[Q] Fascinate a good buy? - Fascinate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So I've been thinking about purchasing a fascinate to use for a while, I want to get the galaxy nexus (like everyone else and their brother) but I'm likely gonna just wait until my upgrade is available in July. I currently have the droid incredible, which I do love, but the fascinate appeals to me due to the hardware (GPU, DAC, SAMOLED) and, possibly, development (part of why I'm here to ask your guys' help/opinions).
I use MIUI currently and would pretty much need to have it on whichever is my next device. I see you guys have MIUI builds and from what I can tell, they are pretty bug-free. Curious to hear if there are any issues that I should know about?
I've heard reports of GPS issues with the fascinate, how is it working for you guys on AOSP roms?
Obviously hacking/modding a Samsung is different than what I'm used to with HTC, but am I correct in assuming that you guys have a lot of options when it comes to tweaking kernels, etc? I guess I'm thinking of things like voodoo sound, and display calibration (things you can't do with HTC phones) but I need to do more reading to figure out what they do and how the work on this device...
I see a lot of references to odin and kies. Are either (or both) necessary for rooting and flashing roms, and are they mac compatible? (Researching this now, google should be able to help me with this)
Since the fascinate's hardware shares similarities with the galaxy nexus, it looks like you guys have one of the most functional ICS roms currently available. With ICS source being released and the similarity to the nexus, do you guys think development will continue to flourish on the fascinate? (At least for another 6-8 months)
Finally, looking around on ebay, it looks like a used fascinate can be had for around $90-$120, does that seem like a fair price?
Thanks in advance for any help, I look forward to hearing your insights and opinions!

Im currently running ics v3 on my fassy and I cant see upgrading my device for a long time. Development is still going fairly strong, people here are very helpful for the most part. I would say its definately worth getting a fascinate if you can score one for a 100 bucks. We also have the most lulz than any other section on xda. I know odin wont work with mac, so I cant help you there...but there are a few threads around here with folks using macs with the fassy. Take some time and read up a bit more...can already tell you have done some lurking. Hope to see ya around here more if you end up getting a i500.o
*oh and gps works really well now with some of the latest rom/kenel combos. On cm7 nighlty 112 w/ glitch kenel I was getting a lock in 10sec & 5ft accuracy. Ics v3 is not quite that good but close.

I can't speak to the price, but the development here is excellent despite the phone's age. We have an excellent selection of both TouchWiz-based ROMs and AOSP MTD ROMs. As for kernels, we have at least 3 in each category between here in XDA and Rootzwiki (many of the AOSP ROMs and kernels can also be downloaded from ROM Manager if you don't want to go to Rootzwiki.
Has anyone seen John Connor?

Thanks and thanks!
I feel like I'm probably a little spoiled already since the dev support behind the incredible is pretty strong, but from what I've seen, there's a lot of active development going on here too. Also, most of the activity in the inc dev section is related to sense roms, which I couldn't be less interested in anyway.
The big thing for me is the ICS development going forward, I just see a lot more happening with the fascinate as opposed to the incredible. Basically, us incredible users aren't going to get a fully functional ICS build until a similar HTC device gets upgraded or Qualcomm updates the drivers for our old hardware (probably not gonna happen). I am skeptical as to how quickly HTC will be upgrading their devices to 4.0, and even when that does happen, it will only be newer models meaning, our devs will have to do some driver/EGL hacking and backporting to get HW acceleration working (as I understand, at least). So bottom line, it's just not looking that great for ICS on the incredible, at least for a while, but since the fascinate's GPU is the same as the galaxy nexus', you already have HW accelerated ICS, which is amazing!
I do have some other things I'm curious about with the fascinate, more so hacking Samsungs in general, but I'm pretty sure some searching should yield results, I don't wanna be asking things that have already been gone over! Thanks again, and I'd love to hear more input/opinions/advice, or if anyone could point me in the direction of some good rooting/ROM FAQs. I've looked around here but some of the stickies are either old or have broken links, still gotta check out the fascinate section at rootz though.
EDIT: droidstyle - just saw your guide over at rootzwiki, awesome.

Welp, after researching it, I went for it. Should be here Friday or Saturday so I'll be seeing you guys around!

Welcome
Has anyone seen John Connor?

and a hearty welcome to you good sir. Seriously I would say that that this is one of the easiest devices to get up and running on custom goodies.
ODIN is absolutlely indespensible and a necessity along with updated Samsung drivers. After that all you need to do is ODIN the appropriate CWM Recovery and flash your Rom of choice
Of course read up first so get the right stuff downloaded but that is the gist of it, couldn't get much simpler lol
"I didn't say that...my Fascinate has a tiny troll inside it."

Hey, thanks guys! Really looking forward to getting my feet wet in the Samsung realm. I'm not seeing many options as far as running Odin on mac (aside from running in a VM, which can be wonky), but fortunately I have access to a windows machine. I'll probably be using the guide droidstyle put up on root wiki for rooting and flashing my first couple rooms, but if anyone is aware of some other good guides, I'd love to check em out.

Heimdall is an open source alternative to odin. Its available in osx, linux, and windows. I personally prefer it.sure to its greater granularity.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using xda premium

This device is one of the hardest devices to brick also. Odin usually fixes all.. And if you're smoking crack while flashing and find that you have tried to flash ios or wp7 while in your mind jelly state. The fascinate has the unbrickable mod. But really unless your flashing roms for other devices or force feeding it pastrami sandwiches through the battery cover you won't need it
Sent from my SCH-I500 using xda premium

Haha, that's good to head since I do like to spark myself up a crack rock whilst flashing rooms But really, I'm pretty good with fully reading and following directions so I've never been too worried about a brick but it's nice to know that the phone is resilient like that.
I'm gonna have to do some research on this heimdall tool, sounds like that could be what I need if I don't wanna mess around with drivers and windows nonsense.
Also, it looks like I was wrong about the incredible and ICS, our devs are working on getting HW acceleration fully working as we speak. Oh well, I already ordered the fassy still has some distinct advantages like the DAC, GPU, and screen, things that simply can't be improved on the incredible with software. Only thing I'm a little worried about is the GPS issues that seem to be more hardware related with the galaxy s phones, I'll just have to see how it goes.

