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Root Is there a table somewhere that rates/compares the various ROMs?

notaguru

Android Enthusiast
Apr 22, 2010
304
7
S Cal
There is a forest of ROMs out there, to suit every possible taste and technical requirement. However, I'm looking for a particular tree but have no idea what it looks like. Has anyone compiled an overall comparison?

I currently use KaosFroyo V37 and like it, but the grass is always greener. My job (and risk) could be reduced by 90% if user experience were tabulated, all in one spot.

Somewhere there should be general guidance.

No?
 
Personally, though I have like Nonsensikal in the past, I didn't like 12.5. Somehow the default memory settings, though they look like Autokiller defaults, work like Autokiller strict or aggressive - I always had 60-70 MB RAM free. Though many may like that, too many of the apps I like to run in the background were being auto-closed. I haven't tried the latest because apparently he did something to change to LED flashing over trackball flashing for notifications, and I really prefer (and want) trackball flash.

Charting all of the ROMs and all of the differences would be a lot of work for little benefit to the person compiling the chart. Personally, I have found ROMs that have worked well for me, and which I like for various reasons. I tend to like the ones that continue to be developed over the ones that are seemingly abandoned and have had no updates for months now. I tend to like the work of Zach from the xtrROMs, Tenzo from Tainted Tenzo, Vanilla 2.0.4 and the other Tenzo ROMs, Conap from CELB and CELB Froyo, and SikYou from Nonsensikal. To me, I prefer that a developer spend more time on getting a vanilla, stock ROM (whether it is Cyanogen/AOSP or HTC frameworks) working well than one who concentrates on perfecting custom themes and chrome, but perhaps that's just me.
 
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Also, there was a tentative effort by someone over at XDA to do exactly this (inventory all of the various custom ROMs for the Eris).

He didn't get much traction (to be kind) since things changed so often and there really wasn't buy-in from the various ROM developers to make such a cross-reference / matrix viable.

I thought it was a good idea (and it still is), but I'll probably never happen unless someone manually undertakes this (huge) and on-going effort.
 
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The change from stock ERIS to rooted-with-Froyo was so wonderful that I couldn't imagine anything better. Thanks to this group my horizons have broadened, and I've even gone from V34 to V37 on my own.

I will probably do Nonsensikal this evening, which will surely put me on the path to addiction.
 
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it would be impossible for any one person, but something like a completely public google doc for us all to put our experiences in might be nice.

the problem is that seeing a thread at XDA saying "CM8!JIT!OC/FLASH NEW KERNEL/LOOP SUPPORT" doesn't mean a damn thing to most people when in fact once you've thrown setCPU, autokiller, homereplacements and a governor of your choice into the mix there may or may not be any difference at all between them.
 
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... when in fact once you've thrown setCPU, autokiller, homereplacements and a governor of your choice into the mix there may or may not be any difference at all between them.

+1 to this, and I'm guilty of it.
I typically flash a new ROM every few weeks, sometimes it's something different (or a new version of one I've tried before) and sometimes it's just a new version of the one I'm running. And then I reinstall all my goodies which includes LauncherPro. Then I set up LP so that it looks like I want it to, by the time I'm done with that I really can't tell much difference between one ROM and another, unless there is some blatant bug or another (think 'camera'). In general I prefer 2.2 ROMs over 2.1 because of some VERY minor differences between 2.2 and 2.1. And among the 2.2 ROMs I have some favorites, but again the differences are minor, especially after I do all of my personalizations.
 
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Well, to help me avoid problems, WHICH?

Thanks!!

I find Nonsensikal and FroShedYo to be equally good, neither have any glitches that I have run across, they have no abnormal battery drain, screen moves and program loads are quick, and I find them to be aesthetically appealing.

Since Koas is the one you're likely to hear the most about, it would only be fair to note that I haven't tried Kaos since it was in version early 30something, so 6 or 7 version ago. Back then it had the camera bug, and a couple of other things that I didn't care for. And to be brutally honest part of the reason I haven't gone back to it is because of all the crap, and borderline rudeness, of the Kaos thread at XDA. I got tired of having to wade through all the garbage to find nuggets of help and wisdom. This is NOT to imply that everyone on that thread is rude, just that there is enough of it that it takes the enjoyment out of reading the thread - for me at least.
I realize that may not be the best reason to avoid trying a ROM and it's certainly no reflection on the quality of the dev's work. It's just an annoyance that I choose to avoid.
 
