Happy Tenth Birthday: Cydia Jailbreak Store Turns 10 Today, Still Going Strong

Happy 10th Birthday, Cydia! Yes, that’s right, the unofficial App Store, which allows apps, tweaks, and themes to be directly installed on jailbroken iOS devices, has made it through the last decade relatively unscathed.

As far as software goes, it was very difficult to imagine that a creation like Cydia would survive to see the first decade in this world. Not because it doesn’t have a valid role to play – it absolutely does – but because of the challenges the platform has faced along the way.

Since it was first imagined and released on February, 28, 2008, Cydia has gone head-to-head with Apple, faced competition from a number of pretenders to the throne, and even been slated and devalued by prominent members of the community. And yet, exactly ten years later today, Cydia is still standing. Still going strong. And currently waiting for an official iOS 11 compatibility update by its creator Jay Freeman ‘saurik’.

The fact that Cydia is still relevant in modern jailbreaking, and, in all honesty, still the only viable, widely available, and functional solution for installing jailbreak tweaks and packages, is testament not only to the quality of the hardware but also the dedication and commitment showed to the project by Jay Freeman and his battle-hardened team. Sure, each and every major firmware release has brought challenges and hurdles, but thus far every one of those hurdles has been overcome to ensure that Cydia sits on a jailbroken device where it belongs.

We currently find ourselves in a funny position where Cydia is actually available for iOS 11 via CoolStar’s fork in Electra jailbreak, but via a release which hasn’t come from official sources. Which is to say that Jay Freeman hasn’t been involved in that release.

We’re hoping that Freeman will release an official version of Cydia for iOS 11 sooner-rather-than-later to really celebrate its tenth birthday. Until then, we all have our memories of the wonderful unofficial App Store to see us through. To the uneducated and a lot of people on the outside looking in, Cydia is about sticking two fingers up to Apple. To us, to the community, and likely to Freeman himself, Cydia is about freedom. It’s about choice. It’s about healthy competition. Here’s to the next ten years.

Cydia, we salute you!

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