k_nivesout said:
Haha, that's good to head since I do like to spark myself up a crack rock whilst flashing rooms But really, I'm pretty good with fully reading and following directions so I've never been too worried about a brick but it's nice to know that the phone is resilient like that.
I'm gonna have to do some research on this heimdall tool, sounds like that could be what I need if I don't wanna mess around with drivers and windows nonsense.
Also, it looks like I was wrong about the incredible and ICS, our devs are working on getting HW acceleration fully working as we speak. Oh well, I already ordered the fassy still has some distinct advantages like the DAC, GPU, and screen, things that simply can't be improved on the incredible with software. Only thing I'm a little worried about is the GPS issues that seem to be more hardware related with the galaxy s phones, I'll just have to see how it goes.
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You will really like it from the incredible. So much of an upgrade. Its like a mini galaxy nexus (get it?) And its gpu is, however, pleasing.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

k_nivesout said:
Only thing I'm a little worried about is the GPS issues that seem to be more hardware related with the galaxy s phones, I'll just have to see how it goes.
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As far as i can see GPS is only an issue with TouchWiz based Roms, and even then there are "fixes" in place that improve performance.
I've never had an issue on any of the AOSP Roms. Thr first cold lock takes time but after that it is fine. You can also grab an app from the market called GPSAids, it is made specifically for Galaxy S devices and if nothing else is a good way to check satalites in view/in use and such.
"I didn't say that...my Fascinate has a tiny troll inside it."

Double post

Enyo. said:
You will really like it from the incredible. So much of an upgrade. Its like a mini galaxy nexus (get it?) And its gpu is, however, pleasing.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
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I feel like it's sort of a galaxy nexus "lite", which sounds intriguing to me. I'd definitely like to spend a little time with a Samsung device before upgrading to the nexus later on, I'm looking forward to it!
hesh.monster said:
As far as i can see GPS is only an issue with TouchWiz based Roms, and even then there are "fixes" in place that improve performance.
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Thank you, that is good to know as I don't plan on running anything but AOSP roms anyway. It's just an issue I've seen brought up in multiple reviews, but since they're reviewing stock software, that would make sense.

k_nivesout said:
I feel like it's sort of a galaxy nexus "lite", which sounds intriguing to me. I'd definitely like to spend a little time with a Samsung device before upgrading to the nexus later on, I'm looking forward to it!
Thank you, that is good to know as I don't plan on running anything but AOSP roms anyway. It's just an issue I've seen brought up in multiple reviews, but since they're reviewing stock software, that would make sense.
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Yes. Jt1134 "changed permissions" for the gps. aosp gps locks in seconds while indoors now..
Can't believe Samsung fails so bad at coding. But hey they keep making bleeding edge phones, and jt1134 keeps buying Samsung. Then Samsung is the only phones I'll be using. Thanks jt
Sent from my SCH-I500 using xda premium

Great bargain phone
I agree that Jt1134 is doing great thing with this phone, we can't lose with the potential growth that he has already made available.
Don
PS my daughter (almost 16) is ready for ICS and just need the camera to work for it to be perfect, otherwise how can a teenager live without a camera?)

Lectruck said:
I agree that Jt1134 is doing great thing with this phone, we can't lose with the potential growth that he has already made available.
Don
PS my daughter (almost 16) is ready for ICS and just need the camera to work for it to be perfect, otherwise how can a teenager live without a camera?)
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The camera has been working on Jt's ICS for awhile now.

neh4pres said:
Yes. Jt1134 "changed permissions" for the gps. aosp gps locks in seconds while indoors now..
Can't believe Samsung fails so bad at coding. But hey they keep making bleeding edge phones, and jt1134 keeps buying Samsung. Then Samsung is the only phones I'll be using. Thanks jt
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My GPS concerns were definitely put to rest after flashing an AOSP rom (MIUI in my case), I'm getting just as good, if not better, GPS performance as I was with my previous device. There are a couple lingering issues: data either going out entirely or being unusably slow, phantom soft button presses, and non-functional BLN.
But all in all, I like this device way more than the incredible, the amount of control you have with voodoo sound/color & voltage control paired with glitch is amazing. And I haven't even gotten around to trying ICS yet!

k_nivesout said:
My GPS concerns were definitely put to rest after flashing an AOSP rom (MIUI in my case), I'm getting just as good, if not better, GPS performance as I was with my previous device. There are a couple lingering issues: data either going out entirely or being unusably slow, phantom soft button presses, and non-functional BLN.
But all in all, I like this device way more than the incredible, the amount of control you have with voodoo sound/color & voltage control paired with glitch is amazing. And I haven't even gotten around to trying ICS yet!
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Phantom button presses are the norm for this device, I think everyone gets them for the most part. As far as slow data, are you refering to how slow the theme browser is on MIUI or just in general. I know the theme browser is painfully slow but i never had issue with anything else. What modem are you using? On AOSP Roms EC09 seems to be a fan favorite so to speak and has always been the best for me. Also if data drops out toggle airplane mode on then off, should bring it back.
For BLN do you have BLN Control or Blinky installed from the market? It will not work without one of those installed. Blinky is free but I think BLN Control (the paid version) is well worth it since it has more options to fiddle with.
Hope this helps lol
"I didn't say that...my Fascinate has a tiny troll inside it."

Related

The Samsung Vibrant. Worthy Buy?

