yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ChadH42:
I have been flashing my cell phones since 2008 when I got my first smartphone. It was a Blackberry Curve and I would mix and match modules from different ROMs from various models to create unique sets of functionality but mostly to get the latest and greatest release. In 2010 I got my first Android phone and rooted it (and every phone since) the day I got it. I would start flashing 3 or 4 different ROMs in a 8 hour period every single day. I flash at work, I flash at home, I would go on a cruise and take my laptop and a copy of every available ROM for my phone and flash while on the ship (sick!). I go to visit my grand-kid and I'm flashing while playing with him.

I check XDA 40 to 50 times a day!

I think that I need help!:(

Anyway, on every other phone, except the SGS4, I found a custom ROM that was stable enough to be a daily driver. While there are many great custom ROMs out there for our phone, every one has a different, but fatal, flaw. I have flashed every available TW ROM for this phone and I have found that on every one, something that I need doesn't work properly and wind up Odin-ing back to stock.

Writing this has been like speaking at an AA meeting. I feel better and for today I will not flash (once I flash back to Stock from last nights flashathon!)

One Day at a Time!!
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ParkerParker:
Good stuff man :laugh::highfive::good:I may need help to , started going crazy last night flashing 5 different roms,yet I am back on stock again,lol. I guess its best if I leave my flashing for the weekend , really cant deal with recovering during the work week.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ronnienyc:
flipzmode made some great Fersh roms too!

But whenever I tried the CM roms, the phone would reboot, not make calls, no data, etc! And I was stunned to see all the hype, I mean Engadget would announce whenever CM introduced their latest (unstable) ROM. I still don't get it.

Can anyone explain?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
CM was a godsend in the pre-ICS days when Android just wasn't quite there yet and phones were still really underpowered. It absolutely was daily driver material back then and it blew away the stock rom on pretty much any phone.

But the thing is that people like me who kept using CM through the years even as Android and hardware continued to improve drastically are now starting to come to the realization that CM and other roms just aren't necessary anymore to have a good experience. It had its day, but I'm no longer willing to give up functionality just to use CM.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] garwynn:
There's a limitation on AOSP ROMs in that they don't always have access to all of the HAL they want to. Much of this is due to relying on pre-compiled binary objects and no visibility into its functions.

I'm watching the N1 closely to see if access to that now helps CM accomplish their goals.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
Sorry for the first dumb question, but what N1 are you referring to? All I can think of is Nexus One, and I doubt that's what you mean :)
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] garwynn:
Oppo N1.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
Gotcha. I'll probably check out CM again when CM11 roms start rolling out, but for the time being it's pretty under-featured compared to stock TW. Thanks for the insight though - it'll be interesting to see what happens.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] JoeFCaputo113:
I actually had the opposite of this lol. When I first got my GS4 I was running stock MF9 deodexed rooted from July when I first got it, till about early September... then I flashed Sacs ROM V7 and haven't looked back. Sacs ROM and stock have been the only 2 ROMs I've ran on my phone lol. Will never ever flash an AOSP ROM after horrible data speeds and horrible connections on my GS3 lol.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] jlg24fan:
get in line

I started on the DROID x. Flashed a few here and there. A lot on my s4. The most important thing I believe is these developer guys help keep "the man" in check. We don't have to put up with the bloatware and other crap cause they remove it. Sure in some of your updates the stock may give you more freedom but your limited to what they allow you. These customs give you more options.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] EdgarAllanPwnd:
I'm new to the flashing game, but it didn't take me too many ROMs to find one I felt gave me all the functionality and reliability I needed.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] prosive:
I would agree 110% with the op. I have been flashing since the htc hero days. I had been addicted to flashing since day 1 many years ago and have even flashed for many of my friends. In the pre ICS days it was absolutely necessary because stock was so bad. The compromise to run AOSP was well worth it. Continuing this trend I flahsed all the s4 AOSP roms. One thing I never sat back and realized until recently is that every rom was missing something and that's why I keep needing to flash. Little bugs here and there that I have had less and less tolerance for as I am getting older. Now especially with the s4, debloated stock with xposed is so good, and more importantly everything works flawlessly with arguably more features than AOSP.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] BatesUKfanJ:
Thanks for all the honest info! Unfortunately my last phone was an iPhone. I wouldn't trade my s4 for 2 5s's! Out of the gate I realized that the stock kernel (for me) was faster. The only main problem I'm having is my battery. I can take it off charge and 4 hours later its dead. Just moderate use only.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] the1000ydstare:
I thought this was happening to me one day. It seemed like I was forcing my self to update my ROM. I use pacman nightly and felt like I had to update nightly. But recently I just wait and use the best nightlies out of the week. But I use to change ROMs frequently till i was satisfied.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] guitardoc64:
I agree. The stock rom on the S4 is what I have been running since I got it. I was flashing roms back in '07 on WinMo and then it was to add functionality. I switched to android with the Hero and tried a few roms and finally made my own. Then I got the 3D. More tweaking more roms. This S4 was great right out of the box. So I rooted and flashed the stock rooted and other than updating have left it alone. It just works.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] chicagoaan:
Agreed, my rooting days started with the HTC OG Evo, I stuck with MikMik and progressed from uncustomizable $300 iPhones to EVO 4g and eventually to S4 and I just like the stock TW feel. I know it's not for everyone, but I feel that stock android is almost too dull as much as I like it. I am sticking with Sacs because it has a few extras that I prefer over the stock, yet I feel as though the stock kernel just works best. Nothing against kernel devs I just think the stock handles radios best maybe it's just San Francisco, but I have a hard time with Sprint using different kernels??? :confused:

