But they are going after the source. If they can stop the distribution of RUU's and/or encrypt them and take away the raw materials that developers need to make custom Sense ROM's, why would they need to shutdown sites like this one and XDA?
Ok. An RUU gives developers a safe baseline with which to build a custom rom.
It's nice, not required.
One of the lead devs on the team I'm on was the first to release the LTEvo Jellybean rom as a base for other devs and for users, based strictly on a clean OTA update. That same dev was the first one to release the same rom based on the decrypted RUU when it came out.
Difference between the two roms - zero. Nada.
If you know a device's physical layout, you can perform a clean update and pull the stock rom when complete. Only an unlocked bootloader is required.
I used to build my own roms, just for me, doing a rom pull, it's not difficult. (Don't call me a rom developer, I never took it that far, don't expect I ever will.) Again, RUU not required.
Many devs prefer or insist on using only the RUU as a base. And there's nothing wrong with that, not a bit.
But there's more than one way to skin that cat and get the same results where the roms are concerned.
And if they never release an RUU again, install the stock unrooted rom for the present version, lock the bootloader, take the OTA (to get new firmware), unlock, and re-flash su.
All they can do so long as the bootloader unlock exists is make it take more steps. They can't stop it.