Hello Guys. I was hoping on buying this phone tomorrow. I love the look, the screen, processor etc etc but i see a little lack of amount of Devs like i thought i would see. Coming from being a G1 user for about 2 years now and being in the dream forum you guys probably know where im going with this (constant roms, constant upgrades, hacks for absolutely no reason making having the same ROM for too long annoying) was wondering was this phone a worthy buy? or are things just at a slow pace for now? would hate to buy this phone just for it to get over shadowed by the G2 being available soon and then having absolutely NO dev support anymore now seeing as Cyanogen himself is getting the G2 and there hasn't been a cm6 let alone anything from him released for this device.
Theres a 2 page thread with what you're looking for right below this thread.
zephiK said:
Theres a 2 page thread with what you're looking for right below this thread.
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While i'm completely grateful for your reply, i must say i've already read that thread and it actually generated my question of if its a worthy buy strictly upon dev work reasons. but thanks very much.
Shaquiel Harris said:
While i'm completely grateful for your reply, i must say i've already read that thread and it actually generated my question of if its a worthy buy strictly upon dev work reasons. but thanks very much.
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So you thought it would of been a better idea to post a NEW thread about it than replying to the thread that is pretty much relating to the same thing you're looking for as the OP in the other thread?
The vibrant beats the G2 in every other way in terms of hardware. The only reason why its going slow at the moment is because you aren't aware of what has been going on. CM6 was off to a slow start because WesGarner was working on the myTouch Slide before working on the vibrant but now his priority is to get CM6 up and running. CyanogenMod is already promised for the Galaxy S in 6.1, another reason why it is off to a slow start is because Samsung and HTC do their systems differently so it takes time to learn the environment and all that (I'm not a developer so.. I'm 100% correct about this).
It is still a top-notch phone based on benchmarks, yeah there are other factors based to it but the Hummingbird processor is the fastest processor on the market for Android phones. On top of that with Super AMOLED, it pretty much makes it so that when you look at your G1 it looks tiny. 4" is definitely the perfect size.
I'm sure once CM6 is up and running on Vibrant, things will start to roll up. I believe benbuchacher (known for his famous works: SuperD, SuperE, and incoming SuperF) has a Vibrant, Eugene_373 and justanothercrowd are some of the great developers that have been hard at work for giving us things to play with until CM6 is ready. There are many other developers out there that I haven't listed (sorry^)
The Galaxy S is also a international phone (as well as the four major U.S. carriers, people who want the keyboard on the Galaxy S have a option for the Epic 4G), a lot of the files are very similar and tweaks/hacks would work fine. So.. yeah in my opinion its a worthy buy, you have a 14-day (or 30) to return if it doesn't satisfy you.
You can follow their progress on Twitter & WesGarner's GitHub ( http://github.com/wesgarner )
zephiK said:
So you thought it would of been a better idea to post a NEW thread about it than replying to the thread that is pretty much relating to the same thing you're looking for as the OP in the other thread?
The vibrant beats the G2 in every other way in terms of hardware. The only has been going on. CM6 was off to a slow start because WesGarner was working on the myTouch Slide before working on the vibrant but now his priority is to get CM6 up and running. CyanogenMod is already promised for the Galaxy S in 6.1, another reason why it is off to a slow start is because Samsung and HTC do their systems differently so it takes time to learn the environment and all that (I'm not a developer so.. I'm 100% correct about this).
It is still a top-notch phone based on benchmarks, yeah there are other factors based to it but the Hummingbird processor is the fastest processor on the market for Android phones. On top of that with Super AMOLED, it pretty much makes it so that when you look at your G1 it looks tiny. 4" is definitely the perfect size.
I'm sure once CM6 is up and running on Vibrant, things will start to roll up. I believe benbuchacher (known for his famous works: SuperD, SuperE, and incoming SuperF) has a Vibrant, Eugene_373 and justanothercrowd are some of the great developers that have been hard at work for giving us things to play with until CM6 is ready. There are many other developers out there that I haven't listed (sorry^)
The Galaxy S is also a international phone (as well as the four major U.S. carriers, people who want the keyboard on the Galaxy S have a option for the Epic 4G), a lot of the files are very similar and tweaks/hacks would work fine. So.. yeah in my opinion its a worthy buy, you have a 14-day (or 30) to return if it doesn't satisfy you.
You can follow their progress on Twitter & WesGarner's GitHub ( http://github.com/wesgarner )
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That other thread was comparing a g2 to a vibrant. asking which was a better buy. I know every Dev you posted along with the basics of the vibrant etc Etc. Not a noob here in the slightest way Was just wondering from a person who has the phone thats all. The bold was exactly what i was wondering and was looking for so thank you for answering that question. Was planning on trying to port some the millions of ROMS from the dream over to this Phone but now i know why i don't see most of them already here. Gonna Do some research Now. Thanks alot fellow. And Yes I did think it was going to be a Better idea since you answered It quickly, efficiently, and there was no reason to read comments on things i wasn't really concerned about to find my answer. See how it worked out? Thanks again.
It's starting to leap ahead slowly. They found out how to flash kernels thru recovery just a couple of days ago so there isn't much more need for using a program called Odin to flash kernels. Odin can be pretty unreliable sometimes with the random crashing, I have yet to experience this but some people have. Definitely makes the job easier.
I was a huge fan of the "Super" ROMs, I definitely know what you mean by ROMs.. there would be a new one every other day and it would be fun to flash them and try it out then nandroid back. I'm certainly hoping for the same thing here, I'll admit that it is a little bit difficult when all the phones are seperated with their own forum but there is a proposal going around about merging all of them together (I9000,Fascinate,Epic 4G,Vibrant,Captivate)
Sadly i think the Vibrant is a great phone but wont have quite the dev as the G2 will. The G2 will probably be picked up by the likes of Cyanogen himself so it will depend on if a dev like him wants to keep it going or not. Had Cyanogen picked up the Vibrant and ran with it i think it might have had more possibilities. However i picked up the phone i had the G1 for 1.5 years (was a T-mobile Employee and got it 2 weeks before launch) and then switched to unlocked iphone for .5 years now im on the vibrant and im loving it. The android community has grown since i have been gone however i think since its samsung and not HTC that is what the problem is.
