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Android needs a collection of AOSP builds

I wrote a post(don't worry about actually reading it as it contains a lot of explanation about what ROMs are and I'm sure most of you here know that) earlier about the need for a collection of vanilla AOSP builds for as many phones as possible. Being that this is probably the biggest gathering place of Android ROM developers on the internet, it seems like the logical place bring this up.
Basically, while CyanogenMod and other AOSP based ROMs are nice, they're fairly well modified and are far from vanilla AOSP. That's great for people who want those specific modifications, but at the end of the day they aren't all that different from manufacturer Sense or Touchwiz ROMs from an AOSP point of view(even if they are better). While I don't have have any problem with these ROMs(I'll probably run CM7 on my phones once it's less buggy for me), many people would prefer to start with a vanilla AOSP ROM and add on just what they want or need.
I'm aware that there are some vanilla AOSP builds for some phones floating around out there, but they are pretty scattered and only cover a small fraction of phones. For many phones, an AOSP based ROM like CM is the closest you can get to vanilla Android.
I think a central repository of actual AOSP builds for as many phones as possbile would be very beneficial to the community. Maybe a ROM developer who ports AOSP to their device could post that vanilla build before adding in all his extras.
Just a thought, but something I think it'd be great for the community to look into.

Actually thats a nice idea.
I am a lover of stock android look.
I wish if we could make available AOSP roms for most phones.
It would be awesome !!

Difference Between Aosp and Sense Roms?

What is the differenece between the two, also which one do you think is better.
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app

It comes down to opinions some like sense some like aosp.... And aosp =android open source project
Aokp=android open kang project
Aosp...PA...and aokp are all stock android built directly from source

AOSP refers to Android as it comes straight from Google. Some also refer to this as "vanilla" Android. From there, manufacturers often add their own "skin" to the OS to help differentiate themselves from the competition. HTC has the "Sense" skin, Samsung has TouchWiz, Motorola has Blur, and so on. The differences can range from diverging from the "vanilla" color layouts and icons, to completely replacing some of the built-in apps (launcher, browser, music player, camera, etc.) with their own manufacturer-proprietary apps.
Really, if you are looking at custom ROMs, you should think of them as being "Sense-based" and "AOSP-based" rather than "AOSP". The spirit of the AOSP-based ROMs is to remain loyal to the AOSP or vanilla feel. But most AOSP ROMs include a huge number of customizations, extra features, that calling them "AOSP" is a big disingenuous, when they are better called "AOSP-based".
Also, some will refer to AOSP as "stock" Android, but this is confusing. By "stock", they mean as Android comes from Google. But in reality, you can also call the official ROM as it shipped with your phone as "stock" (such as "returning your phone to stock"). Since HTC never intended the phone to run without Sense, it makes it confusing to use the word "stock" for AOSP. Better to just call it AOSP.
What a person likes better is purely a matter of personal preference. Everyone has different aesthetic tastes, and expectations on features and performance. So don't let anyone tell you that one ROM is "better" than another, and don't expect to be told that either. It like asking somebody to tell you what your favorite color is.

redpoint73 said:
AOSP refers to Android as it comes straight from Google. Some also refer to this as "vanilla" Android. From there, manufacturers often add their own "skin" to the OS to help differentiate themselves from the competition. HTC has the "Sense" skin, Samsung has TouchWiz, Motorola has Blur, and so on. The differences can range from diverging from the "vanilla" color layouts and icons, to completely replacing some of the built-in apps (launcher, browser, music player, camera, etc.) with their own manufacturer-proprietary apps.
Really, if you are looking at custom ROMs, you should think of them as being "Sense-based" and "AOSP-based" rather than "AOSP". The spirit of the AOSP-based ROMs is to remain loyal to the AOSP or vanilla feel. But most AOSP ROMs include a huge number of customizations, extra features, that calling them "AOSP" is a big disingenuous, when they are better called "AOSP-based".
Also, some will refer to AOSP as "stock" Android, but this is confusing. By "stock", they mean as Android comes from Google. But in reality, you can also call the official ROM as it shipped with your phone as "stock" (such as "returning your phone to stock"). Since HTC never intended the phone to run without Sense, it makes it confusing to use the word "stock" for AOSP. Better to just call it AOSP.
What a person likes better is purely a matter of personal preference. Everyone has different aesthetic tastes, and expectations on features and performance. So don't let anyone tell you that one ROM is "better" than another, and don't expect to be told that either. It like asking somebody to tell you what your favorite color is.
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I have always had the doubt of how do the AOSP based roms stand against Sense based roms in term of usability and stability? do thay function correctly and take full advantage of the One X hardware? It's not very clear (at least not to me) in most of the Rom's description.

