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Do Android Users Still Use Custom Roms? (androidauthority.com)
"With all of the drama at CyanogenMod, Android Authority takes a look at the current state of custom ROM development," writes Slashdot reader Thelasko. From the article:
The future of CyanogenMod appears uncertain, after the open source ROM was forced to fork under the name Lineage OS. Fortunately there are already other remixed versions of Android available, with some of the most popular being Paranoid Android, Resurrection Remix, and Dirty Unicorns... [But] with each new version of Android, the gap between Android and popular custom ROMs has shrunk, which begs an interesting question: Are custom ROMs even necessary anymore?
To answer this, let's take a quick look at the state of custom ROM development as it exists today.
The article points out that mobile virtual reality is "on the verge of becoming mainstream and the wearable market has grown tremendously," asking whether custom firmware will also integrate these newer technologies. But the original submission also asks a question that's closer to home. What custom ROMs do Slashdot users have installed?
The article points out that mobile virtual reality is "on the verge of becoming mainstream and the wearable market has grown tremendously," asking whether custom firmware will also integrate these newer technologies. But the original submission also asks a question that's closer to home. What custom ROMs do Slashdot users have installed?
I still use a custom rom because Google stopped updating the Nexus 4 and my phone is still working just fine. I run Chroma which runs 6.0.1, whereas the last supported version was 5.1.1. Oddly enough, Chroma is more stable than 5.1.1 was on my phone.
Let's begin by saying that the stock ROMs on certain devices have become very adequate. I own a Nexus 5X and a Moto X Pure smartphone, and their stock ROMs are basically a pure Android experience. The software is already lean without any carrier bloat. Everything works fine, except for the times when google's rushed updates may sometimes introduce a new bug. I also run a stock Samsung ROM on my Galaxy Tab S tablet.
On the other hand, there is a considerable cost to using a third party alternative ROM like Cyanogenmod. For one, those third party ROMs don't always support hardware as well as the stock. If you had read release notes for something like a Cyanogenmod release, you had surely run into statements like "limited camera functionality" or "fingerprint sensor, etc".
Another issue with third party ROMs is that some software builders actively block or sabotage them. For example, the AT&T's Uverse streaming service will detect whether you have a rooted or third party ROM and stops working. The Netflix goes only up to 480p resolution on a non-stock ROM. "Fixing" this probably involves editing build.prop and hiding your root, but I haven't tried it recently.
Yeah, last few devices I've bought had something very close to AOSP with only a minimum of extra apps installed, apps that aren't causing me any problems. Android itself doesn't vary a lot between versions any more, the chances are the version you have varies little - from a user's point of view - from the latest greatest. This is a far cry from the early days of Android where:
1. Every phone had a heavily customized version of Android, in part because stock Android wasn't very pretty, but those customizations were usually horrible and bug ridden. As an example, my T-Mobile Slide 3G's dialer would crash if you changed from portrait to landscape.
2. Android itself was barely feature complete. Third party tools were needed to provide a decent launcher, decent keyboard, and so on, as well as tethering and other features carriers were nervous about.
It just isn't as important any more.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I have Cyanogen on two devices, and I will ALWAYS have a custom ROM just to eliminate all the damn bloatware. If there are programs on a new device that I can't uninstall without rooting (and there always are) it's time for a reflashing.
I gave up on Cyanogenmod when Cyanogen went all Microsoft. Not so much because the mod went bad as I started to lose in anybody who cooperates with Microsoft. It's sad to be proven right again, but I'm glad Lineage managed to break away so it's good in the long term. The parent is right. The stock ROM, even when it's almost plain Android on a Nexus device, is ultra-frustrating. You miss so much customisation. I will be back on a custom ROM the minute LineageOS gets up to speed. I paid the extra for a Nexus only because I knew Cyanogen would run on it properly. I will only be buying devices I know Lineage works on.
So you go to a pizza place. Let's name it Sammy's Hut. You start browsing the menu and you see the house special... It's a mess - it's like they tried to be healthy and trendy and full of spice at once. The clerk calls it "a whiz choice, recently we cut half its calories", but it's still an overengineered ball of mud, only gonna satisfy whoever can't grasp the fine line between taste and variety. You settle for the good ol' margherita, maybe add the usual ham, it never really disappoints - you get to feel the restaurant style with a tried and true classic, you figure what to try next time, if you decide to come back to the place that is... Unfortunately, that margherita felt like it had the same ingredients than the house special, it just didn't look like it.
Some months later you're out in Italy and you try this new spot - it's called Gugely's, and they say "it's where pizza was invented". They only really serve 3 pizzas, and they're basically the same only changing in size and shape. They do seem like a balanced and adequate for different appetites, but you know what, they say whoever comes doesn't really feel compelled to come again. Despite tasting really good, they're all boring.
There's a dessert place around the corner from Gugely's: Sweetpertino and they make an apple pie that is always made from the same tree, yet the dudes that go there eat them like zombies. Especially after they get fed up with Gugely's. They are loyal though, and the thing is really expensive for plain apple pie. My guess is they really like expensive apples. It's not anywhere as nutritional as pizza, but zombies be like... Whatever.
Fed up with apples (or maybe never had the cash for them), and not wanting to go back to the "en vogue" spots, you dig up an underground place that brags can prepare the pizza you need. They are upfront about some limitations though: what you need is not always what you want, but at least you get to decide what you think you want. They also warn your stomach might not take it; that some people are allergic to their pizza type of "source"; that some even refuse to swallow their non-standard meals. They tell you to sign an insurance release at the door, but trust me, most that go there don't even understand the consequences - sometimes they have really bad produce, but luckily you can smell it from afar if you try the least, and just change the dish. But you know, nobody really cares when looking for the perfect pizza fix they can't find anywhere. Where this shop really distinguishes itself from others though: they let you take the recipes home, mix them up, go back to them and request small changes, and at the end of the day, you can just return your pizza for a brand new one. You can do this as long as you can stomach it. Suffice it to say, it's a releasing experience and some just can't figure out what to do with so much freedom. Some give up at the first try. It is also said a lot of people go back to apples and Gugely's. Nobody really goes back to Sammy's - they'd rather have their stomachs burst from a overly zealous gastric band.
So after all that rant, what do we really learn from pizza and from people? There's no perfect pizza for everyone, that's obvious. Some fancy variety, some tolerate simplicity, and some just don't like pizza at all. Then there are those that only like pizza they can see being prepared and know the source of the ingredients. Some only want genuine ingredients even though they don't need them. It's a big shame some essential ingredients can only be bought from exclusive sellers that don't always want to sell to non-regulars, then again it's for their own commercial reasons, like every company should. The time for the perfectly balanced pizza can only come after a perfectly balanced society arises, one that only has the best interest of the customer in mind. Then again some call that communism, and it's the worst thing since the plague.
Me, personally? I make my pizza at home. That means my kitchen and my stomach are always fully prepared. WHAT HAVE YOU EATEN LATELY?
I found the stability of Cyanogenmod to be pretty good. I've heard some people say that in some cases it's actually more stable than the original ROMs included with phones, perhaps because of the bloatware that vendors add.
I have KatKiss Marshmallow on an old Asus tablet. Stock ROM was limited to Jellybean, and the thing was a horribly slow piece of shit. The fact that I can run an OS as new as I can (there's even builds available for Nougat but I haven't bothered), on a device this old (2012) is amazing. I can take advantage of F2FS which makes the crappy flash memory perform not so crappy.
I was also amazed at how much space is wasted on the flash memory with the standard OS update process. By installing the bare OS from scratch, and only the Google Apps I want, it hardly uses any flash, leaving plenty of the 32GB free.