talltexan said:
Sadly i think the Vibrant is a great phone but wont have quite the dev as the G2 will. The G2 will probably be picked up by the likes of Cyanogen himself so it will depend on if a dev like him wants to keep it going or not. Had Cyanogen picked up the Vibrant and ran with it i think it might have had more possibilities. However i picked up the phone i had the G1 for 1.5 years (was a T-mobile Employee and got it 2 weeks before launch) and then switched to unlocked iphone for .5 years now im on the vibrant and im loving it. The android community has grown since i have been gone however i think since its samsung and not HTC that is what the problem is.
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The main reason why Cyanogen picked up the G2 is because he doesn't condone manufacturers to put their custom interfaces over it. Cyanogen prefers stock Android. The OP said himself that he is a porter so he is a developer, I don't think it'd be a wise idea for everybody to just follow Cyanogen because there are definitely the people using the Galaxy S phones who would enjoy the same amount of modding.
There is larger room to make a name for yourself simply because there are less developers but there is definitely a large community for the phone that wants modding support.
zephiK said:
4" is definitely the perfect size.
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Thats what she said
moSess said:
Thats what she said
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Awesome.
10chars
Get the vibrant. Root it. Run one clig lag fix. U r good to go for now. U will be happy. All this can be done easily. Thanks to Ryanza 's smart work.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Great phone, great experience and everything, does get kinda boring after sometime because i feel the phone is great the way it is, so until froyo theres nothing to really get excited about.
anyway great phone, and if i had to do it over again, i will still get this phone.a
I love it. Ive used just about every flavor of manufacturer-skinned android, along with vanilla (2.1 on G1). I can say after using other skins, TouchWiz 3.0 is pretty great. Vanilla android always wins, but this skin didn't feel as useless as some others.
I am coming from a mytouch slide, and a G1 before that, so the thought of a phone with no keyboard worried me. However the screen is the perfect size, and I'm pretty fast with swype. Not to mention, I had this phone rooted within 10 minutes of getting it home, whereas I never got the Slide rooted.
CM6 is coming to the Vibrant. Development is going to pick up. The Galaxy S series is on all four major carriers here in the US. I know we're going to see some interesting things happen.
I've had a lot of fun with this phone in the short time I've owned it, so I can definitely recommend it. And about the G2, it doesn't exactly seem light-years ahead, and if you wait for it...like magic the next superphone will be leaked and your attention will be on that.
So I would say get the Vibrant, you'll have a lot of fun with it.
...oh and I typed this out on it.
The only reason I might not get this phone is because of A. Its Sammie so who knows how long the official 2.2 comes B. Its not HTC so Devs will have to get accustomed to the phone C. It has Touchwiz. I could deal with Sense for a bit in waiting of CM6 or just stock 2.2 Android but playing with the phone in the Tmo store just turned me off. Looks like I will have to get a N1 or maybe wait for the G2
To me the entire CM6 is so over hyped its insane. The devs working on things are doing great. The phone is awesome as it is and anything beyond what it is now is pure gravy.
If/when CM6 hits I'm sure it will be awesome, but if you are holding out on the idea of that then well your going to miss out on a great phone.
The "devs" in the Dream section mostly produce hacked up beta garbage that never reaches a final release. Thanks but no thanks, I don't like flashing my phone 23452434 times to find something that works properly in ALL aspects. Then when you try to tell the devs what's broken they pitch a ***** fit and start complaining because they released it with known bugs. SICK of it.
There are a few that are worth the time in the G1/myTouch section but most of it is garbage and I had both devices.
Difficulty
The phone is worthy in every aspect of the word. This is an HTC forum. Luckily for us we have a very popular phone. I doubt we will go the way of other non HTC (AND SOME HTC) phones.
I am enjoying this phone, bloat and all, especially after the lag fix. I do enjoy an elegant vanilla though. But in its current condition would enjoy this Vibrant for at least a year.
zaduma said:
Awesome.
10chars
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Sometimes you can't help it, you know
ilovemytilt1 said:
The only reason I might not get this phone is because of A. Its Sammie so who knows how long the official 2.2 comes B. Its not HTC so Devs will have to get accustomed to the phone C. It has Touchwiz. I could deal with Sense for a bit in waiting of CM6 or just stock 2.2 Android but playing with the phone in the Tmo store just turned me off. Looks like I will have to get a N1 or maybe wait for the G2
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Okay first off. Touchwiz is pretty good now. Touchwiz implemented pretty cool features and it isn't as bad. Dont criticize it if you haven't ever tried it. Samsung has already said froyo will be released sometime in September. Stop degrading a phone that you've never used.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Since the vibrant is fairly new and with the Froyo rumored to be out in Sept., I just don't see why any dev will want to spend all their time making a rom for a phone that might be getting the 2.2 upgrade in a month. I'm sure once the Froyo update is out, the devs will start their custom roms... For those that doesn't like the stock home launcher setup, just goto the market and get Launcher pro or ADWLauncher. Both will replace the iphone look alike. As far as lag fix and GPS fix, i didn't use any and my phone seems to be working like it should without any lag or gps problems.
I am not too into the whole ROM thing, if anyone could PM me the info in what it is for and why it is always great, it would be greatly appreciated. Anyways, back on topic, I like the Vibrant the screen is responsive and the huge screen makes typing a breeze(on both landscape and portrait mode). The processor is the best you can get right now on the Android OS and the screen is just amazing. The bad... Touch Wizard 3.0 is really good but coming from other Android devices I miss the App drawer so much. It does take getting used to, and if it is really that bad for you, then go get an open home theme. Or maybe stock Froyo installed(is that a ROM?) That would be nice, because the Vibrant would be perfect if it just had a less skinned theme. Great phone overall.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Suggest a rom for me please