korlinr said:
I have always had the doubt of how do the AOSP based roms stand against Sense based roms in term of usability and stability? do thay function correctly and take full advantage of the One X hardware? It's not very clear (at least not to me) in most of the Rom's description.
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If you take time to read through the threads a bit, you will find that they are plenty stable, and used by many as daily drivers. Many people find them faster and more usable than Sense based ROMs. But that is very subjective.
And honestly, I can flash a ROM, and be fully configured with all apps and settings in about 20 minutes. Why not just pick a few that look good, and try them? You can read all you want, but it won't tell you for certain whether you will like the ROM or not. Only way to really know, is to try them yourself.

Since all of the bugs haven't been ironed out in cm..you will probably find more stability on sense roms on this device...but say on the HTC inspire sense is very heavy and aosp would give you better battery

a box of kittens said:
Since all of the bugs haven't been ironed out in cm..you will probably find more stability on sense roms on this device...
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CM10.1 (Android 4.2) is in a fairly early phase, with some bugs. But CM10 (Android 4.1) has been very stable, for a very long time. As far as I know anyway, I'm almost entirely a Sense guy.
If you want to make an apples to apples comparison, there is no Sense based ROM that is Android 4.2 (they are all 4.1). So you are comparing a slightly buggy 4.2 AOSP ROM to one that doesn't even exist (Sense based 4.2). Or comparing the cutting edge to (literally) last year's model.
Again, it just goes back to the subjective nature of picking a ROM. There are probably hundreds of CM users here that will argue that AOSP performs better than Sense.

redpoint73 said:
CM10.1 (Android 4.2) is in a fairly early phase, with some bugs. But CM10 (Android 4.1) has been very stable, for a very long time. As far as I know anyway, I'm almost entirely a Sense guy.
If you want to make an apples to apples comparison, there is no Sense based ROM that is Android 4.2 (they are all 4.1). So you are comparing a slightly buggy 4.2 AOSP ROM to one that doesn't even exist (Sense based 4.2). Or comparing the cutting edge to (literally) last year's model.
Again, it just goes back to the subjective nature of picking a ROM. There are probably hundreds of CM users here that will argue that AOSP performs better than Sense.
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Yes .. I realize cm 10 is very stable..sorry I don't know what I was thinking with that post

I have used many AOSP based roms as my daily driver, including CM, AOKP, Jellybam, and King Kang. They have always stable and reliable for me. In saying that, ViperXL (which is Sense based) is also very reliable. It comes down to flashing a few and seeing what you prefer.

Sense vs GPE

Has anyone tried running both Sense and the GPE ROM for any length of time? Any deal breakers with the GPE ROM. I have read through most of the forum over there, but I'm not allowed to post in development forums so I wanted to see if anyone could provide any feedback on the GPE ROM. I used to have the Thunderbolt but grew sour of Sense after a while. Now I'm pretty much over any manufacturer UIs like Blur, TouchWiz, Sense, etc. I'm looking for the pure android experience I get with my Nexus 7, but Nexus isn't available on Verizon so a GPE version of the HTC One M8 seems like about the best thing to try. Any thoughts on how this ROM works?

