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When the G1 came out it was the only Android powered device so modding it worked for everybody. And it was just one brand, HTC, so this forum was a one stop destination for modding our phone.
However, things have changed, now there are multiple phone with incompatible hardware from different manufacturers. Now a custom rom made for the G1, won't work on a DROID for example and vise versa. This complicates things quite a bit.
Right now Cyanogen mods are the best thing for our G1 and maybe the best thing for Android as a whole. I'm used to the build in tether capability and apps to SD and compcace and the other perks of a modded rom. But if I wanted to upgrade my phone, I would lose it all.
There are no Cyanogen mod for anything other than G1 and myTouch phones as far as I know and if I were to upgrade to DROID, I would lose root, lose tether, lose apps to SD, lose everything about my phone that makes it my phone.
Everything I wrote may not be facts, I don't really know what goes on at other forums, but I know that we don't have roms build to run on the DROID and we don't have them built to run on the HERO hardware, it's all for G1 and myTouch, and it seems to me that if I don't ha.ve on of those phones, I lose everything.
I do understand that this forum is for HTC devices which DROID and a few other's are not which is why I don't see homebrew for them. Is there a another website similar to this that supports all Android hardware?
These are thoughts that have been running through my head lately. If I am totally wrong here, please let me know.
I would say check out websites such as androidcommunity.com, androidandme.com, phandroid.com. The developers might not be on there but you can probably find links to where there are custom roms for the phones.
And you are right about different phones having different development oppurtunities. I thought about this today and realized that the next android phone I get not only has to be what I want but also be a popular phone that will attract developers such as cyan, maxisma, jac, manup and everyone else. My best guess and hope is that it will be a snapdragon android handset, hopefully for T-Mobile USA.
What we'll end up having to do is pick our phones based on it's community support and what kind of home brew is available for it.
The reason I love the G1 is the fact that it's rooted and has a large community. This phone is the best on the market, all things considered, because the rooted OS allows so much.
If and when the Droid is rooted, when a GSM version is released, and when it has T-Mo's 3G bands, I will move to it. But all those may not happen for another year or more. If you haven't played with a Droid yet, do so. Incredible speed and the best screen I have ever seen on a phone. Till then, G1 all the way.
The man is right, we have a problem on the dev side.
I think though, once 2.0 gets standard, we'll only need root for a few things like tethering and setting the CPU clock. Really cyanogen's only advantage is optimization, but once 2.0 and snapdragon rolls around, who cares? We'll always want to tinker, but it won't eclipse getting the phone you want.
The big problems right now are that the market isn't getting what it needs. Nothing compares to the HTC widgets, yet instead of cloning them on the market, we try and run a ROM that doesn't even work on our phones! We still don't have BT in Hero and it may just never happen.
2.0 will be what we need as a base, but the market needs our help now.
I'd contest the cyanogen are the best rom's.. maybe for someoen who wants to flash an upgrade every 3 days.. but for the majority of users.. Dwang is the way to go. Lengthy discussion about this, is over here..
alec.baldwin said:
I'd contest the cyanogen are the best rom's.. maybe for someoen who wants to flash an upgrade every 3 days.. but for the majority of users.. Dwang is the way to go. Lengthy discussion about this, is over here..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but this thread is not about who has the best rom.
The point is, when you get a new Android phone, your rom of choice won't be available for it. So what do you do?
alec.baldwin said:
I'd contest the cyanogen are the best rom's.. maybe for someoen who wants to flash an upgrade every 3 days.. but for the majority of users.. Dwang is the way to go. Lengthy discussion about this, is over here..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think we all get it already, YOU are dwang's biggest fan
But, to stay on topic. My G1 is the first HTC device I've ever owned and I've only discovered XDA since I've had it, and I think that because of the community involvement here and the custom roms that have come out, I will definitely lean towards another HTC phone when I look for my next upgrade, and it will definately be an android phone.
Also another thing to look at is the availability of the phones that are out to actual dev's. Unless people are donating phones, I doubt everyone can just run out and pick up all the latest devices, and network restrictions/preferences that come along with them.
I think the easiest solution is as follows:
1. Find the dev you like best.
2. Find the phone you like best.
3. Buy phone you like best.
4. Buy/Create a donate link to get said dev the same phone.
Assuming said dev doesnt turn around and craigslist the phone you bought him/her, you have (hopefully) ensured said dev will migrate and develop on your favorite hardware.
Not the best solution but probably the most reliable.
alec.baldwin said:
I'd contest the cyanogen are the best rom's.. maybe for someoen who wants to flash an upgrade every 3 days.. but for the majority of users.. Dwang is the way to go. Lengthy discussion about this, is over here..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously dude, are you going to diss me in every thread? What do you even contribute to this community? I've not received any patches or even logs of the "problems" you claim.
cyanogen said:
Seriously dude, are you going to diss me in every thread? What do you even contribute to this community? I've not received any patches or even logs of the "problems" you claim.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For real.
Alec, you're like the little annoying brother that no one wants to be around.
Grow up, let your balls drop, and enjoy your phone, your life, and whatever rom you want.
But, you don't have to go around dissing well-respected devs.
The Droid hasn't been out long enough for a community to gather around it. Many of the Android big names are waiting to get GSM versions before tinkering.