Hello, Fascinate fans. I am running the stock 2.2 verizon rom. I just rooted with SuperOneClick and am thinking about trying a custom rom. I use CM7 on my Nook Color and it works great, but I am not ready to try early builds of that for the Fascinate yet. I am looking for a rom that:
-has all hardware working
-is debinged
-is very stable
-has little to no bloatware (only verizon thing I need is 'My Verizon Mobile')
-is based on Froyo or newer
-is snappy, but not enough to kill the battery in half a day
-is easy to flash (I am not ready for flashing radios and such until I am comfortable flashing roms on this phone)
BONUS POINTS: Fixes or removes the GPS toggle in the notification area that rarely works. (This drove me crazy for a few weeks until I realized that the safe way to turn the GPS on is to use the normal settings screen!)
What do the experts recommend? I'm sure I will be flashing nightly within 6 months or so, but want to take it easy for now as I was addicted to flashing roms on my Touch Pro.
Thank you!
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk
Community rom 1.3. It pretty much meets all of your needs minus the gps thing. I don't think that can be modded yet.
I've been KANGBANGED!!!!!
Almost forgot. It's built from froyo source so the stock ed01 radio will do just fine. I also suggest activating voodoo on the kernal that it comes with. Hope this helps.
I've been KANGBANGED!!!!!
Keeping it mainstream you have two options. At least the most popular roms come down to two choices the community rom, or evil fascinate rom. Both great choices I'm sure that should meet your needs just fine. Personally I'm on com rom but have heard great things about evil. Seems to be some childishness forming a silly rivalry between the two, but I think there pretty similar to the average end user.
My personal preference is evil fascination. Can't really explain why other than I really dig the dark theming nitro integrated. There are other small differences, mostly aesthetic, so why not try them both? Both are great and supported regularly by great developers.
Sent from my Froyo'd Evil Fascinate full of PB&J
i tried the com rom, and at the time, there was a problem with it auto-rotating even if i didnt want it to. i don't know if it has been fixed but that was one of the main reasons i switched to evil fascinate. ever since i switched to evil fascinate, everything worked perfectly for me and i loved the overall theme of it so i stuck with it. and now i love it, and i have no real desire to switch back to com rom.
MattRussNC said:
Keeping it mainstream you have two options. At least the most popular roms come down to two choices the community rom, or evil fascinate rom. Both great choices I'm sure that should meet your needs just fine. Personally I'm on com rom but have heard great things about evil. Seems to be some childishness forming a silly rivalry between the two, but I think there pretty similar to the average end user.
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I haven't read any competitive banter from the devs themselves (except for Nitsuj expressing his preference for ComROM, but even then he didn't knock Evil Fascination). It's mostly the fanboys going back and forth. Actually, the two are very similar and I like them both
Another Fascinating post by my XDA app...
Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'll try Community Rom first. I'm sure I can find some guides on how to flash once I have time to search. I have Clockwork Mod installed, so that's probably half the battle.
I still like the blackhole fascinate
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