bradwatson said:
Has anyone tried running both Sense and the GPE ROM for any length of time? Any deal breakers with the GPE ROM. I have read through most of the forum over there, but I'm not allowed to post in development forums so I wanted to see if anyone could provide any feedback on the GPE ROM. I used to have the Thunderbolt but grew sour of Sense after a while. Now I'm pretty much over any manufacturer UIs like Blur, TouchWiz, Sense, etc. I'm looking for the pure android experience I get with my Nexus 7, but Nexus isn't available on Verizon so a GPE version of the HTC One M8 seems like about the best thing to try. Any thoughts on how this ROM works?
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GPE is essentially pure AOSP. just comes with google apps etc. I personally love it, I just came over from the galaxy s4 a few days ago where I was running the GPE rom there and it was my favorite rom ive ever ran on any phone. I haven't used sense in so long im enjoying it right now, still running stock rooted s-off with xposed, but when I do start roming ill prolly just go straight to GPE.

I'll stick with sense IMO, many more features, very fast , and unparalleled functionality.
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Free mobile app

I've used the GPE rom for a few days and the sense based roms as well. In my experience it seems the GPE needs a custom kernel because there are a few things not working properly, the camera for example, and the overall experience is sluggish compared to the sense based roms. Stick with anything sense based right now, run a different launcher, and use xposed, that combo is killer and you get all the speed you can handle. Give the GPE a few more weeks and it'll probably be in full working order, at which time I'll definitely be going to it. So nice having a clean rom that was explicitly made for this phone from the manufacturer.

GPE isnt as good as some ASOP roms IMO. I typically run SlimKat, but there are many more out there.

Has lack of 3rd party "official roms" changed much?

So generally speaking I've always stuck to sister phones of nexus devices. My Samsung Captivate was sorta the "nexus with an SD card" in terms of being identical to the Nexus S, the LG Optimus G was "4g + SD Card Nexus" and I never really had any problems running roms with the latest version of Android. Running nightlys and experimental software wasn't such a big deal because it allowed me to keep my phone up to date long after it would have been updated otherwise.
The general lack of desire to stand behind the stability of a particular version coupled with a general lack of "stable" releases kinda has me jaded when I can just keep rolling with the newest version of Android officially.
It has made me wonder if there are any "stable rolling release" versions of roms? Like "here is the stable rolling release, once a week we push the latest stable versions and features from our nightles over the last month!" Letting those who want to try the newest upgrades immediately have nightly and letting people who want the latest version of android with more tweaks get the version that suits them the most?
Edit: I'm not really asking for specific ROM recommendations so much as ROM trends in general.

Many AOSP roms do this.. We can't recommend Roma to you because those comparisons are against the rules but the ROM I use (slim) has weekly builds and then a monthly stable.
The stable has a code freeze a while before release to extend testing to ensure it is stable but the weeklies are stable too.
The devs also post personal test builds in between the weeklies for those who want to test particular new functions.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

rootSU said:
Many AOSP roms do this.. We can't recommend Roma to you because those comparisons are against the rules but the ROM I use (slim) has weekly builds and then a monthly stable.
The stable has a code freeze a while before release to extend testing to ensure it is stable but the weeklies are stable too.
The devs also post personal test builds in between the weeklies for those who want to test particular new functions.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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My mistake I should have phrased the original thread more carefully and I'll edit it after this.
I was more looking at general ROM trends as opposed to looking for a specific ROM.

Many AOSP roms do this
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Snow_fox said:
So generally speaking I've always stuck to sister phones of nexus devices. My Samsung Captivate was sorta the "nexus with an SD card" in terms of being identical to the Nexus S, the LG Optimus G was "4g + SD Card Nexus" and I never really had any problems running roms with the latest version of Android. Running nightlys and experimental software wasn't such a big deal because it allowed me to keep my phone up to date long after it would have been updated otherwise.
The general lack of desire to stand behind the stability of a particular version coupled with a general lack of "stable" releases kinda has me jaded when I can just keep rolling with the newest version of Android officially.
It has made me wonder if there are any "stable rolling release" versions of roms? Like "here is the stable rolling release, once a week we push the latest stable versions and features from our nightles over the last month!" Letting those who want to try the newest upgrades immediately have nightly and letting people who want the latest version of android with more tweaks get the version that suits them the most?
Edit: I'm not really asking for specific ROM recommendations so much as ROM trends in general.
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your "sister" phones in reality have nothing to do with the nexus, and are not similar. the only similarities they have is using the same kind of cpu, but tweaked completely differently. maybe the same screens as well. all the other internals are completely different. completely different as in your "sister" phones are nothing like their nexus counterparts. so unlike nexus, that i would never call them a "sister" phone.
and there are many completely stable aosp roms out there for the n5.

