If you’ve been following the jailbreak community as closely as I have recently, then you’ve undoubtedly witnessed a lot of denigration betweenCydia Substratenaysayers and Substitute naysayers. Some are fed up in waiting for Cydia Substrate to be updated with A12(X) support, prompting many to harass Saurik for a release date and motivating others to take a different approach tojailbreakingentirely.
In response to much of this mud-slinging and toxicity, Sauriktook to Twitter Friday morningto bend the jailbreak community over his knee and give it a good spanking. It’s not very often that Saurik makes a public appearance on Twitter, but when he does, it’s almost always a home run:
In Saurik’s extensive commentary, he condemns the foul language that has been thrown back and forth in thejailbreakcommunity in recent memory. Moreover, he reminds everyone that he is busy with his day job and that jailbreaking isn’t his number-one priority.
Saurik went on to explain how he has become disappointed with the jailbreak community’s toxicity starting in 2018 and that he officially left the community before being looped back in by Sam Bingner, the co-author of theunc0verjailbreak. Bingner allegedly motivated Saurik to work with him to update Cydia Substrate for iOS 11, although Bingner helped in handling some of the hard work:
Saurik also silenced some of the mud-slinging that transpired between Cydia Substrate andSubstitutefanboys, explaining that Cydia Substrate works in a more efficient manner:
Despite all the negativity and the fact that Cydia Substrate isn’t fun to work on anymore, Saurik began working on support for A12(X) regardless. He found that Apple introduced new logic and challenges and that it would take a very long time to decode. The father of jailbreaking elucidates that it would be very challenging to work on this in addition to his day job, among other aspects of life:
While it certainly sounds like Saurik is tired of updating Cydia Substrate for a seemingly ungrateful jailbreak community, he hasn’t completely left everyone in the dust yet. Saurik’s concluding statement notes that he may still update Cydia Substrate for A12(X)ifhe can find a way to make Cydia Substrate work to his standards; then again, that’s a big “if” considering the precarious circumstances:
Much of the pain and suffering Saurik endures comes from the fact that he is only human and that he must serve a day job to make ends meet. Jailbreaking was once a lucrative endeavor, butas we learned when Saurik shut down the Cydia Store, that’s no longer the case.
Today, jailbreaking is merely a hobby to Saurik – one that he works on when he occasionally has free time. One of the things Saurik explained in his comments was that much of that free time goes to developing CydiaImpactor,and thatan updatewith new features is planned for a future release.
If it wasn’t for Saurik, the jailbreak community never would have existed to the extent that it has today. The jailbreak community would do good to stop harassing Saurik on every public channel regarding ETAs, as he has no obligation to update anything. Everything he does merely comes from the kindness of his own heart.
Without a doubt, much of Friday’s comments came out of frustration with the jailbreak community, especially with the lack of maturity that seems to have manifested in the last several years. Even someone as prominent as Saurik needs to be able to vent about things once in a while…
There’s no telling if or when Saurik will update Cydia Substrate for A12(X) devices, but it seems certain that Saurik won’t release anything unless he can ensure that it’s done right. Someone with a reputation like Saurik isn’t prone to rushing updates to the public that will result in instability for the masses.
As of now, jailbreakers have four realistic options: 1) to enjoy their iOS 11/12 jailbreak on a pre-A12(X) device; 2) to wait for Saurik to find time to update Cydia Substrate for A12(X); 3) wait for Pwn20wnd to integrate Substitute into unc0ver; or 4) to use an alternative jailbreak tool such asElectra(or the upcoming Electra12), which uses (and will use) Substitute instead of Cydia Substrate.
As always, we’ll continue to keep you updated as new information surfaces.
