[T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide] Blue6IX:
Yea, that's the fun stuff. The history of the computer, especially living most of it and seeing it all develop has been amazing. Watching the user experience transform from aggravating to enabling has been an interesting show.

My desire to write software for the Android platform stems from the fact that at the end of the day, I can have exactly what I want if I take the time to learn how to do it.

You are the software, I am the software - we all are the mechanism by which it happens. While there are tools to use along the way to help you do it, all the knowledge you need is right here at XDA. Free knowledge, bring your own container.

This time last year I didn't know very much about Android - browsing through this forums has taught me more then I could imagine in such a short time. If you want to learn how to do it, this is the place.

It's not quite that simple - there are two ways to approach it.

One is like the approach of Bulletproof - preserving the manufacturer/carrier based version of the Android operating system. This allows us to use the proprietary things we payed good money for, like the HTC camera app and some other things.

The camera app is a good example, because it's very dependent upon the rest of the HTC Sense experience, and you can't just install it on a plain-jane vanilla version of Android. Ditto the TV-out package.

The second approach is that vanilla Android install (think CM7) and then working up from there. Ditto with a non-manufacturer version of ICS like what the CM team is working hard to bring us.

With that vanilla install, though, you lose some of the proprietary technologies built into the phone, because you would have to write the software that uses them from scratch. (or nearly so).

Both approaches have their benefits and deficits. I chose, for a variety of reasons, to proceed down this path of preserving the sense experience.

I fully agree.

The state of Bulletproof everyone is running, versus the version I am running, is quite different.

Roman left Bloater under my control for the MT4GS. I built this ROM to work hand-in-hand with Bloater to give the user the maximum level of customization possible with maintaining the Sense experience.

When we go to version 1.1, what it will do is strip the Sense experience down to the most minimal apps I could get away with, install a few must-haves to start with ( File expert is a fantastic file manager, and every phone needs one - for example) -

-then give the user the option of installing any of their stock Sense apps that they choose. I don't want friendstream, but others do I know for sure.

When you first load the phone on 1.1, it will be an empty shell of optimized code, waiting for you to add the parts you want to it. Android is like Legos, so build it with whatever blocks you want.

The first boot environment is set for what I want it to be - but with the level of customization and options presented to you through Bloater and other tweaks & changes made to the Android environment, you can put in anything you want.

As you now can see, this is exactly what Bulletproof is trying to do. Bloater allows for the management of stock apps in the most efficient way possible, so people that don't want certain things don't have leftover impressions of it ever having been there.

Having the choice to add at will makes for more stability all around, as opposed to having to remove after the fact. In 95% of the issues this is true.

As you can see now, though, there are two different approaches to what you consider 'bare minimum'.

For Bulletproof, bare minimum is still quite a bit more then vanilla Android.

Yep I hear ya!

The best way to get rid of the stock apps is to never have installed them in the first place. Bloater gives a fantastic level of play in this field, because the apps can be put in after the fact.

Kidzone - it's a special case. It's not that simple.

Kidzone is essentially a symbiotic life-form entwined through the very code that makes up the Sense launcher - Rosie.apk

Please stand by as I continue to muck through the code and find a way to disable it.

I could just hide the icon for now, but have decided against pursuing this course of action for the time being. I'd hate for somoeone to accidentally end up IN kidzone somehow and have it be bugged getting out of it. This is a possible risk to end-user data i'm not willing to explore.

Release versions of the ROM will be as fully functioning and working as possible - I don't want to get in the habit of enabling buggy options and need this ROM to be as stable as I can make it.

Please know I am working on the Kidzone problem and a fix will be forthcoming at some indeterminant time.

Yea man! Options are great!

Roman left us with his tweaks settings, and that's been cleaned up for this version.

I will be writing an update patch for people currently running 1.0 to not lose their data.

Any data being messed with during the update will be wiped though, so if I changed an app or something you'll lose your data for that app.

1.0 to 1.1 is gonna be a big deal as far as the update goes, because i'm changing so much. It's taking some time to check and re-check that i'm not corrupting any other data along the way and to ensure that the only things that are deleted are what needs to be.

Bloater wasn't ready by release day for the ROM, so now that it's all up to date I have to bring the ROM in-line with what it offers. Before I didn't take anything out of the ROM that people couldn't get back through Bloater, and now that the menu is bigger the initial offerings in the ROM need to be pared down.

Once everyone is on 1.1 I can start getting work done in the kernel department, since Bulletproof will be ready to cycle through them all. Everyone will be on the same base, so any errors reported or gains confirmed can be more solidly and quickly determined.

Bulletproof is choice. Choose what you want or don't, and if you choose to flash custom kernels later everyone will be reporting from the same base.