Database Users

[Q] New to Android, ROM Selection Help

Hello Mates,
Some of you might be in here that I've dealt with in the past. I am new to Android, but did a good share of work in here with WinMo and just came back from iOS. My iphone was stolen and I was bored with it, so I have just ordered a HTC Wildfire. While it gets here I am wanting to ask some questions. Obviously i tweak all the phones I own (have a BB too) and wanted to know who can recommend a good ROM that for now that keeps the Sense UI, but has most of the garbage sorted out (Language packs, and other unneeded stuff) so I can start reading. Two years ago, there were perhaps 4 or 5 ROMS per WinMo device, I see the game has changed.
Paul

Well, from the list of Sense ROM's, I would recommend WildPuzzle or Sunnabh. I have used both (Not that others like DK/DS etc., so cant really comment), and, both are fine ROM's. WildPuzzle allows a bit more customization by way of more packages and stuff, and, Sunnabh allows for stability minded approach, but, its your call.
I would say, try out both, and use the one which suits you. Ultimately, have a look at CM7 as well, even though it doesn't have Sense, I was mighty impressed with it. (Initially, even I was more of a "Sense" user)
Finally, hope that your Wildfire does not come with 2.2.1 pre-installed. Else, you will have to hunt around for someone with an XTC Clip.

The best sense ROM imo is Wildpuzzle . I love the transparent status bar and lock screen, its fast and since its just a customized version of a stock rom everything works and its as stable as an elephant on 4 legs.
But if you want a ROM with a bit more customization and android 2.3 (wildpuzzle only have 2.2) CM7 is a very good ROM (mh, what could u expect, Jacob compiled it ). The only problem with it imo is the slow gallery (not sense gallery) and the videocam quality.

Moved to general

I moved away from sense a few months ago and started using CM7, definitely not planning on going back any time soon! It should definitely be your first option if you decide to look beyond sense.

a1exander said:
The only problem with it imo is the slow gallery (not sense gallery) and the videocam quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which version of CM7 are you using? RC2 has a much faster version of the gallery than it used to, or at least it does on my Wildfire?

After months of testing, I am now using Leaf r3 and it's the best I have ever tried.
ALWAYS stable, no freeze. It's almost stock FroYo ROM but Sense widgets and some useless apps that I hated have been removed (oh thanks).
In CM7, the font looks pixelated, much worse than in FroYo. I believe is a Sense thing. So, I took Leaf r3 and created a Gingerbread-style framework-res.apk and HtcResources.apk, combined with Metro homescreen.
Amazing!
Some Sense apps are much nicer than Stock android apps (specially Camera)

Best Non-CM Gingerbread ROM?

As the title states looking for opinions on what non-CM Gingerbread ROMs are working best for other users. This also excludes ROMs based on CM. As much as Im not a Sense fan, Im at the point where I dont care if it is Sense or not. Im thinking of switching from CM7 mainly cause the GPS issue has finally gotten to me (ive tried all fixes and have GPS working but its so crappy compared to stock). Enough of that, time to move on. Welcome to opinions on some Gingerbread roms.

well i find the meXdroidMod meXperia remeX really awesome, though its cm nightly based, i think a good non cm would be the ginger-sense by gingervillian

I never was a Sense fan until I came across Virtuous. Best ROM for the G2 in my opinion. I'm always trying other ROMs just to keep up with what's out there, but I keep coming back to Virtuous as my daily driver. Everything just works with it, including GPS.

MIUI hands down. I love how fast and smooth it is, especially with pershoot's latest kernel.

miui for sure...
was gonna suggest ultimate droid. but its cm7 based. sooo.. miui. best rom IMHO

BoscoTM said:
MIUI hands down. I love how fast and smooth it is, especially with pershoot's latest kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea MIUI! My favorite. I think you will like UD( UltimateDroid) Its based on CM but I think its a little bit better but that's just me of course.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z/G2 Using XDA Premium App

ultimate droid 3.3 is the best i've come across thus far.

I wouldn't recommend MIUI, it's boring.
mexdroid and pyromod are great but are CM based yet I don't experience GPS issues.
non CM7 based I recommend this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=983991
it's sense but one of the best sense roms out there.