Also, remember that the HTC Dream was in circulation well before it launched last year. The Android development phone is identical to the Dream, with the only difference being some swish art on the back cover. The hardware and software were free-flowing long before it landed in our hands. In contrast, the Droid was a much more secretive launch; we've only just got Eclair source code, and the SDK was kept under wraps by a non-disclosure agreement (probably to conceal the nuclear bomb that is Google Maps Navigation).
I find the cracking of the Droid to be inevitable. The poor thing is going to be broken just as much as our Dreams were. Just give it time.
As for ROMs being available over a span of phones, I'm not sure that's even a good idea. Android variants like XROM, cyanogenmod, The Dude's ROM, yadda yadda... they're all about maximising the capabilities of the Dream. Not the Droid, the Dream. Adding in features that the hardware can support, changing CPU frequencies, Apps2SD, all that jazz. Droid ROMs will be built around adding in core features, like Apps2SD, and whatever else the Droid has tucked away. Likewise, speed optimisations may not be portable between phones, as what gives the Dream a boost may hinder the Droid.
For me, features of a ROM are not the best part of homebrew Android builds. The best part is being able to upgrade your phone outside of the carrier's say-so. If T-mobile have no plans to push Eclair to Dreams, I will install it myself. I am not tied down by the say-so of a room full of suits three thousand miles away. If T-mobile don't include an app that I like, such as the IM app or the Amazon MP3 store (which T-mobile UK don't), I can get ROMs with them myself. If a carrier would rather I didn't tether without paying for my bandwidth twice, I can do it anyway, so long as I'm not an idiot.
You may have guessed that I have a very dim view of cell carriers.
With root, we are free to do as we like. This is the real killer feature of homebrew, and the Droid will benefit from it too.
Anyway...
dwang said:
I want to acknowledge cyanogen, daproy, cyrowski, loccy, and alla for their contributions to the android community.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems dwang himself has a much higher opinion of the man than a certain other someone.
AthlonBoy said:
The Droid hasn't been out long enough for a community to gather around it. Many of the Android big names are waiting to get GSM versions before tinkering.
Also, remember that the HTC Dream was in circulation well before it launched last year. The Android development phone is identical to the Dream, with the only difference being some swish art on the back cover. The hardware and software were free-flowing long before it landed in our hands. In contrast, the Droid was a much more secretive launch; we've only just got Eclair source code, and the SDK was kept under wraps by a non-disclosure agreement (probably to conceal the nuclear bomb that is Google Maps Navigation).
I find the cracking of the Droid to be inevitable. The poor thing is going to be broken just as much as our Dreams were. Just give it time.
As for ROMs being available over a span of phones, I'm not sure that's even a good idea. Android variants like XROM, cyanogenmod, The Dude's ROM, yadda yadda... they're all about maximising the capabilities of the Dream. Not the Droid, the Dream. Adding in features that the hardware can support, changing CPU frequencies, Apps2SD, all that jazz. Droid ROMs will be built around adding in core features, like Apps2SD, and whatever else the Droid has tucked away. Likewise, speed optimisations may not be portable between phones, as what gives the Dream a boost may hinder the Droid.
For me, features of a ROM are not the best part of homebrew Android builds. The best part is being able to upgrade your phone outside of the carrier's say-so. If T-mobile have no plans to push Eclair to Dreams, I will install it myself. I am not tied down by the say-so of a room full of suits three thousand miles away. If T-mobile don't include an app that I like, such as the IM app or the Amazon MP3 store (which T-mobile UK don't), I can get ROMs with them myself. If a carrier would rather I didn't tether without paying for my bandwidth twice, I can do it anyway, so long as I'm not an idiot.
You may have guessed that I have a very dim view of cell carriers.
With root, we are free to do as we like. This is the real killer feature of homebrew, and the Droid will benefit from it too.
Anyway...
It seems dwang himself has a much higher opinion of the man than a certain other someone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You seem to have almost got my point but not quite. Of coarse DOID doesn't need Cyanogen MOD specifically. But would you buy an Android phone if there weren't a mod that lets it do the things that we are used to and have only become available by modding? Apps to SD, tethering, themeing?
Sure DROID might get all these things though a custom rom but we won't see it on this website. The problem is that things will get too spread out and hard to find with all these new hardware options.
What would be nice is a rom that works on nearly every Android device that just adds root access to the phone and some basic universal packages like A2SD and tethering etc. That way you can buy any Android device you want and still have these basic privileges.
Do you think something like that would be possible?
Pinesal said:
You seem to have almost got my point but not quite. Of coarse DOID doesn't need Cyanogen MOD specifically. But would you buy an Android phone if there weren't a mod that lets it do the things that we are used to and have only become available by modding? Apps to SD, tethering, themeing?
Sure DROID might get all these things though a custom rom but we won't see it on this website. The problem is that things will get too spread out and hard to find with all these new hardware options.
What would be nice is a rom that works on nearly every Android device that just adds root access to the phone and some basic universal packages like A2SD and tethering etc. That way you can buy any Android device you want and still have these basic privileges.
Do you think something like that would be possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Beats me, man. I'm not a developer. But I think it's unlikely.
For the DROID (and other/future android phones) is Apps2SD really necessary? The only reason why we need it on our phones is because of the pathetic amount of internal space the G1 has, the same goes for Swap Partitions etc.
