[lunacie]

Definitely try cooking your own. It sounds like you want a simple ROM, but the catch is that the more basic the ROM is, the more likely it will not have a feature you want.

Also, going with some of the newer 6.5.3 builds you'll see a significant speed increase, which could change your mind about adding more 'features' to your TP.

I cook my own with a com5 build (6.5.3 build 28002), Manila 2.5 ported to VGA, and all the apps that I need and want, and my phone is very snappy, very reliable, and does everything I need. ***My ROM is the opposite of what you're asking for - it's got the very latest beta of everything, lots of apps, a very large pagepool (for speed), and a boatload of customizations that apply only to me.

You can make the 'perfect' ROM for yourself - cook a very simple ROM with only basics, and only the apps you want, leave out all non-essential items.

I suggest either PPCKitchen.org's BuildOS if you don't mind using older WM builds, or our very own Calkulin's VGA Kitchen (my personal favorite).

I use Calkulin's, and once you spend maybe a few hours getting familiar with what is included, and how to cook a ROM like you want, it's easy as pie to make everything just the way you want.

If you want to stay up to date with the bleeding edge with minimal effort (i.e. don't have to add new stuff to Kitchen yourself), then RaidZero's Kitchen is good. He updates it nightly, so should you ever have the urge to cook a new ROM with the latest builds of whatever, you can be sure that his Kitchen will have it already. But it is not a visual kitchen, everything works by scripts - yet it's easy to use, too.