The CyanogenMod website and other resources are not available anymore,
so link to Wikipedia in the history section.
The statement about OmniROM being more friendly towards free software
needs to be weakened because there doesn't seem to be much difference
now anymore, given that LineageOS removed dependencies on the proprietary
Google Play library.
Signed-off-by: Wolfgang Wiedmeyer <wolf...@wiedmeyer.de>
---
about.php | 20 ++++++++++----------
1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
diff --git a/about.php b/about.php
index 94d0f86..a444633 100644
--- a/about.php
+++ b/about.php
@@ -4,11 +4,11 @@
<div class="page-header"><h2>About Replicant</h2></div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-9">
- <p>Replicant is a <a
href="//www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">fully free</a> <a
href="//www.android.com/">Android</a> distribution running on several devices,
a free software mobile operating system putting the emphasis on freedom and
privacy/security. It is based on <a
href="//www.cyanogenmod.org/">CyanogenMod</a> and replaces or avoids every <a
href="//www.gnu.org/philosophy/proprietary.html">proprietary</a> component of
the system, such as user-space programs and libraries as well as firmwares.<br
/>Replicant aims to be an ethical system: it does not ship nor recommend the
use of non-free software.</p>
+ <p>Replicant is a <a
href="//www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">fully free</a> <a
href="//www.android.com/">Android</a> distribution running on several devices,
a free software mobile operating system putting the emphasis on freedom and
privacy/security. It is based on <a
href="//http://lineageos.org//";>LineageOS</a> and replaces or avoids every <a
href="//www.gnu.org/philosophy/proprietary.html">proprietary</a> component of
the system, such as user-space programs and libraries as well as firmwares.<br
/>Replicant aims to be an ethical system: it does not ship nor recommend the
use of non-free software.</p>
<p>Many different devices are supported by Replicant,
to an extent specific to each device. Basic features such as graphics, sound
and telephony (if applicable) are supposed to be working for each device (if
not, developers are confident they will work soon).</p>
<p>Replicant is a community-led effort, currently
driven by a single developer. Not every piece of software in Replicant should
be expected to be fully-featured nor entirely reliable, even though developers
are trying their best.</p>
<h3>History</h3>
- <p>Replicant was founded in 2010 as a way to gather
initiatives aiming to free the system running on the HTC Dream, the first
publicly-available Android device. The project was started by members of <a
href="//libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:LibrePlanet_Italia">LibrePlanet Italia</a>
and <a href="//sfconservancy.org/">Software Freedom Conservancy</a>. The first
usable version of Replicant was based upon Android 1.5 as released by the <a
href="//source.android.com/">Android Open Source Project</a>: after some work,
basic functionalities of the HTC Dream were working. Starting from version
2.2, Replicant stopped using AOSP as a base and instead started using
CyanogenMod, which contains support for more devices.</p>
+ <p>Replicant was founded in 2010 as a way to gather
initiatives aiming to free the system running on the HTC Dream, the first
publicly-available Android device. The project was started by members of <a
href="//libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:LibrePlanet_Italia">LibrePlanet Italia</a>
and <a href="//sfconservancy.org/">Software Freedom Conservancy</a>. The first
usable version of Replicant was based upon Android 1.5 as released by the <a
href="//source.android.com/">Android Open Source Project</a>: after some work,
basic functionalities of the HTC Dream were working. Starting from version
2.2, Replicant stopped using AOSP as a base and instead started using <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanogenmod";>CyanogenMod</a>, which
contains support for more devices.</p>
<p>Over time, various initial members of the project
retired, leaving Denis "GNUtoo" Carikli as the only active developer of the
project. However, in April 2011 Paul Kocialkowski, a user of Replicant, started
getting involved in development. After porting Replicant to version 2.3 on the
Nexus S and later on porting plenty more devices, Paul became the main
developer of Replicant and is currently doing most of the work on the
project.</p>
</div>
</div>
@@ -34,15 +34,15 @@
</div>
<div class="panel panel-default"
id="missing-hardware-features">
<div class="panel-heading"><h3
class="panel-title">Why are some hardware features missing on
Replicant?</h3></div>
- <div class="panel-body"><p>Most of the time,
hardware features are driven by proprietary software in CyanogenMod. While
Replicant is fully free, these proprietary parts are either replaced or avoided
in Replicant. Such parts being avoided instead of replaced is the result of
missing free software support for that hardware. It happens because developers
failed to write free software support for that hardware, as a result of
incomplete or missing documentation from the manufacturer, lack of time to
perform reverse engineering or generally speaking, lack of proper resources.<br
/>Keep in mind that writing free software replacements is a technically complex
task that does not always succeed, especially when the manufacturer doesn't
communicate how to use the hardware.</p></div>
+ <div class="panel-body"><p>Most of the time,
hardware features are driven by proprietary software in LineageOS. While
Replicant is fully free, these proprietary parts are either replaced or avoided
in Replicant. Such parts being avoided instead of replaced is the result of
missing free software support for that hardware. It happens because developers
failed to write free software support for that hardware, as a result of
incomplete or missing documentation from the manufacturer, lack of time to
perform reverse engineering or generally speaking, lack of proper resources.<br
/>Keep in mind that writing free software replacements is a technically complex
task that does not always succeed, especially when the manufacturer doesn't
communicate how to use the hardware.</p></div>
</div>
- <div class="panel panel-default"
id="replicant-different-cyanogenmod">
- <div class="panel-heading"><h3
class="panel-title">How exactly is Replicant different from
CyanogenMod?</h3></div>
- <div class="panel-body"><p>Replicant uses
CyanogenMod's source code as a base. It is rebranded to provide the Replicant
look and feel (wallpapers, logos) and parts of the code are reworked to remove
anti-features that can spy on the user. Most importantly, Replicant does not
include any of CyanogenMod's proprietary components (programs, libraries,
firmwares) and instead provides free software replacements for some of these.