As long as people buy the phone there is always going to be someone who is smart enough to work on rooting it IMO. And even without root what do you really lose? The only things I think I would really miss are Wireless Tether and Bluetooth File Transfer (Which I THINK is in 2.0 anyway).
I'm not buying a new phone until it's rooted and Cyanogen has it too.
My biggest requirement for any android phone..and any cell phone in general is the keyboard. I bought the G1 because of the keyboard and lucked out with the high number of developers available for it. I didn't find this place for several months during the time when the grandfather of the G1 mod program was still active =) JF!. I enjoyed all the modding and updating because I personally feel that the phone is, well mine. And I should be able to do what ever I want with it. I had picked up the V3C Razer because it could play MP3's. I get it home and then discover that the Verizon Nazi's completely locked down that feature so you where forced to use their service at an additional cost. Of course the motorola dev/repair/store software allowed us to get in a enable the various features that Verizon required to be locked. I also love the Aps2sd. No matter what phone you have, the internal memory will never be enough. And with the Cliq supporting 32gig sd cards, a full keyboard, and NOT verizon was enough for me. I'm patient and confident it will be rooted eventually. If not, I still have my G1 and I still do Cyanogen updates and play around with it. And when my contract is up with Tmob(renewed for the Cliq), I'll see who has the next most popular rooted phone with a keyboard and switch over. I just really hate people telling me how to use a device I own. Its like going to McDonalds and having them dictate what condiments to put on my BigMac and Fries, and then telling me I can only eat it a certain way and which hand to use. If Cyanogen was down with the Cliq, or interested in it. I may be willing to ship him my phone to see what he can come up with.
As far as a universal O/S for all phones, isn't that just the core Android software with specific drivers provided by each manufacturer and custom UI? There should be a way to make 1 O/S for all android phones, then have update packs with the drivers and UI enhancements and add-ons for each android phone released? Not sure of the SPL locks though. Thats a bit beyond me. But i wouldn't think it would be to hard to run Cyanogen on the Cliq or droid provided the correct drivers and such where bundled with it. Kind of like slipstreaming a service pack into a bootleg Windows OS . Each phone eventually has to release the source code which contains the drivers for that phone. Thats how we get the Cliq's OS onto the G1, should work the other way around too. Sounds easy, but Cyanogen's Rom should run on my Cliq, provided the drivers are slipstreamed into it for the Cliq...right? Only problem is root.. :/ hehehe
and there he flames again...alec.baldwin, no one has the problems you have with cyanogen's latest. actually, lets delve into this...what exactly are your "problems" with 4.2.5? PLEASE, answer this question so cyanogen can dutifully fix the "problems" you are having.
You might check out some of the Q/A threads to first learn how to properly flash cyanogen's ROM. It is slightly different than Dwang's because Cyanogen uses the legal method. In fact, check out www.cyanogenmod.com and you might find a ton of useful info on getting cm to work on your phone.
Best of Luck,
njuncos
P.S. Cyanogen, mad props on once again reaching over a million thread views on your latest. Now you own 3 of the top 4 most viewed threads of all time in Dream Android Development!
Hi all
Love my Nexus One
being a heavy user of many winmo and android devices feel like the ROM development on this is very dull
any reasons?
I noticed that too, then again...most of the nexus ROMs out are near perfect...and don't require as much hackery as the G1 Roms did...I dunno whatsup with any ports as of yet, but I'm sure things will pick up.
AbsoluteDesignz said:
most of the nexus ROMs out are near perfect...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly it. The fact that there aren't constant updates to ROMs is a success I think...it means nothing is horridly broken. This is the first phone I've had in a long time, that I've been so satisfied with, I'm not flashing a new ROM every other day.
We have the latest version of android out there that is accessible by the public or the ROM devs (that they can release).
We aren't trying to backport features because of the above.
The only real (I say real in a non "thanks bro" way) ROM porter we have is without internet (I assume on vacation).
As stated above, most things already work as they should.
While development is slow compared to the G1, also remember that all of our devs also do work on other devices and don't just devote all their android expertise to just one phone.
There isn't any new material to work with. Until Google releases FroYo or new beta updates we're at a stand still.
If you worked in the software world, you would be seeing this as a good thing
chowdarygm said:
Hi all
Love my Nexus One
being a heavy user of many winmo and android devices feel like the ROM development on this is very dull
any reasons?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you go!
http://android.git.kernel.org/
Hope to see some awesome ROMs from you.
Enjoy!
Its a good thing because there are no major bugs in existing ROMs. They only get updated when google or some dev introduces new features...
This is my first phone which is still running stock ROM. With all my earlier devices...something always seemed broken or felt like it lacked something.
When I had Touch.. Touchflo was launched by HTC and all the ROM development was diverted to getting Touchflo on Touch. And with lack of enough RAM, there were always choices to be made on what you want and hence many ROMS
Then I got Diamond. It was good, but again had less RAM than Touch Pro. Again race was to get Touch Pro features in Diamond and again choices had to be made to cramp up things in the limited storage.
Then I got Touch Pro... and within few months, Diamond II and Touch Pro II was launched. Cooks started scrambling to get new touchflo 3d on Diamond and Touch Pro.
