Following the launch of Cyanogen Inc, a startup whose stated goal is to turn CyanogenMod into commercial software, dissensions appeared within the CM community. Unfortunately for users of the popular custom ROM, the point of contention was the promising Focal camera.
Focal was launched with much fanfare this summer as the first stage of Project Nemesis, an effort from the CyanogenMod team to improve the user experience of the custom ROM. Designed as a replacement for the stock Android camera app, deemed unsatisfactory, Focal features an interesting user interface and a rich feature set, including a Photo Sphere-like function for 360 degree panoramas.
Over the past months, tensions apparently occurred between the developer of Focal, Guillaume Lesniak, and Steve Kondik, the founder and lead developer of CyanogenMod. The reasons pertain to disagreements concerning the licensing of the application, as well as the direction where Cyanogen Inc is taking the project.
As of today, Focal is no longer a part of CM. Steve Kondik removed the code from the project and commented:
I spoke with Xplod at length about this. I think Focal is a great piece of work with huge potential, but there's now this perception that CM is trying to steal his hard work and run with it. I would rather see him continue this as a standalone project (which will no doubt be successful) rather than continue to generate drama in the community.
Lesniak talked about the reasons that pushed him to leave CyanogenMod in this post on Google Plus. The developer says that he will continue working on Focal and that he wants to eventually launch it on Google Play.
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