As for flashing I have slowed down. I was a flashaholic, but now I'm back to alcohol. I always enjoy reading through the forums to see what devs are cooking up next though. Will I stop... probably not, but nowadays I am more faithful to one rom rather than playing with 3 or 4 throughout any given day.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
You win the day with that quote.

This is kind of off on a tangent (and I fully agree with those of you who are saying that the stock rom on the S4 is awesome and "just works" ), but I was in Best Buy the other day and decided to mess around a little with the Moto X. I was actually shocked by how fast it is compared to my S4. It completely smokes any AOSP rom that I've used on any phone (including the S4), and it kind of made me want one. I'm a sucker for Vanilla Android as it is, and that phone runs vanilla Android better than I've ever experienced before.

On the other hand, the dev community for that phone is basically nonexistent and I'm not holding my breath for a KitKat update (or even 4.3, for that matter). I have an upgrade coming in December and at this point I'm hoping beyond hope that the Nexus 5 comes to Sprint, but I really doubt that'll happen.

Basically, I'm happy with my S4 for now, but I'm starting to get the itch to move on. It happens a couple times a year :)
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] iDoc21:
Same here. I'm sticking with rooted stock these days on my Note 3 (also on my GS4). I think it's a combo of the stock ROM battery life improving, flexibility of custom launchers/icons, and the Xposed modules... I can get my stock ROM to look how I want and do what I want without losing any functionality, so why flash?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] :
Flashaholic for liiiifffeee!!! ;D
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] crisp714:
I'm actually a fan of the AOSP rom beanstalk, its stable, fast enough, and loaded with cherrypicks that actually work. The custom kernels are where I seem to have more problems when it comes to stability. Part of my deal about moving to AOSP is the appearance. Most TW builds including stock are huge in size, and just seem terribly designed visually and functionally. Having to reboot just to turn off LTE? All those gestures are useless to me and the quick settings are overwhelming. It just takes more time to look through them, which is not so quick. Its almost an embarrassment that the TW roms are so wasteful with screen space considering how much of it there is. The notification shade becoming practically useless as it takes half the screen before you get to the notifications themselves. Any stock rom is so limited. That said aosp battery is on par with TW in my experience, because the kicker as everyone knows is in screen time, which regardless is going to drag the most battery and I'm addicted to my phone. customization to how i like my phone is why i fell in love with Android even just starting with launchers and keyboards back when I started with the Evo4G. Other than that restoring apps is a snap with TiBu, and added functionality every few days is much nicer than waiting a few months just to be limited anyway. If there is however a way to remember Rom settings between flashes i would dig that, thats probably the hardest part for me, but sometimes I enjoy it. Sure I'm tired of the setup sometimes but choice is what keeps me on Android and i wouldn't give it up unless I had no choice.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] alaman68:
fantastic thread, i thought i was the only one....

Anyway, GPS not locking and data turned into a huge headache for me so i switched back to stock de-odexed and started to make my own changes. Everything works well, added some little features here and there, but man it is ugly. Even though it is ugly, it is still my baby.

oh, i am not on the GS4 but it still hold true for the GS3.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
You're probably the only person in history who has ever referred to Touchwiz as "limited." Basically all of the criticism I've seen has centered on the phone having too many features for some people. To each his own :)
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
deleted
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ranchosteve:
I switched to stock back from trying almost every ROM available. I keeped getting reboots and a super hot phone bad battery life. Now on latest rooted stock, phone runs great. I debloated some stuff, and use nova, and am more than happy with my phone now. From now on I will stick with stick Roms. I need a phone that is stable.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] oldpreowner:
Not only am I Rom flashing whore I'm a phone whore! In the past 2 weeks I've had the gs3, LG optimus g, htc one, and I got the gs4 yesterday, all from Craigslist. I always gravitate towards Samsung because of how much easier it is to get back to stock.