Then I got Diamond II, and sure enough HTC continued there trend of backstabbing it's customers and launched HD2 with new touchflo aka Sense. Cooks then started to figure out ways to get Sense UI on diamond II.
So you see, there were always things lacking... which forced cooks to figure out things that HTC should have done for us. HTC's first Touch phone was launched along with iPhone... but touch hasn't received any updates for past 2 years.... and Apple is still supporting iPhone (although no OS4 for them).
N1 on the other hand is Google's responsibility. We have the latest OS and features. There is not enough "to-do" things here.
Regardless of that, our Chefs are doing amazing job at giving us the features which AOSP is still finalizing.
With all due respect to you.. I think it is a bit unfair to say that the chefs aren't doing much.
chowdarygm said:
Hi all
Love my Nexus One
being a heavy user of many winmo and android devices feel like the ROM development on this is very dull
any reasons?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry, we'll get right on it, boss.
It is "slow" because the phone and the ROMs are so damn fast and good already. You can't port 1.5/6 ROMs over because we can't map the buttons without having a 1.5/6 Kernel made for the Nexus One. That is never going to happen.
As well, really? What is slow about the development? We have tons of new apps coming out all the time, the ROMs we have a super fast and super stable. New Kernels every day or two pushing battery life and CPU power even further.
There is tons of development going on. Just because you aren't seeing new ROMs every day doesn't mean a lack of development, it means the ROMs we have are super solid, and development has shifted to making the other aspects better, like apps themselves, and so forth. That is one of the best things about Android, you don't need to flash a new ROM just to get some new apps, like HexiLauncher and what not, all you need to do is install the app, and voila you have a new home/launcher option on your phone.
Or, you don't need to flash a new ROM just to get a new kernel, you can flash the kernel yourself (if you know how to follow simple instructions) that gives you the newest features, and features that mean more to our phones running super fast than a new ROM would mean... actually by ROM I am talking about system.img...
Anyways, if you really think things are just way to slow, then either learn how to do it yourself, make a huge donation to your favorite developer on the basis of them picking up the pace (and by huge, I mean 50k+, so they can quit their day job), or just accept the simple fact that there is a ton of development going on already, you (and many as of late) don't seem to understand enough to realize that kernels and apps are more important, at this point in time, than a ROM update every other day.
LOL another one of these threads curious as to what else can you ask for? All the tweaks that are available and possible for this phone has already been done.
thanks to all those who replied.
i am not blaming any chefs. they are doing a highly respected job and i respect them and their work very much. thanks to all of them
i was just telling that the no.of chefs on this device are very less but maybe the reasons are diff as everyone told
like king personally coz he does experiments like blur and others
personally i like experimenting with diff roms , so only felt little jobless as compared to other devices but happy with almost perfect device.
Now this I would agree with you. The number of ROM devs are a lot less compared to the G1, :-( the phone is fairly new though.. But the ones we have working on the N1 are all great nevertheless .
chowdarygm said:
thanks to all those who replied.
i am not blaming any chefs. they are doing a highly respected job and i respect them and their work very much. thanks to all of them
i was just telling that the no.of chefs on this device are very less but maybe the reasons are diff as everyone told
like king personally coz he does experiments like blur and others
personally i like experimenting with diff roms , so only felt little jobless as compared to other devices but happy with almost perfect device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahh.. so you are suffering from what I call XDA syndrome. It's when you start feeling uncomfortable when you haven't flashed a new ROM in a week. I had that too... back in WinMo days... fortunately N1 has helped and I have resisted so far!
re: above post..
hahahaha... "XDA Syndrome"
Seriously though, Modaco has been gone for awhile. Got stuck cuz of the volcano issue... it's been weeks since he has released even an update!
We are a little spoiled with the N1 I think... on top of that with 2.2 coming out shortly I think a bunch of cooks will be kinda waiting for that to come out before they do any more major tweaking.
The main thing I personally am waiting for is a fully working SenseUI on the N1.... I kinda thought it would materialize much quicker once the DESIRE came out.
arkavat said:
ahh.. so you are suffering from what I call XDA syndrome. It's when you start feeling uncomfortable when you haven't flashed a new ROM in a week. I had that too... back in WinMo days... fortunately N1 has helped and I have resisted so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL... i think i have the same problem im feenin for another enom rom but as he stated he was on vacation which i can respect cause im going to Miami soon. I have no complaints to the rom development but i'd love to see more themes like motoblur style X10 style i miss my motoblur theme on my magic
[edit] And before your go saying i should make one myself i tried and it was to difficult for me for some reason.
Coming from winmo myself it was a change not having a dozen or more roms to choose from but in reality looking at it objectively most of the roms are either adding something that came in a newer device or more or less a rehash of what was already done in that they didnt do anything new but they did it in a different way. Not that the latter is a bad thing, the improved layouts people came up with greatly eased, speeded up, reduceded the number of clicks, etc. in getting where you wanted to go and I at least was happy to see them coming down the pipe. As an aside when winmo was as youthful as android is now there was a lot less rom activity than what you see now as best as I can recall back.
arkavat said:
ahh.. so you are suffering from what I call XDA syndrome. It's when you start feeling uncomfortable when you haven't flashed a new ROM in a week. I had that too... back in WinMo days... fortunately N1 has helped and I have resisted so far!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, I had that like 2 weeks ago...kept flashing and flashing and flashing...finally I settled on my highly customized 5.0.5.3, still haven't jumped to 5.0.6 due to wifi issues (and me being suspended until payment next week)
I had 'XDA Syndrome' with my Magic.. I found myself flashing something new (ROM or theme) every week. Now with my Nexus, I have no desire to do so. Like others have already said, I think it's a testament to the stability of the ROMS out there coupled with the fact that 2.1 is already kick ass. We already have the best software on our N1's people. Believe me, once 3.0 or even Froyo comes out we will see an increase in ROM development.
