Who Are You? The Difference Between User, Hacker, and Developer Filters in Cydia

We’ve all encountered it. Some only a few times in their iOS owning lives, others (like me) virtually every week. Are you a User a Hacker or a Developer?

That’s not some question you filled out on an immigration form while headed to your favorite vacation spot, it’s the question you answer after you’ve jailbroken your iPhone and opened Cydia the first time.

Most of you probably select User and keep going without thinking about it, but what is this option really for?

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJCgJuenVsE[/tube]

As the video walkthrough explains, these options: User, Hacker, and Developer, are merely filters to hide or show specific packages. The user option is the most restrictive, yet at the same time the least confusing, followed by hacker and so-on.

Most of the time even a tweak reviewer like myself has no need to select anything besides user, but sometimes, the hacker or development filters can prove helpful.

For instance, one time I was trying to install a tweak, but for some reason the PreferenceLoader dependency was missing. I tried to search for the package, but couldn’t find it. About 10 minutes later it dawned on me that this particular package must be filtered out, so I headed over to the filter settings, and enabled hacker mode.

Have you ever wondered about this? Or do you hastily skip over them in order to gain access to your favorite jailbreak apps and tweaks?