The rest of the system is also adapted so that the free software replacements
can run correctly.</p></div>
+ <div class="panel panel-default"
id="replicant-different-lineageos">
+ <div class="panel-heading"><h3
class="panel-title">How exactly is Replicant different from
LineageOS?</h3></div>
+ <div class="panel-body"><p>Replicant uses
LineageOS's source code as a base. It is rebranded to provide the Replicant
look and feel (wallpapers, logos) and parts of the code are reworked to remove
anti-features that can spy on the user. Most importantly, Replicant does not
include any of LineageOS's proprietary components (programs, libraries,
firmwares) and instead provides free software replacements for some of these.
The rest of the system is also adapted so that the free software replacements
can run correctly.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="panel panel-default"
id="replicant-based-omnirom">
- <div class="panel-heading"><h3
class="panel-title">Why is Replicant based on CyanogenMod instead of <a
href="//omnirom.org/">OmniROM</a>?</h3></div>
- <div class="panel-body"><p>Replicant is
currently based on CyanogenMod for historic reasons: it was started before
OmniROM and the current version of Replicant is not supported by OmniROM, so
CyanogenMod is currently the only choice that makes sense. Furthermore,
CyanogenMod supports more devices than OmniROM, which makes porting a new
device to Replicant easier. On top of that, some devices that are currently
supported by Replicant are not in OmniROM. However, we are aware that OmniROM's
general position is more friendly towards free software (even though it still
ships with proprietary software): we will seriously consider OmniROM as a base
for the next major version of Replicant.</p></div>
+ <div class="panel-heading"><h3
class="panel-title">Why is Replicant based on LineageOS instead of <a
href="//omnirom.org/">OmniROM</a>?</h3></div>
+ <div class="panel-body"><p>LineageOS supports
more devices than OmniROM, which makes porting a new device to Replicant
easier. On top of that, most if not all devices that are currently supported by
Replicant are not in OmniROM. OmniROM's general position may be more friendly
towards free software, but it still ships with proprietary software.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="panel panel-default"
id="shipping-proprietary-components">
<div class="panel-heading"><h3
class="panel-title">Why doesn't Replicant ship with proprietary components when
free replacements are missing?</h3></div>
@@ -65,8 +65,8 @@
<a href="#safe-data" class="list-group-item">Is
my data safe when stored on a device running Replicant?</a>
<a href="#safe-communications"
class="list-group-item">Are my communications safe when using a device running
Replicant?</a>
<a href="#missing-hardware-features"
class="list-group-item">Why are some hardware features missing on Replicant?</a>
- <a href="#replicant-different-cyanogenmod"
class="list-group-item">How exactly is Replicant different from CyanogenMod?</a>
- <a href="#replicant-based-omnirom"
class="list-group-item">Why is Replicant based on CyanogenMod instead of
OmniROM?</a>
+ <a href="#replicant-different-lineageos"
class="list-group-item">How exactly is Replicant different from LineageOS?</a>
+ <a href="#replicant-based-omnirom"
class="list-group-item">Why is Replicant based on LineageOS instead of
OmniROM?</a>
<a href="#shipping-proprietary-components"
class="list-group-item">Why doesn't Replicant ship with proprietary components
when free replacements are missing?</a>
<a href="#installing-proprietary-components"
class="list-group-item">Why doesn't Replicant guide users through installing
complementary proprietary components?</a>
<a href="#cacert-certificate-error"
class="list-group-item">Why do I get a warning message when connecting to the
Replicant website with https?</a>
--
2.11.0
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