Breathe Easy, OnePlus Releases Highly Anticipated 'OxygenOS' Android 5.0 Lollipop Fork
While Cyanogen’s CEO is sick and tired of OnePlus One owners complaining about the lengthy gestation period for CyanogenMod 12S, telling customers to “Calm the f**k down,” OnePlus at least delivering on its promise to release OxygenOS. We first heard about the OxygenOS ROM back in late January, with OnePlus explaining, “As an element, Oxygen is the epitome of simplicity, yet it’s also extraordinarily powerful… By itself, it’s simple and pure—a fundamental building block. But, as a part of something greater, it can do amazing things. Just like us.”
OxygenOS is based on Android 5.0 Lollipop and brings with it a “back to basics” approach to standing out compared to other custom ROMs on the market. And instead of relying on a third-party to deliver timely updates for its devices, OnePlus now has its own in-house team to streamline operations.
“By creating our own operating system, we can quickly respond to user feedback and make it easier for you to continue playing a fundamental role in the future of OnePlus,” said OnePlus in a blog posting announcing the arrival of OxygenOS. “Our goal for OxygenOS is to provide faster, more meaningful updates and a better-integrated range of services for every OnePlus user.”
OnePlus has added in a few tweaks to Lollipop that we have seen in previous Android builds from Cyanongen, but it still very much looks like stock Lollipop — and that’s a good thing.
“We want to be careful that we aren’t adding features simply for the sake of differentiation,” OnePlus added. “We’ve implemented some important features thus far, but they are subtle and meaningful. That’s our philosophy behind OxygenOS: keep it light and essential.”
OnePlus One owners can than OxygenOS on a test drive by download the ROM here. You can find instructions on how to install OxygenOS in this forum thread. In the mean time, you can check out an overview of the fresh operating system below:
