It's a sickness...I need counseling or something. Sean Connery was right...never say never again.
So I loaded v.8 via update.zip late last night when my wife wasn't looking (
) - the option to load w/out any data loss and simplifications he implemented in the ROM sucked me back in.
It is VERY stable and performance is VERY good.
I think v8 is the ROM that will cause me to leave Birdman v4 behind, finally. Bugless V8 looks like the fastest ROM I've used to date. Orientation switches and app loading are very quick, the 2.1 keyboard voice input is the bomb. I added email and 2.1 Gallery back in as I need imap email, and like the 2.1 Gallery. (Still playing w/the included Milestone Gallery, but initially didn't like it as much.)
Anyone waiting on the fences...this is one you should definitely try.
The update.zip option makes this painless to test drive. Do a nandroid backup of your current setup, run the update.zip install for v8 and see if you like it w/out having to reconfigure anything, other than adding email back in (copy a couple of files via ADB) if you need it for IMAP email.
Definitely a keeper for me. I'll still be trying other ROMs for fun, but this will be my day-to-day ROM going forward.
Joe - how'd it go for you?