CyanogenMod founder Steve Kondik leaves Samsung, criticizes TouchWiz


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Steve "Cyanogen" Kondik, founder and lead developer of CyanogenMod, has left his role as software engineer at Samsung Mobile, after 19 months at the company. Notifying his followers on Google+, Kondik notes his departure in a long piece commenting on Samsung's new Galaxy S4 handset, stating that he "just decided to do something new."

"Touchwiz feels like it has been sent a few years back in time to the Froyo days."

Before leaving Samsung, Kondik had some time to play with his former employer's new flagship. While he praises the Galaxy S4 for its specifications, which he says "blows the competition out of the water," his comments on Samsung's modifications to its TouchWiz UI aren't so complementary. The Android developer believes that TouchWiz now "feels like it has been sent a few years back in time to the Froyo days."

Kondik joined Samsung in August 2011, stating that he would be working "on making Android more awesome." He also continued his work on CyanogenMod, albeit as part of a "side project." Judging by his comments on his Google+ post, Kondik leaves Samsung on good terms, noting that the company "was great," and he may already have another role lined up, telling followers to "ask me in a couple of months."

http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/25/4144226/steve-cyanogen-kondik-departs-samsung

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I agree with him, touchwiz is becoming as bloated and dated as Sense used to be. Stock Android would probably be incredibly fast on Samsung's phones.

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I agree with him, touchwiz is becoming as bloated and dated as Sense used to be. Stock Android would probably be incredibly fast on Samsung's phones.

Even the 3rd party launchers available in the App Store are much better than TW. I use the APEX launcher myself and notice no performance differences over the stock. APEX has a stick look to it but adds more features.

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Not sure why this is such a huge deal - is it really news when someone leaves a company, let alone he's not even an important figure like a CEO, president, etc. The S4 preview was nice, but meh to this news story. I will agree with Kondik - Touchwiz has never appealed to me - it looks unprofessional, and it's massively bloated.

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Would be great if you get the SG4 with stock androd!

This is the major advantage of Android - the development community, you will get stock Android ROM's on the S4. Also, who knows, the next Nexus could be based off the S4.
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I agree with everyone in here! and him! lol.. I actually JUST ordered a Nexus 4 and I am beyond exicted! Even thought it isn't LTE (in 'Muria") I still picked it over all the other Android phones because it is stock Android.. and it has great support from Ubuntu! I didn't want to get the Galaxy 4 with bloated crap.

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All the manufacturers bloat up these phones when the core OS is perfectly fine and doesn't need anything that the user hasn't chosen.

Wonder where Klondik is going now then, Google? LG?

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I agree with him, touchwiz is becoming as bloated and dated as Sense used to be. Stock Android would probably be incredibly fast on Samsung's phones.

It is fast, I use CyanogenMod on my S3 and it's awesome. I like it a LOT more than touchwiz.

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It is fast, I use CyanogenMod on my S3 and it's awesome. I like it a LOT more than touchwiz.

I did this on my old Galaxy S and even on that phone it went so much faster. I do miss the Samsung keyboard however as I've not found an alternative that works quite the same way (yet)

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I still have a Galaxy S and I use Mackay ROM on it (branched from CM). It's not massively fast but it holds together reasonably well for an old phone (apart from the Facebook app which seems to lag the living daylights out of it)

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Every manufacturer puts their "layer" on top of Android, to a greater or lesser degree. It's not just a "look and feel", TouchWiz is also a suite of apps and app replacements that Samsung throw on. Some are ok, some are not. Same with Sense... These days some parts are ok, are not. The only manufacturer who's additions I like are Sony's.

As for running (as near as) stock Android on Galaxy models... I have an old S2 knocking about running an AOKP build. It rates similarly speeded as my Note 2 does under TouchWiz. I can only imagine how an S4 would perform.

And why is this news? The guy was a software engineer on the best selling Android phone, he was a software and project lead on the most popular custom ROM. His opinion on Android matters, or at least should matter.

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Stock Android, to me, is like Windows without hardware drivers.

Sometimes you need some of the Samsung software installed to take full advantage of some of the hardware. Same with the other manufacturers.

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Stock Android, to me, is like Windows without hardware drivers.

Sometimes you need some of the Samsung software installed to take full advantage of some of the hardware. Same with the other manufacturers.

Come on buddy, I know you are not an Android fan, but that's nonsense...

I'd accept that it was more like Windows without any apps. Android manages its hardware just fine - sometimes even better without TouchWiz.

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Stock Android, to me, is like Windows without hardware drivers.

Sometimes you need some of the Samsung software installed to take full advantage of some of the hardware. Same with the other manufacturers.

Quite the other way around. Stock Android is Windows with hardware drivers. Add the manufacturer skin (bloat), and now you are adding additional overhead. There is a point to what's actually useful vs. what's not. Come on, do I really need a piece of software that pauses video when I look away from the phone? What a freakin gimmick. Touchwiz on the GS4 is what Sense 3 was - just a pure bloated experience.
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Every manufacturer puts their "layer" on top of Android, to a greater or lesser degree.

Unless you purchase a Nexus device which is completely stock.

Stock Android, to me, is like Windows without hardware drivers.

Sometimes you need some of the Samsung software installed to take full advantage of some of the hardware. Same with the other manufacturers.

There are much better replacement launchers that add more. TW is just needs to go away.

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There are much better replacement launchers that add more. TW is just needs to go away.

Not so with the Galaxy Note devices. Take away TW from those, and you lose much of the S-Pen functionality as well.

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Take away TW from those, and you lose much of the S-Pen functionality as well.

There are ROMs available with JUST the pen interface capabilities baked in.

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There are ROMs available with JUST the pen interface capabilities baked in.

And invariably add their own crap, too.

That's the thing with custom ROM's. I've been a member of XDA for many many years; over those years I've tried hundreds of custom ROMs for a huge range of devices, and almost NEVER are they as stable or reliable as the OEM's ROMS. The main reason for that is a combination of testing and the capabilities of the one creating the ROM in the first place.

There's no way a single person working in their bedroom is ever going to be able to match up against a paid team of developers working with the proper tools, the proper documentation, and a proper testing team. The only ones that ever come close are the pure vanilla Android ROMs, and on some devices, Cyanogen Mod.

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And invariably add their own crap, too.

And the better ones come with setup tools that allow you to choose what they add.

almost NEVER are they as stable or reliable as the OEM's ROMS

Opinions will vary but I have found SOME to be much more stable.

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I love Touchwiz myself and prefer it over any thing else that I've used.

I've tried stock Android and Cyanogenmod on my Tab 2 and non are as good as TW. I love the thicker "status bar" and multitask display with TW.

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