…
Sorry for making such a big threat…
After there is some rumor about aosp and pixel devices I’m just checking the alternatives. iode was one of my choices after switching from iOS to android.
The other one was grapheneos which I’m actually using on my Pixel 8 Pro.
BTW: The reason why is finally decided to use GOS was the easy installation when using a Mac.
Otherwise I would use iode right now 
Anyway…there might be the same problems for future updates on GOS and iode when using a pixel…
Thanks for all the answers!
Fairphone 4 or 5 or 6
I’ve never had a Fairphone or even mentioned them IIRC, so not sure I understand you.
update on CalyxOS’ blog:
this move not only means that Google’s internal development progress will further impact the timelines of custom Android distributions (ROMs), but also indicates that what has previously been open to the entire free and open-source software (FOSS) community is slowly and gradually being closed.
This seems to be their sense of what will happen. At least the author of the blog entry.
Interesting to see a glimpse of how the internal development at CalyxOS works.
- They seem to not rely on LineageOS.
- They do their best to reverse engineer changes (kernel, device drivers, …) that will come… etc.
- They do not think about a completely new Ansatz, like SailFish/Mer, PostmarketOS or PureOS
Yes. I think there is evidence for the first part of the statement (impacting the timelines of custom ROMs) but not for the second (closing stuff that as previously been open). That may be true if Google completely stop making the Pixel device tree source files available. At the moment, they have (as I understand it) just removed those device tree source files from the AOSP release. The sources are still available at https://cs.android.com/android/platform/superproject/main/+/main:device/google/
So it’s just as open, is just not as convenient
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