Ultimatedroid definitely kicks ass. I really want to try the miui, but there are like five different ones in rom manager and two or three on the forum, no idea which is most up to date, supported the most, or used by the most people. Is miui supposed to be iphone clone?
Edit: UD is based off cyanogen also but actually feels like a rom all its own and not a CM ripoff.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

slider6000 said:
ultimate droid 3.3 is the best i've come across thus far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, its pretty awesome

xsteven77x said:
Ultimatedroid definitely kicks ass. I really want to try the miui, but there are like five different ones in rom manager and two or three on the forum, no idea which is most up to date, supported the most, or used by the most people. Is miui supposed to be iphone clone?
Edit: UD is based off cyanogen also but actually feels like a rom all its own and not a CM ripoff.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup that's what it's supposed to be with a little bit of android.

Thugnificent69 said:
I wouldn't recommend MIUI, it's boring.
mexdroid and pyromod are great but are CM based yet I don't experience GPS issues.
non CM7 based I recommend this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=983991
it's sense but one of the best sense roms out there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aha... we were just saying. It matters how you like a rom.I like Miui, haven't been in any other rom for a long time.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z/G2 Using XDA Premium App

is there any rom that has the tweeks from Ultimatedroid but gingersense based?

Use gingervillian 1.5 its stock with cm7 settings which you can use optional if you want.
Sent from my 7 inch HTC Space Banana running Gingervillain 1.5

xsteven77x said:
Ultimatedroid definitely kicks ass.
Edit: UD is based off cyanogen also but actually feels like a rom all its own and not a CM ripoff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some issues with ultimatedroid(for g2) are thus follows:
~Gps is still borked.
~After you select one alternate theme no other one will install, same goes for boot animation though in the case of boot animations once you have selected an alternate you cannot change it.
~Font changes do not work.
~Applications like to uninstall themselves.
UD "seems" snappy but it is entirely due to sped up render effects. I pulled just as fast & faster quadrant scores running CM6.1.1 with pershoots latest kernel.
Speed is in the eye of the beholder people. So far virtually ever rom I've tried that is based on CM7 code has some sort of "gotta pray to machine gods" type element to get GPS going. Virtuous is laggy even with overclocking past 1ghz and if you don't dig SenseUI you're up a creek. The only major rom I have yet to try is MIUI but I really don't dig iphone style integration so I guess I'm just going to be stuck on CM6.1.1 till the official Gingerbread release for the g2 comes out.

astriaos said:
Some issues with ultimatedroid(for g2) are thus follows:
~Gps is still borked.
~After you select one alternate theme no other one will install, same goes for boot animation though in the case of boot animations once you have selected an alternate you cannot change it.
~Font changes do not work.
~Applications like to uninstall themselves.
UD "seems" snappy but it is entirely due to sped up render effects. I pulled just as fast & faster quadrant scores running CM6.1.1 with pershoots latest kernel.
Speed is in the eye of the beholder people. So far virtually ever rom I've tried that is based on CM7 code has some sort of "gotta pray to machine gods" type element to get GPS going. Virtuous is laggy even with overclocking past 1ghz and if you don't dig SenseUI you're up a creek. The only major rom I have yet to try is MIUI but I really don't dig iphone style integration so I guess I'm just going to be stuck on CM6.1.1 till the official Gingerbread release for the g2 comes out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the gps varies partly on hardware also, because I have never had any of the aforementioned problems on UD (given I never tried to change the font), and gps worked fine. As in accuracy three meters and under and no drifting. Gps works for me on all these roms that people say it is broke on when the OP states the technically it is working correctly. Coming from a vibrant before I have seen how wildly gps hardware quality can vary with a given model, I do believe people when they say it doesn't work for them but there are also people who never expierience these problems.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

you can use miui with a different launcher then its not really all that iphone'ish, i have used miui as my rom for most the time i have had my phone and it runs grate i used it as i love the luncher others seem to swear by it with luncher pro or adw though.
atm i am trying to get over my app drawer hate so i can try some more roms out there, sense seems to work best with the phone seen as it has been made for the keybaord or so i have have found anyway.
is there any luncher/mod out there that will remove an app form the drawer when its on a homepage?

niai_mack said:
you can use miui with a different launcher then its not really all that iphone'ish, i have used miui as my rom for most the time i have had my phone and it runs grate i used it as i love the luncher others seem to swear by it with luncher pro or adw though.
atm i am trying to get over my app drawer hate so i can try some more roms out there, sense seems to work best with the phone seen as it has been made for the keybaord or so i have have found anyway.
is there any luncher/mod out there that will remove an app form the drawer when its on a homepage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Launcher pro and adw have to option to hide apps in the app drawer... I'm like 98% positive... I think adw is called categories..
Sent from my HTC Desire Z/G2 using XDA App

I was using GingerVillain for months because my GPS wouldn't run on my old radio with CM7. Once i upgraded my radio I used CM7. GingerVillain was great considering it was would before CM7 but did have some issues with randomly restarting.

