Slashdot Mirror
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 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 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.
Since most manufacturers stop caring about their phones after a year or two, custom ROMS are great for keeping 1-4 year old phones useful. My Galaxy Note 2 is still a fantastic phone running CM. The only reason I stopped using it and gave it to my wife was that the SD slot was unreliable. She doesn't need the storage, so she does very well with it. I'll likely put a custom ROM on my Moto X Pure in a year or so when Moto stops releasing new ROMs for it.
------- Mark
Unfortunately, custom ROMs are still necessary because phone manufacturers, carriers, and even Google itself washes their hands of any phone that is older than about 2 years. Often they stop offering system updates even sooner than 2 years. This forces people to install custom ROMs to keep their phone operating systems up to date.
I don't care what anyone claims -- a smartphone's useful life is way longer than 2 years, so it's unconscionable that these Android companies do this. Compare to iPhones, which are supported for up to 5 years. I have been using Android phones (Google Nexus models) for several years now, but I have seriously considered going back to iPhones because of this and because of app availability.
I rooted my phone to allow me to install apps with root access, then the phone wouldn't let me update while it was rooted, so I installed a custom ROM that would. If I have to unroot my phone every time I need to update it then I might as well just install a custom ROM.
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.
WiFi Tether without paying extra to the carrier for the same data you're already paying for is a feature.
Backup specific apps and their data ("Titanium Backup" or its successors) or the entire device ("NANDROID" backup via TWRP, CWM, PhilZ, etc)
Root apps allow flexibility carrier-ROMs don't. Greenify shuts down unused apps. Xposed allows changing almost anything about Android operation (the "framework") with easy installation. See this link for top rooted apps.
None of these are available with locked bootloaders, and stock ROMs. (The NANDROID backup is available with stock ROMs but is if little value).
MotoG4 using Silesh Nair xt16xx 7.1.1 Lineage OS 20170113 ROM
Ehud Gavron
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.