[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Windows Mobile ROM De] -888-:
Hello fellow Chefs..

I know all of you are probably busy, but I hope you'll read this.

For few months I have this idea, which seems I can't do myself (mostly lack of time, as well as resources and knowledge of few things).

Since first time I read about UC, I knew what I wanted to do: a basic, simple ROM version, without *anything* added. Just plain OS, nothing else.

Basically it can be described in one sentence:

Less cooked-in, More by User.

Less is More.

The idea was the same as behind UC - let the USER customize it the way he wants during flashing or after every hard reset.

Call it "cooking without cooking" ;)

I did it, but the time took me to finish it made it old and obsolete build.

I was going to do new one when I received 20748 from Akadonny, based on the same principle, but I realized it'll take me too much time again.

So here is passing the idea to you:

If you have some new good base, beside cooking your usual ROMs, perhaps consider making one small extra "basic" ROM?

You may ask why.

Well, you can see the answer in post of each and every ROM thread. Johnny wants NETCF3.5 cooked-in while 888 dont want it ;) Johnny2 ask for game, Johnny3 asks to remove this, another wants that to be added and so on and on. You get the idea, I think ;)

No one needs exactly the same features as another person.

Sure, continue making your own "custom-featured" ROMs with your selection of custom cooked-in add-ons (ie latest Garmin's ROMs with his own cool icons, or sakajati's cool looking ROM with cooked-in Manilla 2D). Many people have no slightest idea how to even change their wallpaper, so obviously all they want is "ready to go", fully pre-loaded and fully pre-configured ROM.

But also there are people who know how to use UC to its full extent, including loading their own settings XMLs and their own selection of software.

They don't need all those extra nifty perks you guys cook-in in every ROM.

And very often the settings you guys have cooked-in make problems for them. Don't misunderstand me here: it is great for most average people when you cook-in features they can't or don't know how to add. But not everyone needs it. Hence the idea - make an extra version of ROM, *without* all your usual extras, perks, and whistles, don't cook-in anything there, and let the user choose what to add with UC. Yes, I noticed that for some Chefs the art of cooking is some sort of competition - "I add this first, I do that better," and so on... well, making a "basic" ROM can be and is competitive as well! If you need "competing adrenaline" think of it that way: can you "shave" the base as much as other Chef and still have it fully working? Or maybe you can make it even smaller without sacrificing any functionality? ;) (thats just example)

Anyways, I know it is doable.

And I know many people would thank you that :D

Whats more, cooking just a 'basic' ROM (without anything that can be installed later during UC) and relying on UC afterwards, makes it much better than spending time on setting up everything you would have cooked-in.

Why to do it?

Because once user have all his usual programs "moved" from having them cooked-in onto the Storage Card (and installed from there with UC), as well as all his settings etc in the XMLs on Storage Card, it is oh-so-damn-easy for every one to update their phone to the latest build version

without loosing any of their programs, features or settings

!

Lets say (this is just for example) that I have sakajati's latest 20749.1.4.0 build on my phone, but Garmin posted today newer 28000.1.5.0 build, so by flashing newest Garmin's ROM no one would loose any of their programs or settings they had on sakajati's ROM because they all would be installed again to Garmin's ROM with UC.

It would also eliminate dilemma users often have, like (again - its just example) "I like icons on Garmin's ROM, stability of sakajati's ROM and the way my GPS works so fast on XyZ's ROM, too bad I can't have all of them in one". Well, it is possible actually, but it takes Chef's to swallow a bit of our pride ;)

Wouldn't it be great?

All it takes is Chefs making "on the side" extra lean/small/basic/whaetever-you-call-it version of their ROM, and accompany them with extended cabs packages rather than cooking it all in (where possible, of course), and the users themselves keeping all their extras (software, settings etc) on their Storage Card ready to be installed again and again every time they flash their phone with new ROM or if they just hard reset it....

I know I would like that, and I'm sure there are more people :)

Any takers to this idea?

Thank you for reading such long post :D

BTW

I started to play with something like that based on 3.29 from Akadonny.

If you want to see what I mean, it is in my shared files (\Private folder, "eLMO_3_29_..." ROM)

(NOTE: it is not finished, its work in progress, so it works partially, but I have no time to work on it now so most likely I'll never finish it - because probably again by the time I'll have it ready there will be 100 newer builds 'on the market' and it will be obsolete by then ;)).