[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWPFfb4mF6k[/youtube]
Last year I spoke for the first time about Lima, an alternative to Cydia which installs applications and tweaks through the Safari browser. For a year the developers Lima they worked intensively on perfecting the installation system and on the security issues, and now they have a semi-beta version that anyone can test. Basically, Lima allows you to do exactly the same things as Cydia, but in the case of this new system, you no longer open an application installed in your iDevice, but access a web application through which everything is installed.
Lima is not yet ready to be officially launched, but its developers claim that they are constantly working to improve the system, and soon we should have everything available. If you are interested in testing Lima, then you must register on this page and wait for an email from the developers.
Thanks to BB
So how does this work?
The real magic behind Lima is the simple lightweight plugin which runs on your device, it enables the browser to do things normal web browsers can't do. Not going to make this too technical, if you want to know how it exactly works a bit of reverse engineering will get you pretty far 🙂
Doesn't that "plugin" introduce a new security problem?
Well I spent a lot of time building a solid system to make sure that there is no way those actions will be preformed unless you choose to preform them. Currently it even isn't possible for sites other than limanstaler.com to install packages on your device. If you do manage to find a way around the Lima security system, shoot an email to support@limainstaller.com and if you're right you'll receive a cookie and an honorable spot in the credits of Lima.
What about dependencies, dependency chains, conflicts?
Lima current can handle dependencies, dependency chains and conflicts. There might be a few bugs in the system making it hard to test a system like that without having enough testers.
So Lima is much better than Cydia, right?
To be honest, I have no answer to that question. It's up to you to decide. Lima might be faster at performing certain tasks, although during the beta period we're monitoring multiple things and the whole system isn't optimized yet so it isn't running at full speed yet. Lima also has some interesting new features like support for OTA installations. Again, I'm not going to be arrogant and claim Lima is better than Cydia, it's all up to you to decide.