What OS do you use, which WOULD you use?(for devs)

Edit: with over 600 views, it is sad we only have 20 votes! Vote and let others see who is using what, and what the demand is!
____
Development for the vibrant right now seems to be directed by the devs, but in the real world supply and demand is an important concept. Are devs focusing on the builds that are in most demand, or are users using what the devs are building because it is all that is being worked on?
I have a feeling that a comparable amount of people use some sort of custom Froyo and are not willing to go to gingerbread as there are who are continuously using gingerbread. If this is the case then perhaps the devs can use that feedback in some way. In any case it should give us an idea of the current condition of supply and demand.
The idea here is to give feedback to devs that show them that their work is being appreciated, or what they could do that may be the most appreciated. The poll is basic, posts are welcome if they contain useful feedback.
Sorry if this seems erroneous, but even if one developer(or fellow user) finds this to be remotely useful/interesting then it is worthwhile.
I myself am going to use froyo based roms until gingerbread roms are more overall stable and functional, however I almost feel forced to use gingerbread roms since they are primarily what is still being maintained or upgraded. I want the newest features, functions, and tweaks, and since froyo seems to have been nearly forgotten I am not sure what to do. Ultimately this makes me want a new phone that doesn't have this issue.
Froyo, same reasons as you said.
Gingerbread it's way nicer imo haha.
Froyo.
Ginger just doesn't feel complete yet.
Gingerbread... CM7, Trigger and MIUI. They seem to play nicest with my phone
Oxirane said:
Gingerbread... CM7, Trigger and MIUI. They seem to play nicest with my phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats all there is AOSP wise...not sure what your trying to imply or your saying TW GB ROM's don't work that well for you...Malice ran great for me, but I'm back in school and need my batter :/
duboi97 said:
Thats all there is AOSP wise...not sure what your trying to imply or your saying TW GB ROM's don't work that well for you...Malice ran great for me, but I'm back in school and need my batter :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in college, so over the summer when I didn't have much going on and a charger was always nearby, trying different ginger-roms was fine. Now that I am on campus for extended periods without a charger, I cannot use a rom that will kill more than half my battery in 6-8 hours. If everything worked right, maybe.. but considering an entire summer not being able to get something as simple as GPS working, I would not trade it MUCH improved battery life for less than normal functionality.
I was considering getting a hercules(intl version has many hardware improvements and superior battery with gingerbread), but since it will probably have similar problems(manufacturer wise, no source, mostly forgotten after launch) as the vibrant I would rather go with the prime. But if the prime doesn't go t-mobile than that isn't an option. Which leaves me with hoping that the gingerbread source comes out(for devs to work with), or the devs will make leaps with the ginger code, or that at least a few might work on froyo code..
With so many tweaks and custom apps(like hacked camera) that have come out since most froyo roms fell into neglect, I really want one or the other. If the prime comes out and I can get a tmo version, great.. otherwise I just feel screwed/forgotten.
I feel like the only updated froyo roms are being worked on by devs that don't really have it going on yet, and they only use froyo as a stepping stone.. I wish there were a thread in development section that explained to ALL devs what needs to go into every rom as a minimum(or what tweaks work with which roms, etc).
I won't switch off tmobile, I don't like them as a company, but no other is ACTUALLY better, but they all charge far more. Every situation seems lose/lose the more I think about it.
Bump because I think the results are interesting so far.
Im on gb because the speed boost was just so astronomical... particularly cm7... id appreciate dev on vibrantmtd more than others but i think that the best dev community is one where there is variety so:
Ideally, id perfer to see eclair, froyo, gb and honeycomb roms, as well as wp7 and ubuntu and ios lol. This is my dream.
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.
I'm also on froyo for the same basic reasons already said. I would love to see the different build prop tweaks, supercharger scripts, gps tweaks, and other customizations built into them as a standard. OnlyToxic8, Dmz nightly and zendroid are the only roms with those tweaks baked into them. I'd love more options.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
9 people either stock or froyo, 1 who is proud of him cm7. I read a ton of posts about how people have cm7 and are totally happy, so it looks like they need to do some voting
We need more people to participate to get a better overall look at the statistics.. several hundred people looked at the thread, but few votes? It only takes 2 clicks to vote..
Bump
Im loving MIUI revamped nick and t. Hill are great in both the rom they provide and support can't be beat.
Stock deodexed and rooted KB5.
I've given up on Vibrant.
I'm getting a new phone. Seriously thinking about iPhone 5. I know, I know.
But I just want a phone that works, and Vibrant has been my 3rd Android phone with problems, constant freezing, and other random issues. Vibrant was probably my worst tech purchase ever. Can't wait to get rid of this crap.
I want the Nexus Prime, but the problem is that it is manufactured by Samsung, and I swore to myself I wouldn't purchase another Samsung product. Then again it's guaranteed to get Google updates. Ahhhh I don't know.
I'm also ditching T-Mobile most likely. I have a feeling they have a hand in Samsung never releasing/leaking Gingerbread on Vibrant.
If we had Gingerbread leaked, the phone would be good probably for another 6 months-1yr.
I just flashed my first Gingerbread ROM (Asgard) and I have to say I prefer Gingerbread.
Sent from by Vibrant using Tapatalk
Miui revamped by nick and Tory is amazing and they are extremely active in their forum IMO Miui runs much better on my phone than any custom froyo ROM
Sent from my T959 running Miui Revamped KEep
miui, the customization and tweaking abilities topped with weekly updates and wip gps meet all my requirements quick reboot (10 seconds) means my wip gps is up and going in no time
boystuff said:
miui, the customization and tweaking abilities topped with weekly updates and wip gps meet all my requirements quick reboot (10 seconds) means my wip gps is up and going in no time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's "wip gps?"
I'm on a gingerbread rom on my vibrant now. They have definately become stable enough in my opinion. I am running Biff mod which even does not need to be reset to stock or loaded with GB bootloaders making it even easier now. I think the battery offput on GB roms is still there and feels lacking in my opinion but its worth the upgrade in my opinion. Currently on 2.3.5 and wouldn't go back to froyo now.
SamsungVibrant said:
What's "wip gps?"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
work in progress
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
so 70% stock/froyo and 30% using gb/happy with it.. but the numbers are too small to be a good sample of the population.
Bump because we need more votes for accuracy!