I really don't see a point in releasing "Stable Releases" with a nexus device. With a Nexus device, the whole source is there for developers and the device is fully unlocked. So most likely, if a dev knows what they are doing, there shouldn't be very many bugs, if any at all. It would be mainly feature additions and whatever else the dev wants to add.
Now with Non Nexus devices, it's a little harder to get EVERYTHING working since the devices are usually locked down and all. So "Stable releases" are kind of a bigger deal.
That's my view on it anyway.

the thing about android is that someone somewhere is finding something new everyday, and waiting around for the release of monthly releases of roms kinda puts the users off("ohh active notifications!" "wow heads up notification" "can i get the <insert fancy OEM specific feature here> in my device?"). I for one, coming from an XMP which had rom's being updated once every two week found it hard in the N5 community where the nightlies where more common.
The thing is you have to keep changing fast and there is always room for improvement so there can never be a "stable" version just short term triumphs.

The thing is, there isn't much need for "stable" builds anymore, the nightlies for most ROMs are really stable and daily driver capable (of course sometimes something doesn't work right here and there, but generally). Some have Delta updates too so you don't need to flash the entire ROM over each nightly, kind of like daily OTAs.

jsgraphicart said:
I really don't see a point in releasing "Stable Releases" with a nexus device. With a Nexus device, the whole source is there for developers and the device is fully unlocked. So most likely, if a dev knows what they are doing, there shouldn't be very many bugs, if any at all. It would be mainly feature additions and whatever else the dev wants to add.
Now with Non Nexus devices, it's a little harder to get EVERYTHING working since the devices are usually locked down and all. So "Stable releases" are kind of a bigger deal.
That's my view on it anyway.
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Out of curiosity is the same true for the Play edition devices? With that said I was thinking about ROMs in general not ROMs specific to devices. I'd also argue (having worked QA professionally) the need to check new features added ranges drastically depending on what you want to add to the device.
gamer.11 said:
the thing about android is that someone somewhere is finding something new everyday, and waiting around for the release of monthly releases of roms kinda puts the users off("ohh active notifications!" "wow heads up notification" "can i get the <insert fancy OEM specific feature here> in my device?"). I for one, coming from an XMP which had rom's being updated once every two week found it hard in the N5 community where the nightlies where more common.
The thing is you have to keep changing fast and there is always room for improvement so there can never be a "stable" version just short term triumphs.
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As someone who loves new features I find the "additives" as great. I've also found just having the latest version of Android with a working stable feature set is pretty cool too.
Lethargy said:
The thing is, there isn't much need for "stable" builds anymore, the nightlies for most ROMs are really stable and daily driver capable (of course sometimes something doesn't work right here and there, but generally). Some have Delta updates too so you don't need to flash the entire ROM over each nightly, kind of like daily OTAs.
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I might look into the Delta Updates. There are a few things I do miss about ROMs such as being able to close all active windows and stuff. I just don't miss how some ROMs basically were just a conglomeration of shoving as much stuff into one ROM as possible regardless of how it ended up.

Snow_fox said:
Out of curiosity is the same true for the Play edition devices? With that said I was thinking about ROMs in general not ROMs specific to devices. I'd also argue (having worked QA professionally) the need to check new features added ranges drastically depending on what you want to add to the device.
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Google Play Edition devices aren't the same as Nexus devices, they just use a more "AOSP-like" ROM that doesn't have the respective OEM skin on top of it. Not sure if bootloader unlocking process is different (Nexus devices have fastboot oem unlock) but the stock ROM on them still has some parts of the OEM framework underneath (like double tap to wake and duo camera editing on HTC One M8). The Nexus 5 is more popular then Google Play Edition devices and which is why it subsequently has more developer support.