Also, there may not be many devs for the N1 as of now, but many of the absolute best ones have a Nexus so I'm not worried about future development.
I just wanted to get a feel/consensus on peoples opinion of the third party rom scene for the EVO. I started my XDA days back with a tilt, and have been loyal to HTC since then.
The EVO is simply the best phone out there at the moment, IMO. But the roms seem to be very lacking in actual substance and it's a bit disappointing.
Almost every rom I've looked at here has been so customized and themed they are really just eyesores. It was normal on all my other devices to have some of the roms that were being produced be like this, but not all. I've been really impressed in the past with HTC roms. Dutty is one of my favorites.
The only 2 current exceptions I've found are CM and Fresh, and since some of us refuse to use sense, it really only leaves one choice.
CM is awesome, and the work that goes into it is really really amazing. There isn't a bunch of customization to the UI, it's left up to you what you want to do for how your phone looks. It's a rock solid foundation to build upon, and it would be awesome to see more roms in that form.
Thoughts? Am I missing something?
This is the wrong section, the General section would be the appropriate section for this.
this should be in general, but i agree it seems that lots of roms out there are just customizations of existing roms, a color change here and there. There really isnt anything major to differentiate between sense roms, except for 3 or 4 big ones, and then there is CM rom, and the roms based of CM seem like just themed version of CM, but who knows i mean im not a developer, maybe theres only so much one can do as far as development.
easedrop said:
--
The EVO is simply the best phone out there at the moment, IMO. But the roms seem to be very lacking in actual substance and it's a bit disappointing.
--
Thoughts? Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Better get started developing.
What else do you want the ROM's out there to do?:
OC: Check
Undervolt: Check
AOSP Builds: Check
Open Source 4G: Check
De-odex: Check
Wide Variety of Themes: Check
Open Source FM Radio: Check
Wireless Tether: Check
Wired Tether: Check
Gingerbread: Check
AND THE LIST GOES ON...
What I'm trying to say is, unless your speaking specifically about HDMI, there's really not a lot left to be desired that can't be had from these phones until Honeycomb hits.
I mean, CM even supports SIP accounts natively...among the millions of other small details that are so amazing.
Even DLNA can be had through a simple app...what's left for you to want so badly that your phone cannot do already?
My point is, is that most devs are not going start over from scratch just for the heck of it, when something so close to optimum potential has already been reached.
Sent from my 4G-Toting, Lightning Smoking, Gingerfied, Cyanogenmodded EVO: Please stand back!
Itotally disagree. I mean, some, yeah, you're right, but look at the mods done to the more popular roms. Not just theming but tweaks, custome apps, etc.
What more do you want form a ROM?
And while, true, some people are married to CM, some are more into Senseui, some Miui.
Everyone has different tastes, and from what I se eon here, there's something for just about everyone.
Thread moved to General.
As per your questions, devs make roms based on their personal taste and, in many cases, general feedback from the users. There are many plain, stock rooted roms out there, and many tutorials in case you want to make your own as well. Also, you can easily theme any rom to your liking. I hope this answers your concern.
i think the ROM's on the evo are pretty strong. My criteria is, do the majority if not all ROM's improve upon stock? Yes. Do the majority if not all the dev's support their ROM's and upgrade in a timely manner? Yes Do the majority if not all the dev's have themes/mods available for their ROMS? Yes. Are there more than one style of ROM's to choose? YES 1. Sense 2. AOSP - MIUI 3. AOSP - CM 4. AOSP - Liquid metal
easedrop said:
I just wanted to get a feel/consensus on peoples opinion of the third party rom scene for the EVO. I started my XDA days back with a tilt, and have been loyal to HTC since then.
The EVO is simply the best phone out there at the moment, IMO. But the roms seem to be very lacking in actual substance and it's a bit disappointing.
Almost every rom I've looked at here has been so customized and themed they are really just eyesores. It was normal on all my other devices to have some of the roms that were being produced be like this, but not all. I've been really impressed in the past with HTC roms. Dutty is one of my favorites.
The only 2 current exceptions I've found are CM and Fresh, and since some of us refuse to use sense, it really only leaves one choice.
CM is awesome, and the work that goes into it is really really amazing. There isn't a bunch of customization to the UI, it's left up to you what you want to do for how your phone looks. It's a rock solid foundation to build upon, and it would be awesome to see more roms in that form.
Thoughts? Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are way more. Click my signature and you'll see
my EVO is way cooler than yours
Except your link is broken...
easedrop said:
Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. MIUI.
the OP ... is expectiong way too much....
you do relize for most.. this is a good little hobby..
so is done around free time...
you want more... you do it! I dont have the skills to even try.
I do appreciate the ones that can... and do.
there are a lot of phones out in the market. and not all phones even have a dev community.. and if they do, it aint that big.
so there are different levels of dev support from phone to phone.