I don't believe the xboarders rom is CM based. It's just straight up, no bs, stock gingerbread.

Is it ok to delete CM7 and reinstall a froyo rom?

Just checking. Fed up with CM7 and its weird behaviours of unresponsive and hidden menu's so gonna change rom.
Just to double check, it's ok to wipe a gingerbred based rom then reinstall a froyo one isn't it?
I have a feeling I'm getting mixed up with hboots where its dodgy to downgrade.
Can someone clear this up?

I flashed jokerdroid 4.2 froyo after cm7 and no probs here!
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using XDA App

Cool. Was just making sure you could go from 2.3 back to 2.2 again.
How do you find Jokerdroid compared to CM7?

Pretty good. Its a sense rom but loads quicker than stock. It seems as quick or maybe quicker than cm7 to me. Check out the comments here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=999899
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using XDA App

All current gingerbread roms for wildfire lag (some a lot).... opossite to froyo roms like jokersdroid and wildpuzzle (most popular) wich are faster and more stable, for now.

Yeah I thought that might be the case.
Reinstalled my back up sense last night and realised that I really love sense!
Do the HTC widgets work with Jokerdroid or Wildpuzzle?

Aca902 said:
All current gingerbread roms for wildfire lag (some a lot).... opossite to froyo roms like jokersdroid and wildpuzzle (most popular) wich are faster and more stable, for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im running Cm7.1 which is 2.3.4 gingerbread and it isn't laggy at all,
no idea why you think that. Ive no experience with overclocked Froyo roms,
but Cm7.1 is definetly not laggy.

Yepp sense widgets work in Jokerdroid...
For me, I like some sense features which are not there in CM7. An important one is CM7 not having a smart dialer. Yes I know there are some third party apps out there like dialer one, go dialer etc. But they are not as good as HTC dialer.
Jokerdroid is great so far. Fast, more stable compared to CM7.
After alpharevx S-OFF, installing a sense rom, you won't have HTC wallpapers and setup wizard but there is a solution for that in the forums. Check full index thread in Android development forum. Everything is explained there.

I don't really care about HTC wallpapers, I always use custom pictures anyway.
What's the advantages of having setup wizard, doesn't sound like I'd need it.

You dont really need either one of them... It is just for the sake of completeness and some like the wallpapers. Also htc scenes is missing too. But as I said, not vital.
Set up wizard is not a must either. But then you have to manually set sync of gmail etc. Not a big deal.

Ive tried CM7 and Jokers too, Jokers was better for me because of sense, after that I flashed back the stock rom, with hcdr kernel. So I can overclock the cpu, and its much faster. Im waiting for the stable 2.3 sense rom.

Well, Jokerdroid is installing just now. Thought it was boot looping but its moved on now to an animated HTC screen so I assume all is going well.
I'll get setcpu on it once it finished and try it out.
EDIT: All is great bar one small problem (there's always one). The weather widget can't find my city! But it can easily in the stock, it's the same widget surely?

[Q] ROM Comparison - Is there a side by side?

Has anyone done a side by side comparison of the ROMs available for the MT4G?
I have been reading forum after forum and blog after blog, but most are so technical I'm just not getting the basic idea of what each ROM has to offer.
I see CM7 based ones and MIUI based ones, Sense based ones and Iced Glacier and it is all very confusing. I really just want to know a bottom line of what comes in it and what it looks like. How will it be different then the stock ROM in my phone now?
I don't have the know-how and experience of a developer but I'm not computer illiterate either.
I have however rooted my phone for the first time just a few days ago and want to do it right and make sure I am getting what I am looking for without losing anything in the process. Which is basically, no more TMo bloatware, faster CPU, longer battery life, customizable fonts, colors, sounds, etc and the ability to take screen shots.
I don't use the Sense and basic apps that came on the phone, I have LauncherPro and use Folder Organizer for my home screens, Dolphin HD for browsing, SwiftKey X as a keyboard, Handcent for SMS, Gmail for email, Astro for files, Doubletwist for media and am in the process of looking for a replacement for the Gallery. And I want to keep all of my customizations in those as well if possible.
This can all be so overwhelming because there is just sooo much info out there on the subject and so many different opinions and ways to do things. So any help or advice that can make the 'choosing a ROM' process a little easier will be so greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!
Thanks!
Jen
PS
Oh and let's not forget that apparently some ROMs then seem to have their own little differences between Stable, Experimental and Nightly...??? Someone please simplify for me! This root & rom noob greatly appreciates your patience and help.