I love reading these posts, it's 5:15 am and I'm laying in bed and don't have to be up till 8 but I'm on xda. I think I need some help too. By the way I've had all the phones listed above at least twice before including the gs4.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mjs2011:
After the ota comes I'll probably root again because I want Greenify and all apps in multi Window. Don't know if I'll flash another ROM again though.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
I thought I saw you over in the OctOS thread. Did you try it out and then go all the way back to unrooted stock? Just curious :)
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mjs2011:
Yeah, I cheated for a day or two. :o OctOS was really nice from a Google experience, but again, nothing beats stock in my opinion. :good:
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
I actually gave that rom a shot too and might have stuck with it if 3g data wasn't unusably slow for me. It was a good reminder of why I created this thread in the first place, although I still prefer vanilla Android from a UI perspective.

That said, I'm looking forward to flashing the 4.3 update and probably some KitKat roms whenever those start happening. Stock will always be my bread and butter though.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mjs2011:
Agreed. Hopefully KitKat TW will have some pretty major updates to stay current. I remember the 4.1 TW being such a fresh air after 4.0 TW didn't really add much flavor.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
It was better than Touchwiz 3 though (a.k.a. the version that they supposedly ripped off from Apple). I had a Samsung Fascinate for a while, and flashing roms was pretty much mandatory because the stock UI was so slow and ugly. Even CM7 made a world of positive difference on that phone.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mjs2011:
Very true! I will say though, TW Gingerbread 2.3 on the Epic 4G Touch was pretty epic in regards to performance at that time.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
Yeah, I remember being blown away when GS2 reviews started coming out and they were talking about 3500 Quadrant scores. It almost seems quaint now, and this was less than 3 years ago.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] chris-allen:
Always use a stock rooted rom....then install apex or nova launcher to give you that ASOP feel.. :)
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] gottria:
Man, I'm glad I found this tread. I too have been using the ASOP rom's, mostly Carbon and CM but had minor issues. Couldn't wait to get home and download the latest nightly. It was fun for a few months but now I'm on Sacs V8 and seems to be mostly stable. But I think I'm with you guys and odin back to stock and wait for 4.3 to drop. Now is there a pre-rooted stock that I can flash in TWRP?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2357471

Don't take the OTA if you flash this rom though.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] gottria:
Thanks just finished flashing it and feels good to back to stock.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] dandan2980:
Just flashed back to stock unrooted with the one click posted in development section. Waiting for the 4.3 to drop. I might not even root again this phone on stock non rooted is gaster than any custom rom I flashed. The minute I got this phone I was rooted and flashed aosp ran it for about 2 weeks then was on Sacs for a couple weeks bit I gotta say stock is faster than both of them way more snappy.

---------- Post added at 12:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:02 AM ----------
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
Well, so much for that. I really dislike the direction Samsung seems to be going with all this Knox crap, so after the fiasco of updating to MJA I've decided to forego TW entirely for a while. I flashed back to CM for the first time in a very long time, and I'm loving it. It was like coming home.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ParkerParker:
Thanks for taking the dive, there was no way I was updating after watching that thread for 2 days, I have faith in sacs and CNexus getting that Knox sh@& out of the picture completely, or at least so we aren't bricking our phones left and right , I've been going back to pacman, and I totally understand you when you say it feels like home
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
Absolutely. It's just too bad what happened to crawrj. That guy is a fixture in Samsung forums, and he's down for the count for a while because of MJA.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mjs2011:
Well guys. I've officially retired the S4 in favor of the N5. It's been fun!
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] gottria:
So how you like it compared to the S4? Not sure I can do without the SD card, removable battery I'd be OK with.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mjs2011:
We'll see about the sdcard. That was my biggest worry, but I now subscribed to Google Music and that's pretty much like having unlimited music. 32gb seems to be enough for me!

---------- Post added at 09:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:22 PM ----------

Overall the phone is great: don't know if it's necessarily better than the S4 but fits my needs better. I prefer aosp based Roms so this device will be very stable in that regards. Plus it sounds like we'll have a solid miui build soon too.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] gottria:
I'm on the fence, never thought I would like an aosp rom but Carbon Rom has been very nice. I even flashed Sacs 4.3 custom for half a day and switched back to Carbon 11/7 nightly. Sacs 4.3 was very stable and what a work of art, and it will only get better.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mjs2011:
Yeah. And one nice thing about the Nexus is that all Roms will work on all carriers. I would imagine that once the Roms start pouring in, they'll be much more stable than the aosp roms on the S4.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mjs2011:
For those of you curious about the Nexus 5 and the smaller battery, I'm actually getting better battery life than I was on the S4 (using stock rooted).

