Years ago, on Fridays, we would share Custom ROM Friday posts that would highlight new and exciting developments in the world of custom Android ROMs. It was great times, as it seemed like the majority of our readers at the time were deep into running custom software and accessing root...
When I was rooting/flashing custom ROMs I was spending a lot of time tinkering or debugging issues. I could deal with forgoing bank apps, Netflix, etc but I stopped in the end after cyanogenmod had an issue that meant emergency calls would soft reboot the phone. It made me realise my phone was an appliance not a hobby, I need to be able to rely on it and not be wondering if something won't work because of the ROM I have installed or because it's rooted.
LineageOS has needed exactly zero tinkering from me on the last three phones I've had.
I hear this all the time from people: "I used to root/flash and it was a hassle so I stopped." And yet they still talk about it as if they're doing it now.
What you remember is not how it currently is. Graphene and Lineage are stable ROMs. It's not this nightmare people keep claiming it is
Do they need that experience? Having had both experiences I do agree it's much easier now. Even if your only experience is recent, if someone says they stopped because of how hard it was it's valid to say how hard it isn't any longer
It's certainly easier vs getting the original rom from sammobile or so and the flashing it with odin and praying it works and you didnt download spyware from whatdoiknow pages. But phones are so highly intergrated into our lives nowadays I can't risk it not working.
I rely on it for 2FA which is so highly important and I don't need it bricking regardless of how stable it is.
Secondary phones are a free target for me but I won't fuck with my daily driver.
Possibly, the last time I flashed an OS was 2019 and I lost a lot of features that i had on the stock rom and had a lot of battery life and lag issues.
@deweydecibel@peter Agreed! I've recently been trying roms on a Pixel 7 and it's nothing like the dark ages. Just READ the install guide, make sure your computer is configured properly, and follow the steps. I've ran Graphene, Calyx, and Lineage on my P7. The only problems I've had were related to something I didn't do correctly. Stop, READ, rinse, and repeat. Modern rooms are fantastic and they let you regain control of your device.