IMO you should just go on a flashing spree and see which ones you like best, AOSP roms will probably have the best battery life vs sense based roms by a few hours.
But for me I like sense's integrated interface and the camera/gallery. I take a lot of pictures and the camera that comes with virtuous unity is awesome + the gallery that comes with it with it's effects (i know there are apps that do that too but the effects done by this gallery is pretty amazing)
Anyways if you're flashing a new rom you will have to redo your customization. Backup your apps using titanium backup or mybackup root or pro. (mybackup seems to be easiest to restore apps but if using titanium restore APP only because restoring data will sometimes cause problems)
Every ROM is better than stock.
Now the Roms:
Sense rom: Try Virtuous Unity first, it's amazing and my daily driver if you can get version 1.29 it seems to be more stable, that's what i'm on.
1.31 supposedly has draining issues for a few.
Looks: it's based off sensation, it's actually really amazing.
Miui rom: I haven't try this YET.. but if you like the iphone UI try this out
CM7/AOSP: I say start out with Royalginger, you can't go wrong with it, it's the rom that got me into this flashing craze in the first place. Think of it as CM7 supercharged.
i'm actually gonna try faux aosp next.
Looks:think smooth and quick
iced glaciers: no comment i think they're based off froyo? not sure.
There are also those gingerbread leaked roms. They're basically the new gingerbread 2.3.4 OS for mytouch4g with special modifications.
Note you should let the rom settle in a couple days to determine the battery usage of it.
If you're planning to flash CM7 you should just stick with the stable ones as you're new to this. think experimental builds as Beta and nightlies are alpha.
I switch around royalginger and virtuous unity can't go wrong with those. I just love virtuous unity camera and gallery.
every app you're using can be installed in any of the roms so don't worry about that. They'll look the same on each rom. You can make it look like what you're using now too plus it'll run quicker and smoother... and longer.
I suggest trying out Opera browser vs Dolphin, i was using dolphin but found that opera is much smoother. except i do like some of dolphin's feature.
no comments on keyboards because i only use swype 3.7 (it's swype + touch input keyboards together!)
I started out using handcent but found gosms quicker
quickpic and 3dgallery are popular choices.
oh when using each rom remember to check the APN in setting>wireless>mobile networks> access point names and see if it's on tmobile and not on anything else. I actually suggest deleting any other listed APNs
happy flashing!

That's some great info, Teo, and exactly the kind of input I'm looking for. Thanks!

Sorraia3 said:
That's some great info, Teo, and exactly the kind of input I'm looking for. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should look at some youtube videos. That should give you a clear idea of what each ROM has to offer.

mackster248 said:
You should look at some youtube videos. That should give you a clear idea of what each ROM has to offer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good idea, Mackster. I'll do that. Thanks!

I have been running miui and virtuous unity for some time now. While sense does have some nice eye candy, you cant go wrong with the kind of battery life and speed you can get aosp. The fastest rom i have tried to date is miui, I have not gotten higher quadrant scores on any other rom and i have tried them all. With the new phone i also recommend that you get familiar with radios and kernels too. Radios can make a big difference with battery life, cell reception and data speeds. Try out the panache radio, it seems to work best for me.

Check out the ROMs listed in the Resource bible. They are divided by android version and subdivided by base (aosp, sense, and miui.)
I dont have a side by side comparison since there are over 50 ROMS listed however I did start a POLL this month in the Resource Bible so you can view the results and see what ROMs others prefer.

Double post....

Thank you, junkie. I will check out both of those and will definitely start researching radios.
Thanks, Halfcalf... I will check out the bible and Great idea with the poll! It will be a big help seeing which are the more popular ones to help narrow it down. I definitely don't want to flash 50 different roms trying to decide. Lol

forgot to mention i think miui, latest cm7 nighly, virtuous unity all have a native screenshot thing. royalginger doesn't. not sure about faux

Teo032 said:
forgot to mention i think miui, latest cm7 nighly, virtuous unity all have a native screenshot thing. royalginger doesn't. not sure about faux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Faux 1.29 doesn't have a native screenshot. It does support the market ones fine though. Also you can get some ridiculous speed and battery life on that ROM with well-thought SetCpu profiles.

What is the "best" ROM, what has what?