[Q] Unable to find stable ROM for Note (Samsung ROM included)

Hey All,
First, and most importantly, I would like to say hello and THANKS to all of the people on this forum and devs who put together and support CFW's. You all do great jobs, and should be proud of your work.
Second, I have not posted here before since my questions were always answered with a search of the forums. This time it is not the case as I will explain.
I have a Galaxy note from Bell and I think it is an awesome piece of hardware (so much so I also bought a Note 10.1). I was quite happy with it for a long time but my patience for touchwiz eventually wore thin. Turning on the phone to make a call or text and having to wait while the phone finishes some phantom background task was incredibly annoying. Why does Samsung make great hardware and then ruin it with bloatware and junk?
This led me to to find a CFW which did not have this issue. I tried several and was blown away by the quality and completeness of these roms. They solved so many problems and did things the way the should have been done in the first place. I was in heaven. There was just one problem...stability. None of them slowed to a crawl and were always blisteringly fast, but the phone would lock up and reboot once every day or 2. This was not acceptable for a phone which is needed for work and emergencies. I would assume that the small number of these phones makes it less likely for the roms to be tested with them to the same extent as for a Note 2 or S3. I have even tried touchwiz-based roms which do not crash, but have the same occasional unresponsiveness of the samsung original.
So here is my question: has anyone found a rom which is STABLE in a real way? When I search I see people who say roms are stable but they never qualify their opinion with crash frequency so it remains a purely relative term. I love this phone and would really love to have a rom like PAC with all of its awesomeness but stability is king for me.
Here is what I have tried, full wipes done before each flash:
Cyanogenmod 10.0, 10.1
PAC rom
Padawan
Blackstar Blackjelly, 2 different versions
Thanks.
Jellybean Sandwich is really fantastic. It's based on ICS, so if you require Jellybean specific features it might not be for you.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2356408
Sent from my Samsung SGH-I717 (Galaxy Note)
How would one "qualify" their opinion with "crash frequency" if the rom they are using doesn't crash? There are many more roms than the ones you have listed.
Also, it has been my exprience that the 4.3 roms are very stable.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using xda app-developers app
I also second Jellybean sandwhich. It's great for stability, and since you would like to know to what extent I mean "stable" then this is what I mean...this ROM has NEVER crashed or rebooted on me, and for countless other users. It is an ICS based rom, with added jellybean features. It's a lightweight ROM, with not as many features as say AOKP, but many of those features can be added with "Xposed Mod" if you've ever used it. So you get the "speed" of jellybean, with the absolute stability of ICS. I highly recommend you try it out. People who have had trouble with the ROM (there are very few) have all induced the problems on their own, or probably have faulty hardware. I can vouch that if you wipe clean, and flash correctly everything will work right out of the box, except USB mount (which there is a fix to make it work), and a bug that gives you and "sd card damaged" notification when nothing is really wrong.
EDIT: If you want a fast touchwiz based ROM that is not necessarily Jellybean. I recommend Novena ROM. It's an older ROM but one of the fastest ROMs you can get for our phone. You may have to look on the second page in the development section as it hasn't been updated in months
Go to an ICS rom if you want speed and stability. No matter what anyone on these forums will say, you cannot, cannot, cannot find speed and stability in ANY jb rom. Some may have stability, but lack speed. If you just use them [jb roms] for a while, you can forget that they aren't fast and become accustomed to them, but if you touch an ICS ROM or a newer galaxy phone, you'll quickly be reminded that you're delusional.
both Touchwiz Rom's are stable. they are rocks and will not give you a random reboot. if you have read like you said, than you may have even seen one of several postings in the Padawan tread. if you haven't.......p355-378 is a good read and will lay out some solid fundamental settings which would lead you to nirvana.
many also seem to overlook one 4.2 rom, as even I did for the longest time. Sons of Android or SOA is the ONLY 4.2 rom out there that I got no randoms with and did not need to seek an alternate kernel.
those are just 2 roms. everyone will tell you, every phone is a bit different. finding a rom that is going to satisfy everyone the same. its like voting for a President now and days. you don't really vote for the one you want anymore, its voting for the lesser of two evils. everybody knows, you cant have good without evil.
you are getting some good personal opinions here. it sounds like you know what your looking for, but you have yet to decide as to what you are willing to tolerate. we all tolerate something for the rom that we want. what evil are you willing to tolerate? only you can answer
me........stability is what I seek, and lack of some bells and whistles is what I tolerate. as mentioned previously, I get some of that back with Xposed and keep my stability.
good luck my friend
Honestly, I'm using a stock deodexed/debloated ROM. Works just fine for me.
SkeletonKey, Padawan, JellyBeer, Prophylactic are all also great ones that I personally used a lot.
Your mileage may vary though.
captemo said:
both Touchwiz Rom's are stable. they are rocks and will not give you a random reboot. if you have read like you said, than you may have even seen one of several postings in the Padawan tread. if you haven't.......p355-378 is a good read and will lay out some solid fundamental settings which would lead you to nirvana.
many also seem to overlook one 4.2 rom, as even I did for the longest time. Sons of Android or SOA is the ONLY 4.2 rom out there that I got no randoms with and did not need to seek an alternate kernel.
those are just 2 roms. everyone will tell you, every phone is a bit different. finding a rom that is going to satisfy everyone the same. its like voting for a President now and days. you don't really vote for the one you want anymore, its voting for the lesser of two evils. everybody knows, you cant have good without evil.
you are getting some good personal opinions here. it sounds like you know what your looking for, but you have yet to decide as to what you are willing to tolerate. we all tolerate something for the rom that we want. what evil are you willing to tolerate? only you can answer
me........stability is what I seek, and lack of some bells and whistles is what I tolerate. as mentioned previously, I get some of that back with Xposed and keep my stability.
good luck my friend
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know Cap, speaking of Sons of Android, you wouldn't happen to have that zip would you? that may be one of the only ROMs I don't seem to have on my computer. would love to give it a reflash.
_INSPIREed said:
You know Cap, speaking of Sons of Android, you wouldn't happen to have that zip would you? that may be one of the only ROMs I don't seem to have on my computer. would love to give it a reflash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PM sent my friend
I've been on Revolt for 2 weeks and no crashes. The only 'bug' is that sometimes when you press PWR to activate the phone, the capacitive buttons highlight but the screen stays blank. Press PWR twice (once to turn 'off' and again to turn back on) and you'll see the lock screen.
I was playing with the tweaks a lot, so this 'bug' could just be from something I did. Other than that it's blistering fast compared to Bell stock (yes, I'm on Bell too and feel your pain) and I'd recommend it to anyone.
captemo said:
PM sent my friend
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you also send that to me please and thank you?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Canguy247 said:
Hey All,
First, and most importantly, I would like to say hello and THANKS to all of the people on this forum and devs who put together and support CFW's. You all do great jobs, and should be proud of your work.
Second, I have not posted here before since my questions were always answered with a search of the forums. This time it is not the case as I will explain.
I have a Galaxy note from Bell and I think it is an awesome piece of hardware (so much so I also bought a Note 10.1). I was quite happy with it for a long time but my patience for touchwiz eventually wore thin. Turning on the phone to make a call or text and having to wait while the phone finishes some phantom background task was incredibly annoying. Why does Samsung make great hardware and then ruin it with bloatware and junk?
This led me to to find a CFW which did not have this issue. I tried several and was blown away by the quality and completeness of these roms. They solved so many problems and did things the way the should have been done in the first place. I was in heaven. There was just one problem...stability. None of them slowed to a crawl and were always blisteringly fast, but the phone would lock up and reboot once every day or 2. This was not acceptable for a phone which is needed for work and emergencies. I would assume that the small number of these phones makes it less likely for the roms to be tested with them to the same extent as for a Note 2 or S3. I have even tried touchwiz-based roms which do not crash, but have the same occasional unresponsiveness of the samsung original.
So here is my question: has anyone found a rom which is STABLE in a real way? When I search I see people who say roms are stable but they never qualify their opinion with crash frequency so it remains a purely relative term. I love this phone and would really love to have a rom like PAC with all of its awesomeness but stability is king for me.
Here is what I have tried, full wipes done before each flash:
Cyanogenmod 10.0, 10.1
PAC rom
Padawan
Blackstar Blackjelly, 2 different versions
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Revolt is really good for me , you should this one
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Isn't soa in the development section?
2$HAYNE
shayneflashindaily said:
Isn't soa in the development section?
2$HAYNE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nah. All of Pt's links are down.
ZacksBuilds said:
Could you also send that to me please and thank you?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pm sent
Thanks man.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
The current beanstalk is smooth and stable.
There is also a new 4.3 ROM in the Q&A section that has been extremely stable on my phone the past two days. The kernel built into the ROM is a version I beleive of the Cl3Kener kernel and can be OC'd and what not. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2448069
_INSPIREed said:
nah. All of Pt's links are down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks bro
Really now said:
There is also a new 4.3 ROM in the Q&A section that has been extremely stable on my phone the past two days. The kernel built into the ROM is a version I beleive of the Cl3Kener kernel and can be OC'd and what not. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2448069
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wasn't so stable on my part....But everyone's phone works in misterous wayssssss
2$HAYNE
I'm going to flash helly right now.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Any rom 4.0 (or higher) that isn't seriously broken?