EVO, is way up there in the level of quality devs and community support.
Fixed my sig, forgot i changed the link. But there are a Sh*t ton of choices, my count is at 144 thus far
_MetalHead_ said:
Yes. MIUI.
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+1... this.
I've had 4 Android phones:
Evo
G2
MyTouch 3g Slide
Moto Cliq
This forum has more roms, kernels, mods, themes, etc than all 3 of my prior phones combined. Every time I hit the dev section I'm a kid in the candy store. There's fully functioning roms that work with everything and a few that I'm excited to see get better, like MIUI getting 4g.
There's very few phones out there with this much dev support, my friend has an LG vortex. Go find the LG vortex section of the forums. They don't exist.
My point, you have to do some digging but there's something here for everyone. If there isn't, make it! We could always use another dev to try to topple the big dogs.
Hi, at the risk of starting a massive flame war, please dont, I'm just after information...
Being that the S2 stock ROM is already pretty good and we already have a number of decent ROM alternatives I am wonder what else CYANOGEN is going to bring to the party.
I have read all the spiel so I am not looking for the usual answers, what advantages exactly does it have, will it have, say over COGNITION when COGNITION Is fully working with video, games etc etc and has decent battery life. Doesn't have the CM7 messaging but I prefer K9 stock anyway.
I am also surprised that people are already using CM7 looking at the amount of DEV that still needs done.
I tried a CYANOGEN port on my old HD2 and I was left thinking what all the fuss was about, i'm probably missing something huge here, or CYANOGEN is really for advanced users or something.
Again, please keep this thread clean and calm
Please just go through the threads and read. It's all there. I won't rewrite the book. In short though, think a year from now. Cognition is based on stuff samsung released. What happens when samsung moves on? Cm7 will still be pushing the latest goodies.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
I'm not going to lie I never understood the hype of cyanogen rom. I have also tried with an hd2 and wasn't blew away and didn't see anything special. I think cyanogen mod is for people looking for aosp.
I have much respect for that team though because as far as I know there roms are built from ground up. Unlike most custom roms sgs2 have are really just themed stock roms with a couple tweaks.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
you should probably stop wasting space here and go to cyanogen's site and read what it is about. if it doesnt interest you after that you dont have to think about it ever again. no need for threads like this, it just makes you look bad because you obviously have not spent any time researching and educating yourself before asking this question.
Isn't Android reinventing the wheel? iPhone was here first, and Android is just duplicating iPhone functionality. Google should shut down the Android project immediately.
da.trute said:
i'm probably missing something huge here, or CYANOGEN is really for advanced users or something.
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Bingo!!! Some of us don't want to use crapware installed by the manufacturer who is really not a software expert, just a hardware expert, and want to come as close to the stock Android experience as possible. For me personally, things like hold volume button to skip to next song, switch between percentage battery and analog battery anytime you want, a very advanced OS theming engine which doesn't require you to flash anything to change the theme, always being on the bleeding edge of new Android releases/bugfixes etc. is the icing on top of the cake.
However, it's really about the excitement of checking the commit logs of the nightlies everyday to see what's new.
Yeah I never understood what the hype was all about either, don't get me wrong its a great aosp Rom and I give the devs a world of credit, but it feels like a number of things are just incomplete.
It has a few features that aren't found on most roms and runs quick as Hell, but if your looking for an in depth user friendly experience I would not say that this is the best for that as it lacks a lot of simple things you might be used to if your coming from a sense or some other kind of based rom
All I can really say is back yourself up and give it a try for a day or two and if you don't like it then just go back.
CM has only just come out, and is far from stable, and only really should be used if you are willing to help debug or want to live on the bleeding edge
We want CM for when samsung have abandoned us.
Its always good to have options!
Each rom,whether its a "themed" stock rom, or a ground up one like CM7 offers something different.
The obvious advantage has already been mentioned - once SGS2 goes EOL for Samsung, CM7 will continue to support newer versions of Android till as long as the (very) capable phone hardware can handle it.
There are improvements... for some... e.g. the native Samsung bluetooth stack doesn't work with Wiimotes... for instance... i believe CM7 and know MIUI does...
Its really a case of... pick and choose... no1 charges for these... try...as many... if you like one... say thanks to the Rom maker... and possibly a small donation!!!... and stick with it...
Thanks everyone, thats pretty much what I thought, nothing special compared to a good feature packed cooked ROM but very useful in the future when sammy stop updating, I just thought I was missing something huge the way people get excited about it.
Will stick with COG for now until CM7 is looking fairly complete and then give it s roll.
yeah its all about when samsung abandons the device. in addition, it also is about running a fully open source ROM on your phone. once the cyan rom gets stable, each night it will be updated with a change log, so gives you the ability to constantly be seeing the fixes to the software actually running on your phone. something you dont like? commit to the code, and it may get merged into the repo. its about having total control over the device you are using, seeing every little feature, the code for it, how it works, and ability to modify it if you want.
of course it also has some good features too. but the above is what i think the point of cyan is.
Coming from the Epic, and then from the S3, I have noticed the fragmentation of Android with just the dilution of good development.
With that said, I acknowledge I am a user, not a Developer. I've tried to get interested in development, it is just not where my passion lies.
