[sclug] Android ROMs

[David Given]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On 15/07/11 19:25, Neil Haughton wrote:
> Ageing numpty here.
> 
> Why would you want to do this? (Genuine interest)

In a desperate attempt to make differentiate their devices from each
other, Android vendors all fiddle with their ROMs in various ways. For
example, HTC put the Sense launcher and application suite replacing the
tried and tested default ones; Samsung replace the launcher with one
that looks like their Bada and Windows Mobile phones and change all the
icons; they all load the phones up with shovelware; etc.

It's all crap.

Samsung's particularly bad; they tinker with the internals for no
apparent reason. On the Galaxy S, which is actually a pretty nice phone,
they've replaced the default yaffs file system used for storage on the
flash with a thing called RFS, which is a FAT32 filesystem with a dodgy
journalling layer on top. It's got lousy performance characteristics and
can take *seconds* to perform some tasks.

So replacing all this with something that's been put together by
enthusiastic amateurs with an eye to usability, as opposed to marketing
people who want to push their brand image, is nearly always an
improvement. I only really have experience with the Cyanogen ROMs (and
some of their clones) and am thoroughly impressed with the general level
of professionalism and reliability.

As an example: a guy at work replaced the HTC ROM on his HTC Desire with
a generic Android one (don't know which one, though), and it was faster,
used less memory, had more free space on the flash, used 30% less
battery life, and upgraded to the latest version of Android...

- -- 
???? ?????????????? ????? http://www.cowlark.com ?????
?
? "I have a mind like a steel trap. It's rusty and full of dead mice."
? --- Anonymous, on rasfc
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/

iD8DBQFOIJv8f9E0noFvlzgRAvfpAJ9aorZfGm4S0kX3OFRYLHOaEV85vQCg269P
ibkBmWQT3srkql6VGdRV6Ow=
=s8vV
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----