As far as I can see, there really isn't any rom out there that will give you Android 4.0 or higher, and that still lets you use the video cam. I'm not too big on recording but I still consider it to be a very integral part of a phone, so of course I don't want to omit on that feature.
Now, ICS has been out for quite some time and the official Android iterations have already moved far ahead, but the latest stable release I can find for Atrix seems to be CM 7. Android 2.3.7. And that was in June 2012. Seems like stone age. Is it really this hopeless or am I missing something?
Lots of apps require at least 4.0 so being stuck on 2.3 feels really frustrating. Any tips on functional roms that aren't missing too many important features?
Wow, after the huge rage over Moto deciding to leave the Atrix behind and all the dozens of threads about that, there are still questions like this?
ravilov said:
Wow, after the huge rage over Moto deciding to leave the Atrix behind and all the dozens of threads about that, there are still questions like this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I started using smart phones two years ago. It took me quite awhile to discover the Atrix, so you could say I missed out on that outrage. I just bought a used Atrix and had hopes of updating it to at least 4.0 but it seems difficult to achieve, despite that a long time has passed. Can it really be that hard to get the recording to work?
Yes, it actually can. Reason being non-existent drivers for proprietary hardware. Sadly this device has been discontinued, despite its great hardware potential, and there is and will be no support for it past GB. So we're left with having to "invent", figure out and piece together stuff on our own.
It's all explained in great detail in many other threads.
ravilov said:
Yes, it actually can. Reason being non-existent drivers for proprietary hardware. Sadly this device has been discontinued, despite its great hardware potential, and there is and will be no support for it past GB. So we're left with having to "invent", figure out and piece together stuff on our own.
It's all explained in great detail in many other threads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, I can buy that, makes sense.
Well, I've managed to find at least some roms at 4.0 and above, so I will try out the most promising ones, starting with AvatarRom and AtrICS. Functionality over "better stats" and all that. And then move on from there. Taking photos and recording is something I do on a regularing basis so it's vital that those parts actually work as intended, other parts I might overlook easier.
Daige said:
Okay, I can buy that, makes sense.
Well, I've managed to find at least some roms at 4.0 and above, so I will try out the most promising ones, starting with AvatarRom and AtrICS. Functionality over "better stats" and all that. And then move on from there. Taking photos and recording is something I do on a regularing basis so it's vital that those parts actually work as intended, other parts I might overlook easier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AtrICS yes, Avatar no due to their servers being jacked up and the ROM not available (disregard if they actually did get that ROM back up). Krystian's CM9 and Epinter's CM10.1 are your heavy hitters that really are worth looking into for a 4.0 and up experience.
If you want the video and picture quality, you can use the Alpha stage ROMs suggested above, otherwise best advice is stay on GB until more kernel work is done.
Per the first complaint (see thread name), doing this thing called research would have told you what @ravilov mentioned. You say you got into smartphones 2 yrs ago. The Motorola ICS debacle happened Sept 29th-ish, 2012. Thats within 2 yrs, and that was a big backlash they suffered.
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app
palmbeach05 said:
AtrICS yes, Avatar no due to their servers being jacked up and the ROM not available (disregard if they actually did get that ROM back up). Krystian's CM9 and Epinter's CM10.1 are your heavy hitters that really are worth looking into for a 4.0 and up experience.
If you want the video and picture quality, you can use the Alpha stage ROMs suggested above, otherwise best advice is stay on GB until more kernel work is done.
Per the first complaint (see thread name), doing this thing called research would have told you what @ravilov mentioned. You say you got into smartphones 2 yrs ago. The Motorola ICS debacle happened Sept 29th-ish, 2012. Thats within 2 yrs, and that was a big backlash they suffered.
Sent from my MB886 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually found the AvatarRom, albeit not on their homepage but linked from the forum to some other download source. However, that rom didn't work out very well for me. AtrICS seemed complicated due to me not understanding the whole "vendor" thing they mentioned, so I decided to skip that one entirely. After trying out several roms I went back to CM 7.2 since that at least made the phone function quite good (except one app that seems to have a model specific bug in it).
I'll take a look att Krystian's alternative, whatever it's called. Epinter's seemed to have camera issues?
About "getting into smartphones two years ago": At that time, I nearly hated smartphones, which is why I didn't read very much about them (and therefore, I missed that "why no ICS?"-rage). Just because something "big" happens doesn't mean everyone will know about it. Yes, it's okay to ask me which rock I've been sleeping under. However, I can't point out the rock now, I've forgotten where it was.
Daige said:
I actually found the AvatarRom, albeit not on their homepage but linked from the forum to some other download source. However, that rom didn't work out very well for me. AtrICS seemed complicated due to me not understanding the whole "vendor" thing they mentioned, so I decided to skip that one entirely. After trying out several roms I went back to CM 7.2 since that at least made the phone function quite good (except one app that seems to have a model specific bug in it).
I'll take a look att Krystian's alternative, whatever it's called. Epinter's seemed to have camera issues?
About "getting into smartphones two years ago": At that time, I nearly hated smartphones, which is why I didn't read very much about them (and therefore, I missed that "why no ICS?"-rage). Just because something "big" happens doesn't mean everyone will know about it. Yes, it's okay to ask me which rock I've been sleeping under. However, I can't point out the rock now, I've forgotten where it was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? now that is interesting. I wonder if they just restored the link and didn't update their page. idk, ppl have been having issues with the creators of Avatar ROM for weeks now about getting their stuff in order. AtrICS isn't hard to understand. Flash main ROM, then flash Vendor. Its like any CM ROM. Flash main ROM, then flash Gapps. Same concept. CM7.2 (GB) is going to give you the most stability and fully functioning ROM for this device. until the 3.1.10 kernel is given the Beta status, all 4.0 and up ROMs are considered Alpha stage if they use said kernel.
Krystian's CM9 is 4.0.4 running on the 3.1.10 kernel. Epinter's is 4.1.2 and 4.2.2 running the same. all 4.0 and up ROMs will have camera issues due to the need for updated drivers. drivers we don't have b/c Moto refuses (not worth fighting for anymore) to release them.
The ICS mess happened a yr ago. but yes, I do see your point. for example, these galaxys that keep coming out. I see news about them, but I don't go looking at them or reading the news about them.
AtrIcs is somewhat a stable rom with just few issues like average battery timing and sometimes lag in screen lock.Only thing i love about AtrIcs is stock look of moto . Currently i am on Epinter's Cm 10.1 it's also worth trying especially with motoblur theme from play store it's a treat to have Atrix on stock moto look with jb.

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