The Future of ROM development on the Droid X and Droid 2

[Bateluer]

http://rootzwiki.com/topic/8062-the-future-of-the-droid-x-droid-2/

In a nutshell, its going to stop at Gingerbread.

The Droid X is a great device, and has great people with it. The missions of these forums are to make the phone even better and to continue it's life when it seems like their manufacturers have left it. ICS is around the corner, with its release hopefully being in the coming weeks and SDK ports already being put on devices. Here is the problem: ICS introduces new frameworks that weren't included in Gingerbread. If you look here: http://rootzwiki.com...e-by-siulmagic/ , the bootclasspath has to be changed from gingerbread to add the new frameworks in ICS. The modifications are done in the ramdisk(which is included in the boot.img with the kernel). At the time, because the Droid X/Droid 2 are locked devices, we cannot edit this. Meaning, we may not see ICS for a while. Please don't take my word for it that the phone will never get ICS, because I don't know, but there is a possibility. Without access to changing the ramdisk to include the new frameworks, our only options are

1) From Moto, we get an ICS leak which we can work with since the ramdisk will be changed to include these files.

2) A workaround is found to make ICS a bit backwards compatible.

3) Unlock the bootloader.

The same holds true for the Bionic, Droid 3, and most likely the Razr. When things like the framework change between Android versions, that locked bootloader destroys development. Now, the Bionic/D3/Razr will all likely get ICS updates. But, what about JellyBean? Dollars to donuts, all of them will be capable of running JellyBean too. Remember, the G1, with its extremely weak CPU and tiny RAM, ran Android 1.0, 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 2.1, and 2.2 with aftermarket ROMs. The X and D2 are plenty capable of running ICS, though Jellybean in speculative. Will Moto do any updates on the X and D2? Doubtful.

But hey, you can buy that Razr for 299. Moto will be glad to sell you a new phone in two years for another 299.

 

[Red Storm]

And that's one of the many reasons why I'm getting the Nexus.

 

[foghorn67]

It will be two years old before you know it. Who cares?
I would still prefer a Droid X over many phones from that era.

 

[Darknite39]

I'm never buying another Motorola anything if this bootloader bullshit continues.

 

[Anubis]

I'm never buying another Motorola anything if this bootloader bullshit continues.

i agree 100%

the only reason i purchased a used droid X was i needed a temp phone because my OG droid was dieing

 

[abaez]

It will continue. If moto is bending on the carriers choice, you can bet every single one in the U.S. will want it locked.

 

[Darknite39]

Can't they "lock" it without encrypting it?

 

[shabby]

So what exactly are the droid x developers capable of changing on a locked down phone? Kernel is out i take it, modem too, is changing the /system dir allowed?

 

[Bateluer]

So what exactly are the droid x developers capable of changing on a locked down phone? Kernel is out i take it, modem too, is changing the /system dir allowed?

Thats all they can do, modify the /system directory. 2nd Init allows some parts of the kernel to be bypassed, but its no substitute for a full custom kernel.