Lethargy said:
Google Play Edition devices aren't the same as Nexus devices, they just use a more "AOSP-like" ROM that doesn't have the respective OEM skin on top of it. Not sure if bootloader unlocking process is different (Nexus devices have fastboot oem unlock) but the stock ROM on them still has some parts of the OEM framework underneath (like double tap to wake and duo camera editing on HTC One M8). The Nexus 5 is more popular then Google Play Edition devices and which is why it subsequently has more developer support.
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This makes sense. I didn't know if the Play Edition devices still had OEM fragments or if they were as free as the Nexus series.

Heavy oem frameworks
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

To be fair, there was a pretty significant gap between 4.2 releasing on the Nexus 4 and Cyanogenmod releasing 10.2 stable. As mentioned though, many of the ROMs have released stable versions and those that haven't are still fairly stable despite not having an "official" stable release.
I will say that I'm less likely to stick with a ROM despite bugs on Nexus devices than on other devices for two main reasons. With other devices, you're often getting rid of a manufacturer skin (so it's a completely different interface, instead of just having some tweaks) or you're moving up an Android version early.

Its worth pointing out that some devs only call their last ever release "stable" when they absolutely won't add or change anything again.
I think it's too easy to get wrapped up in the terminology and not appreciate the development we have
What a stable release means to 1 dev, means something else to another.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

nearly every single ROM that I've ever used that has been titled "stable", has been less stable then the regular builds. especially with cm. a real ROM is neither called " stable" nor "experimental", its just called by its name and released. people add the word "stable" to them just to trick a few into a few more downloads.

There number of quotation marks in here is too damn high.

For good reason...
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Why is CM so important to everyone, when other roms are more stable/more features?

Not bashing CM but why is everyone so inclined to use it when it's not stable compared to other custom roms?

nadmail said:
Not bashing CM but why is everyone so inclined to use it when it's not stable compared to other custom roms?
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because most other roms use cm as base , and if cm isn't stable other roms will be unstable too .

The exception being Moto G stock android + (Xposed + modules), which isn't based off CM. It is extremely stable and bang up to date!

I will never ever ignorantly buy again a Droid which is not (enough) stock Android first and formost. I had several Samsungs (S1,3,4) and a LG Opt.G Pro. Hate hate hate factory UI's since Nexus an now Moto G Lte. It is like raping Android with those UI's not to mention über-bloated unnessary battery drain and lag.
In perspective of this one know's if full CM (or better Slim Roms) support one has good alternatives for a Droid. Official CM support often means open drivers thus decent/good custom rom quality. If custom roms are dependent on blobs for lack of open source drivers their custom roms will be most of the time full of bugs and be crap.
Another perspective of full CM (or better Slim Roms) support is good quality of newest Android versions when for instance a Moto G is end of support and will not receive updates anymore.
So when a Droid has no official CM support (and aviabilty open source drivers) I will never buy it. No matter how cheap. Official CM support will also mean a big choice of good different custom roms.
Verstuurd vanaf mijn Nexus 7 (2013), iPad Mini Retina of Moto G Lte

I prefer Paranoid Android. The update scheduled every Wednesday, well organized compared to CM, which updated randomly.

Miracast screen-mirroring is fully functional in CM, but not in Stock. So to fully realize the capability of Moto G's hardware a custom ROM is currently required.

CM Miracast might be one good reason its true. However I have been getting perfect results using an Airplay app on a standard Moto G. Airplay is a well engineered cross platform system which works equally well with Apple, Android and Blackberry devices.

Cm is Best Rom Ever!! Every Android device has Cm, and also used Base Rom to port other Roms... So There is No Competition with Cm... :beer:
Sent from my XT1033