Dev group TEAM M.A.D have managed to secure the kernel source code for the Jiayu S3 and S3 Plus and even bring an Android 6 based ROM for the phones.
As a general rule of thumb Mediatek devices don’t generally have their source code released. According to GPL rules, Mediatek are required to release source code however they haven’t been very free with code in the past. Not releasing code is actually the model of their business and means that phones don’t get updates/the latest Android versions and forces people to buy new phones to get the latest Android features.
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But this might be all about to change thanks to Team M.A.D. The dev team have just confirmed that they have the code for the MT6752 based S3 and the MT6753 based S3 Plus. Not only have they got the code but they have released it too!
If that wasn’t enough then the team have already started work on custom ROMS for the phones based on Android 6.0.1. These ROMs include CyanogenMod 13, Paranoid Android and AICP.
It’s great news to finally see Mediatek releasing code for phones, but it has taken TEAM M.A.D 1 year of lobbying to get the code! Perhaps in the future Mediatek will be more forthcoming?
Those of you wanting the source code can download it from Github here.