---------- Post added at 08:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:22 AM ----------
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
I'll be joining you within about 2-3 weeks. Can't wait! I definitely agree with you about Google Music. It's a pretty insane value for 10 bucks a month. How do you feel about the screen after using the GS4?
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] :
In sooooo right behind you guys! Gonna wait till development gets cranking good before I make the switch. :D
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] chris-allen:
Wana solve rom fatigue??? Fupp it...install the latest 4.3 update like me..then your stuck....lol
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
I installed the 4.3 update on the first day, and it's a big part of the reason I'm switching to the N5. It's not the end of the world though - you can still flash AOSP roms with no problem, and the MJA tar is available now.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Tb0n3:
The biggest problem with AOSP et al is manufacturers' screwing any possibility of open source code for their hardware. Samsung is at least making an effort, but as long as they continue their partnership with Qualcomm the vast majority of phone functionality will be locked away in a binary blob. This is the main reason you see problems with radio functions. If they'd just open up the LTE standards at least, it'd be better.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
Yeah, Qualcomm is known to be pretty terrible with that. It's too bad.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] mjs2011:
It's funny, because on the first day or so with the Nexus 5, I was disappointed in the screen. I had the standard "washed out color" complaints. But after putting some music on my wife's S4 last night, I could hardly even look at it. The colors were way too vibrant, almost unrealistic.

When it comes to accuracy, I think the Nexus 5 may be a little better.

Also something to look forward to, I did a test of the Nexus 5 and S4 side by side, and the Nexus 5 is much faster opening apps.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] maxpower7:
Yeah, I figured that would be the case on both counts. After running CM for the few days (following the 4.3 update fiasco) and then going back to TW in preparation to get rid of the phone, I really miss the zippiness of an AOSP rom. I assume that the N5 is just like that only moreso. It's always weird to go back to LCD after using AMOLED for a while, and vice versa.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] neswii:
In the S4's settings you can turn on "Movie Mode" or something of the like that will absolutely fix the color accuracy issue and make the screen gorgeous.

Sorry for sort of necroing, but I'm looking for CM11 nightly feedback around the forums and found this thread. Couldn't help myself because I hate the oversaturated stock look, but the phone has a setting that completely fixes this.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Tlab56:
I remember thinking that I might get tired of flashing a year or so ago, but I just recently switched from AOKP to CM and CM updater has really changed my opinion on the issue. It's just so much easier!
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] R0CKSTAR3N3RGY:
I absolutely love AOSP and CM. But lately TW had been treating me great. Couldn't bare to go back to stock so I'm on negalite's wondeROM and so far I'm much happier than I was on pacman.

Plus I have my Galaxy Gear that really convinced me to move back to TW.

I still hate the look and feel of TW but I'll survive. Functionality and reliability is more important.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Ophbalance:
My God but I feel old... my first PDA was the Axim X5, but the first device I could flash was the Axim x50v. So I started out in the WinCE days ;). My first phone/PDA combo was the HTC Touch which ended up with Android in the end. From there it was the LG Optimus (since it was cheap, I had job contract issues, and it had a ton of ROMs available). I ended up running CM on the tablets (Nook Color, HP Touchpad... the HD+'s have stayed stock since they can access the goog's market). Now having the S4 I can honestly say that stock rooted is probably going to be where it stays for at least a year. It does everything I need, on the latest release of Android, and I don't have to worry about crap Just Working (TM). It's an odd feeling to realize I don't have to remove the carrier OS after having to do so for so long ;).
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] jtsv:
Same thing here I keep my cracked screen S3 as my rooted throw down phone. Got the S4 after cracking my screen with a pre Black friday sale for .96 cents was trying to hold out until the S5. Didn't make it not sure about the Knox issues so haven't rooted S4 keeping the S3 on 4.4.2 to at least play with things over wifi. Took my S4 into sprint to ask about storage issue and they knew I always rooted my E4GT & S3 so when she looked at my S4 she said it wasn't stock I said just because I removed the TW launcher didn't mean it wasn't stock? The tech's always think they know things......

Anyways really can't figure what Rom I would flash if rooted so for now just staying stock to see how things run and compare with my S3. Some things are better stock verses my S3 but then others aren't. The stock S4 has almost as many things I can get by with so other than being bored at times with it, things ar OK. Wish there was more discussion of stock S4 threads like a forum support group of us that are going through flashing withdraws.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] corraiv:
M
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] chris-allen:
what i get tired of is flashing a rom... perfectly good rom....then along comes an update.. i flash it.. now 50% of my shizz doesnt work anymore. then i go.to redownload the older rom only to find the link.bad...
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] daniel4653:
Yeah man once you settle in its nice and smooth. Then an update comes along and you are tempted to try it. Having to wipe again and take another hour to set up your phone.

I've been on stock un rooted for about 7 weeks now.
[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] chris-allen:
im running stock everything...rooted just so i debloat..thats about it