This is one of those useless posts you see on XDA, however, I feel like there is not much going on in this forum so maybe this is the best discussion we could have.
Take Apple, they have one product to focus on, no one to share the spotlight with. Android on the other hand has several, I have no idea how many, to share the spot light with. S3, S4, S5, Oppo, One, name your poison.
I say all this because I remember back to the Epic... It was Epic. The phone was amazing when it came out, the development was even better.
Now that I'm on the S4, while I don't want to take away anything from what the developers on this phone have done, it is not their fault, but developers will flock to where the demand is. And it just doesn't seem to be here.
Maybe this is Sprints fault? I stay with Sprint because they're the cheapest option I have. Certainly not the best, but definitely the cheapest.
Just trying to promote a discussion, not a flame war. Start now.
socos25 said:
Coming from the Epic, and then from the S3, I have noticed the fragmentation of Android with just the dilution of good development.
With that said, I acknowledge I am a user, not a Developer. I've tried to get interested in development, it is just not where my passion lies.
This is one of those useless posts you see on XDA, however, I feel like there is not much going on in this forum so maybe this is the best discussion we could have.
Take Apple, they have one product to focus on, no one to share the spotlight with. Android on the other hand has several, I have no idea how many, to share the spot light with. S3, S4, S5, Oppo, One, name your poison.
I say all this because I remember back to the Epic... It was Epic. The phone was amazing when it came out, the development was even better.
Now that I'm on the S4, while I don't want to take away anything from what the developers on this phone have done, it is not their fault, but developers will flock to where the demand is. And it just doesn't seem to be here.
Maybe this is Sprints fault? I stay with Sprint because they're the cheapest option I have. Certainly not the best, but definitely the cheapest.
Just trying to promote a discussion, not a flame war. Start now.
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With unified builds, awesome devs are still contributing to our device! Its cool that a talented dev who builds aosp but is with verizon can build for us too. There is no shortage of great development going on, but I'll admit the sprint s4 forums are not as active as I remember the e4gt forums being.
To address your other point, sure - the sheer amount of android devices available will mean the pool of talented devs are spread more thinly across the spectrum of devices, but this community rocks and with a little google-fu (xda helps those who help themselves) I don't think development has really stalled. The forums are just a little less active. What IS a shame is that users here will drive talented devs away from releasing their work publicly on the forums by driving them insane with questions that have been answered 100s of times, petty politics, and flame wars, etc.
But at the end of the day, I would rather have an open OS with a vibrant (or dull) community than a locked down device I can never truly have full control over. But frequent upgrades have always been pushed by manufacturers, at the end of the day profits are the bottom line for them. Thats what is so great about this community, is that the devs here do work that would have gotten them a decent commission or wage elsewhere, FOR FREE. God bless :good::highfive:
All good points, and I would have to say I agree with you, especially with the shame that developers sometimes are driven away by lazy users.
mxmr said:
With unified builds, awesome devs are still contributing to our device! Its cool that a talented dev who builds aosp but is with verizon can build for us too. There is no shortage of great development going on, but I'll admit the sprint s4 forums are not as active as I remember the e4gt forums being.
To address your other point, sure - the sheer amount of android devices available will mean the pool of talented devs are spread more thinly across the spectrum of devices, but this community rocks and with a little google-fu (xda helps those who help themselves) I don't think development has really stalled. The forums are just a little less active. What IS a shame is that users here will drive talented devs away from releasing their work publicly on the forums by driving them insane with questions that have been answered 100s of times, petty politics, and flame wars, etc.
But at the end of the day, I would rather have an open OS with a vibrant (or dull) community than a locked down device I can never truly have full control over. But frequent upgrades have always been pushed by manufacturers, at the end of the day profits are the bottom line for them. Thats what is so great about this community, is that the devs here do work that would have gotten them a decent commission or wage elsewhere, FOR FREE. God bless :good::highfive:
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I'm not a developer either (well of any roms/android mods at least). But as a long time computer power user and burgeoning programmer (3rd year comp sci major) the development on the S4 is very lack luster. We could get into comparing S4 vs development on older platforms, but I'd rather just discuss the generally bad development in the sprint S4 non-original android dev. forum. Most roms are not suited for daily drivers. I have personally tried 2-3 different versions of Sac's Rom and negalite's rom( as well as 1 try on various other roms) and none was with out major flaws.
The problem as I see it is this: The demand is for the newest rom with the most up to date android features. So as rom developers are getting closer to making a stable working version of their roms, Sprint releases an update at which point most developers switch and start working on new release with out ever making a fully functioning rom. To make matters worse most Rom's are presented as a finished product. Some have a known issues section in the first post ,but I challenge any one who disagrees with me to find a known issues section on a rom that actually contains all the know issues. It doesn't exsist. Instead each user is left to download an unfinished product and only after discovering an issue and digging though 10 pages of forums you find others have the same issue and that there may or may not be a soultion. How f'ing hard is it when a god damn issues is reported to update the orginal post?????? I understand these developers are doing this out of the good of their hearts, but anything worth doing is worth doing correctly. If it is to much work to keep an up to date list of ALL known issues, have one of the roms users do so. Not much work for one fan of a rom to keep list of issues if dev cant be bothered.