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Since Koas is the one you're likely to hear the most about, it would only be fair to note that I haven't tried Kaos since it was in version early 30something, so 6 or 7 version ago. Back then it had the camera bug, and a couple of other things that I didn't care for. And to be brutally honest part of the reason I haven't gone back to it is because of all the crap, and borderline rudeness, of the Kaos thread at XDA. I got tired of having to wade through all the garbage to find nuggets of help and wisdom.

+1 on this.

CELB is also good, but it adds the complication of having to flash Google apps right after flashing the ROM, even for a no-data-wipe update.

I am actually going to give FroShedYo another go. Somehow I have to figure out a way to get rid of those atrocious dock icons he has on LauncherPro. I am sure that I will figure it out. Seriously, what is wrong with stock LauncherPro anyway? ;)

I find that the Froyo ROMs are more battery friendly than the 2.1 ROMs, though xtrROM and xtrSENSE seem to be most stable and perfect ROMs. There are very, very few issues with them, and you'll find that everything - camera, GPS, MMS messages - work great with those two ROMs. The only issues that I notice are the same stock 2.1 Eris issues with force close of the browser on firs launch after the phone has been running for a while, and the weird inability to access calendar notifications to dismiss them rather than have them fire off every 5 minutes.
 
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I am actually going to give FroShedYo another go. Somehow I have to figure out a way to get rid of those atrocious dock icons he has on LauncherPro. I am sure that I will figure it out. Seriously, what is wrong with stock LauncherPro anyway? ;)

By accident I found a way around this. Backup LP with Titanium Backup, then restore it's 'data only' once LP has been reinstalled (which will probably happen automatically). That overwrites his icons with whatever you had at time of backup.

Edit: *I* don't use the LP icons, I use the app icons - that will most likely make a difference.
And I recall reading something (I think it was in the first post of the thread) where he tells where he stored the default LP icons in case you want to go back to them.

Edit2: this is what I read "Themed Launcher Pro with Manup's Clean Icon Set (I added the original LP and the complete set of Manup's Clean Icons to the sdcard. Also, added a blank.png for invisible icon on your dock if you want.(media/icons)"
which doesn't actually say how to go about replacing them.
 
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I'd love to try a new ROM every week or so. However, it seems to take me an inordinate amount of time to get everything back as I like it (apps, setings, etc). I use TiBAckUP but it still rediuos to reset all the settings for ringtones, preferences, contacs, etc.

So, is there something you guys are doing to speed up this process. It would be nice if there was a way to store all the settings and then reload them.
 
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I'd love to try a new ROM every week or so. However, it seems to take me an inordinate amount of time to get everything back as I like it (apps, setings, etc). I use TiBAckUP but it still rediuos to reset all the settings for ringtones, preferences, contacs, etc.

So, is there something you guys are doing to speed up this process. It would be nice if there was a way to store all the settings and then reload them.

+1
 
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From start to finish it takes me a bit less than an hour to flash and set up a new ROM. This includes making all the backups of the old one, downloading the new ROM zip to the phone, flashing and getting the new one set up to do all the things I want it to do. It takes about 20 minutes from 'start' to a fully working phone, the rest of the time I'm just messing around with settings and such to make the phone look 'right'.
I've never tried to see if assigned ringtones can be restored, but I only have two people with specific ringtones, so it's not a big deal for me to set them back up again.
 
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I'd love to try a new ROM every week or so. However, it seems to take me an inordinate amount of time to get everything back as I like it (apps, setings, etc). I use TiBAckUP but it still rediuos to reset all the settings for ringtones, preferences, contacs, etc.

So, is there something you guys are doing to speed up this process. It would be nice if there was a way to store all the settings and then reload them.

I use an app called Setting Profiles. Mostly I use it to make my phone quiet overnight, but an added bonus is that it will set my ringtones and default notification tone as part of redoing the settings. It's worth the cost for me.

Setting Profiles Full - Android app on AppBrain
 
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Hmm...I've been wanting to dable in some Android development (I am a windows developer by day). This may be a good opportunity to create an app that will save all your OS settings (ringtones, backlight, etc) to a file and then be able to restore it. My BB had something like that when using the Desktop Manager.

All I really need to do is figure out where they are stored on the phone. Kinda like a NAND backup but for settings only:D
 
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