[Defy General] Aspsusa:
Looking for recommendations - Roms& other tweaks

Hi, I hope the OP doesn't mind that I borrow this thread a bit, as this is the exact question I wanted to ask.

tl:dr version:

I am really interested in _opinions_ and _details_ wrt different ROMs (mods or stock) - "xxx is best" isn't a very useful answer to a total noob like me.

So, yesterday I bought this lovely piece of hardware. It came unlocked (of course) and with this ROM (there's a thread about it here):

-System version: Moto_Version.34.177.5.Retail.en.ND

-Firmware: 2.2.2

-Baseband: EPU93_U00.59.1

-Kernel: 2.6.32.9-ga28fcc4fdc376@zch68lnxdroid12 #1

-Build: Jorem_U3_2.4.2_177-5

So far I am rather pleasantly surprised with the lack of bloat. But it did seem rather sluggish when I had installed several apps and played around for a few hours - and the list of running process was horrible.

And I have a feeling I will want Gingerbread in short order (my familiarity with Android is confined to a POS chinese Froyo mini-tablet (had to flash the ROM to even get it to work, then I managed to lose the microSD within it... Haven't taken it apart yet) and looking at my husband's new Samsung G2S - he made me solemnly swear not to root, flash or do anything interesting to it before he even let me touch it:cool:).

Or will I?

What I want is

- As much control of the hardware as I can get

(re-assigning buttons (like that to me nearly useless search button), easy ways to turn stuff off and on, customisable quick access to all kinds of interestisting stuff that I hardly even know about yet)

- Minimum of "pretty" UI

- Max battery

- Tweaking off things like wifi and other radio reception, maybe touch-screen too (can one even calibrate capacitative screens? I'm old, and tend to keep my stuff for a long time, so all my previous gadgets have been resistive Palms of various flavours).

And simultaneously I also want:

- As little hassle as I can get away with (ie stable core system which won't need frequent updates).

- Best possible customisation of calendar (and integration with google calendar, of course)

I can't believe it took me so long to finally enter the android world! I can't understand why it took me two years to finally do it. The PalmOS I was in mourning for ("I want my apps from 1995! Why did they break it! I also want wifi! Stupid Palm!") really wasn't worth it.:mad:

Nota Bene: I am not a coder or a dev on any platform. I'm a middle aged woman who also happens to be rather fearless when it comes phones. I'm not averse to tweaking a line here and there myself (with instructions or understanding), but generally I get bored pretty quickly with tinkering, and then just want things to work the way I want them to work.

Useless questions in the wrong place (just so I don't give the impression I'm too well behaved - loved the registration video :D ):

- Where is that "thank you"?! (I've used such on other forums, but I must be blind here. ETA: yes I was.)

- What's the best place (here or elsewhere) to read and ask about a) general android architecture/philosophy/etc (ie what's part of the OS, what can be removed)?

- What's the best place to ask the question "which app would be best for this?"?

- What android-centric forum or subforum would best put up with my wordyness?