Foreward: If this post seems a bit long-winded, please bear with me. It really is trying to solve a genuine problem that's forming on this forum, and one that I would prefer to head off if possible, since the way things are headed, they're likely to turn out badly. Take [
http://www.ppcgeeks.com/can-rom-edit...2930.html]this thread[/url] as one that's starting to turn ugly.
Over the past several days, I've noticed that there's a growing amount of frustration regarding what should, and should not, be in the various ROMs that are the generous members[1] of this forum have been producing. A lot of it has to do with differing opinions and valuations of software. For example, what's best at task management? HTC Task Manager, O2 Plus, Spb Pocket Plus, TransCreative Magic Button, something else completely? Different people, understandly, have different opinions. Sadly, it seems like the only "real" solutions are that either:
- everybody builds his/her own ROM, or
- most people "make do" with whatever somebody else makes.
Maybe I'm a perfectionist, but I'm not happy with these choices.
There is another option, but the people of this forum will need to pull together for this.
When I first started getting into Windows Mobile devices a few years ago, I knew a lot less back then than I do now. But it was in that starting period that I first became familiar with the term "ROM kitchen"... and it meant something entirely different back then. Take a look at
this entry in the xda-dev wiki, and you'll see what I mean. Much like now, people were developing what that page refers to as Special Edition ROMs - personalized versions of the official ROMs. But then xda-dev came out with a better way to do it: a customizable kitchen where
anybody could create their own customized ROM,
not just those with more time and technical experience. All you needed was a web browser. As a matter of fact, an old XDA (aka HTC Wallaby) ROM kitchen is still available on
this page here.
Why do I mention this? Some of you have doubtless figured out where I'm heading with this.
Shouldn't PPCGeeks create a traditional ROM kitchen like this for its users? It doesn't necessarily have to be hosted on the official PPCGeeks server, of course, since I'm not sure what the resource requirements of it are. But at least if we approach things this way, then
- all users (including the ROM creators) will get the best of every ROM, without the problem where this ROM has this fix, but that ROM has that fix (like the various BlueTooth fixes, .NET fixes, etc.),
- this will severely curtail the issue of people requesting that ROM creators include this program instead of that program, since they'll be able to pick their own programs,
among other benefits that I'm sure I'm forgetting.
I'm not just throwing this out there in the expectation that somebody else will take this on. I'm perfectly willing to get my hands dirty in this as well (complete with bringing to the table some of the nifty tricks I've picked up over the past weeks), as well as devoting a certain amount of time and programming expertise to this. But similarly, I'm sure that I don't have the time, energy, and server requirements/capacity to be able to do this alone, either.
So... what say you?
[1] Those members who are creating Special Edition ROMs are particularly generous, and not only because they're creating those ROMs. I could do it pretty easily myself (and have been since shortly after the AKU 3.3 ROM kitchen was available, although my ROMs haven't been released to the general public). It's because they have the patience to deal with all of the questions and issues that have been raised since. I sure don't have the patience to deal with all that.