Hey Guys & Girls,
I have a HTC Desire Z, I am currently running the MIUI Osimod ROM and it's starting to lag plus there are a few little things what bug me and annoy me however it is quite a good ROM
I'm looking for a "better" ROM, I don't know how to pick between each ROM, if there was 2 or 3 ROM's I would of simply tried each one but there are LOADS of ROM's.
I wish there was a rule and a specific topic layout enabling novices to see the major differences between ROM's because its so hard, a simple tickbox system would be good enough to help compare.
If you have any suggestions for a ROM for me to use, tell me your favourite ROM and why you think it's better than others or the reasons you like it over others...
If you could do this, it would be much appreciated
Thanks
- Hyflex

Hyflex said:
Hey Guys & Girls,
I have a HTC Desire Z, I am currently running the MIUI Osimod ROM and it's starting to lag plus there are a few little things what bug me and annoy me however it is quite a good ROM
I'm looking for a "better" ROM, I don't know how to pick between each ROM, if there was 2 or 3 ROM's I would of simply tried each one but there are LOADS of ROM's.
I wish there was a rule and a specific topic layout enabling novices to see the major differences between ROM's because its so hard, a simple tickbox system would be good enough to help compare.
If you have any suggestions for a ROM for me to use, tell me your favourite ROM and why you think it's better than others or the reasons you like it over others...
If you could do this, it would be much appreciated
Thanks
- Hyflex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMGOMGOMGOMG NOT THIS AGAIN!!!!!! As stated in other threads, the best rom comes down to user preference. Like my fav is virtuous unity because i like sense 3.0 UI
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

evilcuber said:
OMGOMGOMGOMG NOT THIS AGAIN!!!!!! As stated in other threads, the best rom comes down to user preference. Like my fav is virtuous unity because i like sense 3.0 UI
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you noticed... I said "best" and said: "tell me your favourite ROM and why you think it's better than others or the reasons you like it over others"
Meaning, I understand and know its personal opinions / user preference and am saying "best" not as in which ones the fastest, most features...etc but want to know what ROM's people are using and what they like about them.
Simple

Hyflex said:
If you noticed... I said "best" and said: "tell me your favourite ROM and why you think it's better than others or the reasons you like it over others"
Meaning, I understand and know its personal opinions / user preference and am saying "best" not as in which ones the fastest, most features...etc but want to know what ROM's people are using and what they like about them.
Simple
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you should change the thread name from the best rom to your fav rom. Also you could check out reviews on each rom to learn more, you could also read the threads for each rom to get ppls opinions
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

If you try and flash all of them and experiment them out, you'll find out which one you like the best.
I prefer the sense based widgets, so I stick more with the sense-rom sides.
I have always been a CM user, but with the DZ I've felt that I don't really need CM or CM based roms because it's speedy enough on sense. Can't say for sure with virtuous unity, feels like it uses a bit more resources and battery. But that's just my opinion.

how come there is no poll somewhere that shows how many ppl are at what rom...
anyways its definitely a personal preference... i went from Sense 2.0 to CM to OSI_MIUI and now back at Sense 3... virtuous unity is stable and fast enough (with overclocking) havn't had any problems with it...

awsrasool said:
how come there is no poll somewhere that shows how many ppl are at what rom...
anyways its definitely a personal preference... i went from Sense 2.0 to CM to OSI_MIUI and now back at Sense 3... virtuous unity is stable and fast enough (with overclocking) havn't had any problems with it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried unity and its slow once i have my apps installed it was slow and my im apps were disconnecting (restarting)

Hyflex said:
I just tried unity and its slow once i have my apps installed it was slow and my im apps were disconnecting (restarting)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was this an earlier version of unity?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

evilcuber said:
Was this an earlier version of unity?
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used 1.31, the most current non beta and I feel the lag at times. Virtuous sense feels a lot better.
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

kaijura said:
I used 1.31, the most current non beta and I feel the lag at times. Virtuous sense feels a lot better.
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was latest, I never download old stuff and Im using the G-Lite version atm its pretty bare, I want to have the reboot options and the toggles tab (when u open notifications) also I want to stop the stupid "USB Connected" message popping up its driving me insane lol

Love those thread, because its hard too choose.
Tried cm7, but no sense ui.
Tried virtuous sense 2.0, but its 2.0
Love the unity 1.31.
recently upgrade to unity 2.37, but tons of bugs.
About virtuous doubleshot?

oVeRdOsE. said:
Love those thread, because its hard too choose.
Tried cm7, but no sense ui.
Tried virtuous sense 2.0, but its 2.0
Love the unity 1.31.
recently upgrade to unity 2.37, but tons of bugs.
About virtuous doubleshot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'tons of bugs'? Such as?
I moved away from Unity when it moved to Sense 3.0 because it was so unstable on my DZ - I guess because of the memory requirements.
I used Virtuous Sense 2 for a good few weeks, but I really wanted Sense 3.
Tried a few others (doubleshot, Honeysense etc.) but now Unity 2.37 is out I have had barely any problems - fully recommended.