You help no one when custom roms break things working in the stock version and present it as a working rom. Custom roms used to add fucntion to a device now, it adds somethings and breaks others. Till this trend changes, the best rom is stock rooted + w/e mod a user desires. When a bunch of things dont work label your Rom alpha when most things work call it beta and only when everything works call it stable. This kind of common sense would improve everyone's experience greatly.
mysongranhills said:
I'm not a developer either (well of any roms/android mods at least). But as a long time computer power user and burgeoning programmer (3rd year comp sci major) the development on the S4 is very lack luster. We could get into comparing S4 vs development on older platforms, but I'd rather just discuss the generally bad development in the sprint S4 non-original android dev. forum. Most roms are not suited for daily drivers. I have personally tried 2-3 different versions of Sac's Rom and negalite's rom( as well as 1 try on various other roms) and none was with out major flaws.
The problem as I see it is this: The demand is for the newest rom with the most up to date android features. So as rom developers are getting closer to making a stable working version of their roms, Sprint releases an update at which point most developers switch and start working on new release with out ever making a fully functioning rom. To make matters worse most Rom's are presented as a finished product. Some have a known issues section in the first post ,but I challenge any one who disagrees with me to find a known issues section on a rom that actually contains all the know issues. It doesn't exsist. Instead each user is left to download an unfinished product and only after discovering an issue and digging though 10 pages of forums you find others have the same issue and that there may or may not be a soultion. How f'ing hard is it when a god damn issues is reported to update the orginal post?????? I understand these developers are doing this out of the good of their hearts, but anything worth doing is worth doing correctly. If it is to much work to keep an up to date list of ALL known issues, have one of the roms users do so. Not much work for one fan of a rom to keep list of issues if dev cant be bothered.
You help no one when custom roms break things working in the stock version and present it as a working rom. Custom roms used to add fucntion to a device now, it adds somethings and breaks others. Till this trend changes, the best rom is stock rooted + w/e mod a user desires. When a bunch of things dont work label your Rom alpha when most things work call it beta and only when everything works call it stable. This kind of common sense would improve everyone's experience greatly.
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To a degree, I definitely am with you on this. I have been with this forum since the days of my old HTC thunderbolt. There are AT LEAST 5 popular daily drivers that worked worlds better than the stock rom for that phone. My particular phone glitches out on the dialer/phone app for all Original Android ROM's meaning I am automatically limited to a TW rom. I've tried everything to fix this but nothing seems to. However, there is one that works flawlessly, Triforce 5.4. It's perfect, so far as I can tell, but is starting to show its age. It may be the only perfect ROM for our phones but is almost completely without bells and whistles, unlike the Thunderbolt, which you could save multiple working images to SD and restore if you felt like using sense one day, CM the next, and I do recall a few completely custom ones loosely based on CM that worked awesome. Anyway that's my say on it. I am sad NAE firmware capabilities don't have a nice Triforce release to go with it, but the PRL and firmware seem to work great with the ROM, so I guess I'll stick to it, even if it is boring. It definitely does everything I need for it to do. Still, finding the issues with each one and helping the developers is part of the process. It's fun and part of the reason why I do what I do. Take my ASUS Transformer. That thing is old as the hills, but has multi window, android 4.4.3, windowed apps, and all manner of other things and it runs super smooth. timduru is the dang wizard of that device and refuses to let it die peacefully.
arikdahn said:
To a degree, I definitely am with you on this. I have been with this forum since the days of my old HTC thunderbolt. There are AT LEAST 5 popular daily drivers that worked worlds better than the stock rom for that phone. My particular phone glitches out on the dialer/phone app for all Original Android ROM's meaning I am automatically limited to a TW rom. I've tried everything to fix this but nothing seems to. However, there is one that works flawlessly, Triforce 5.4. It's perfect, so far as I can tell, but is starting to show its age. It may be the only perfect ROM for our phones but is almost completely without bells and whistles, unlike the Thunderbolt, which you could save multiple working images to SD and restore if you felt like using sense one day, CM the next, and I do recall a few completely custom ones loosely based on CM that worked awesome. Anyway that's my say on it. I am sad NAE firmware capabilities don't have a nice Triforce release to go with it, but the PRL and firmware seem to work great with the ROM, so I guess I'll stick to it, even if it is boring. It definitely does everything I need for it to do. Still, finding the issues with each one and helping the developers is part of the process. It's fun and part of the reason why I do what I do. Take my ASUS Transformer. That thing is old as the hills, but has multi window, android 4.4.3, windowed apps, and all manner of other things and it runs super smooth. timduru is the dang wizard of that device and refuses to let it die peacefully.
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I just recently got off heavily modded stock and flashed Super S4 and so far it is awesome. Ktoonz's Kernel is baked in and after using recommended recovery to flash I've had no problems. It isn't heavily modded (mostly other mods baked in and some init.d tweaks) but is fast and stable and is one of the very few TW roms I'd recommend.
When I was on HTC Inspire 4G, There were easily 10 Roms (ASOP and Sense) suitable for a daily driver. For the S4 I'd be hard pressed to find 3 stable usable TW roms at a time.
I think android as a platform is changing a lot philosophically, as well. Older custom roms used to be a must have and were the main reason most users wanted root. Now everything is much more framework centric. Now root is used to add functionality through Xposed framework modules,or audio mods like Viper. Previously each and every mod had to be rom specific.