I've used them all and Bulletproof's MIUI Rom is the best in my opinion. Then again it all comes down to preference.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

I actually enjoy these types of threads because it keeps us users on our toes. At the same time, if the Dev's browse these threads, perhaps they'll be able to compare their featureset with another ROM's featureset. That being said, here is my opinion if you haven't already chosen a ROM yet.
Sense: I LOVE SenseUI. The native Facebook integration, intelligent dialer and the host of intuitive widgets is great to have. It is THE go-to ROM if you want a plug-and-play ROM. Setup time is minimal and though Sense does take up more resources than say CM, AOSP-based or MIUI, it is the tradeoff you make to have convenience. My SenseUI recommendation would be Virtuous Sense 2.0 hands down. Doubleshot and Expresso ports are nice but they're not true SenseUI. SenseUI 3.0 (i.e. Virtuous Unity, etc...) is nice but you need to sacrifice more than system resources to run that properly (i.e. if you have the G2, you need to convert to the DesireZ HBOOT; might have to OC more to get SenseUI 3.0 to run smoother, etc...).
AOSP: I ran AOSP based ROM's in the past and the best advantage is SPEED. A typical AOSP ROM is about 1/3 the size of the equivalent SenseUI ROM so you'll have tons of space to hold your apps and other stuff. AOSP is nice if you have a specific app to use for your different types of integration. My recommendation for AOSP based ROMs would be either CM7 (Haven't used before) or Virtuous G-Lite (Used and loved). The only reason I left AOSP (for now) is because I want the Facebook and other types of integration and convenience that SenseUI offers in one package rather than find equivalent apps to do the same thing.
MIUI: Think of this as AOSP with an iPhone-esque skin; easily customizable from a UI standpoint. This makes sense because MIUI stands for "My UI" according to my research. Alot of the features in the various MIUI builds are similar to that of AOSP ROMs just with added UI customizeability. Each flavor does add or subtract some features, but the baseline experience should be similar throughout. My recommendation for MIUI would be the Official MIUI build for the DesireZ/G2 from MIUI.us.
It seems that you understand (surprising that many don't) that whether you like or dislike a ROM is completely personal. Myself, for example, love to have SenseUI. Others will swear profanity at SenseUI and kick my arse for loving it. I hope you can find the ROM that suits you!
EDIT: Added links for your convenience.

I agree with everything you stated, ad I have tried all ROMs uve stated. I also love sense ui and features hence stuck to virtuous sense 2.0. If it wasnt for that i would straight head to miui as it then be customized to my demand.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

hmm stock pre-rooted ota works great for me and fast!

Ramsfan_Jim said:
'tons of bugs'? Such as?
I moved away from Unity when it moved to Sense 3.0 because it was so unstable on my DZ - I guess because of the memory requirements.
I used Virtuous Sense 2 for a good few weeks, but I really wanted Sense 3.
Tried a few others (doubleshot, Honeysense etc.) but now Unity 2.37 is out I have had barely any problems - fully recommended.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll post some pictures in the dev section about my bugs. I hope its something easy to fix because so far is the fastest rom I've tried.

Been trying to find a ROM that lasts the whole day, and not even g-lite lasted me more than 12 hours. Not sure why since all I do is text, run on edge all the time, below 50% brightness, no background data.

I tried these ones from virtuous 'cause I like Sense much. But... they had same "feature", after few days and software updates I started to get force closes from acore and gapps and couldn't use UI/phone at all. Even rebooting to recovery was pain in the ass. I tried factoryreset and even re-install on top of old one without wipe, but didn't help. CM7 going strong and steady now.

I hate to be repetitious, but as long as these "best ROM" threads keep popping up, I'll keep saying it. OP mentions "favorite ROM" in the body of his post, but "best ROM" in the title. Really, "favorite" is a better terms, as there is no "best" ROM. Everyone has different needs, tastes, and preferences. Calling one "best" or "better" than others is an insult to the generous devs who work so hard making these ROMs for us.