[MDA III, XDA III, PDA2k, 9090 Software Upgrading] Chef_Tony:
1. that section, what rom fits to me? is about shipped roms, they have complex file names and when you go to bigger archives of shipped roms that is just the guide on how to find the one, your device was shipped with, every rom here will work with your device.

2. about the extrom:

2.a do you remember your last hard reset? your device starts up for the first time.

you align the screen, set the clock, cut & paste the appointment...

then the device starts.

and then comes the extrom, it states something like "Customization starts in 3... 2... 1..." and then there are a bunch of programs installed additionally to the actual rom. that is the extrom or extended rom. it is a hidden partition with 16mb of cabs (installer setup files). that means you always carry around those programs and the installer files, too. it is like on the pc having for example ms office installed and additionally you would have the image of the office cd stored. you can always re-install it, but it also means you take up double the space you would actually need to run office. so the extrom is like a backup of certain programs.

changing the rom to wm6.5 means, you cannot access that partition anymore, at all, neither could you use those old wm2003 programs.

so, deleting this partition, is generally good, because you don't need it anyway and gain space for your documents and ringtones and data. your "C:" drive gets bigger.

2.b the wm is NOT stored on the sd card, it is written in the rom partition of the device

2.c again, the rom is in the rom partition, after a hard reset you should insert an sd card with the extrom on it, so your most used programs, for instance, the internet explorer or office or any other program you want can be installed and used without wasting internal space, of which the BA only has 43mb (or after extrom delete 60mb)

2.d you wouldn't want the extrom back, as in the shipped rom, it is useless sh*t, like a dialer skin or a wallpaper, made by your carrier to software brand your device and claim its territory.

if however, some day you decide to go back to wm2003 (but why would you?) you flash the shipped rom. those shipped roms are "baked" roms, which means, they contain the rom, the radio rom and the extrom, while the cooked roms published here are only the operating system itself, there is no radio rom in there, nor is there an extrom.

in most cases like with xplode's rom, the extrom is offered as an additional download, but not to be flashed like with the shipped rom, but to be installed from the sd card to the device. that way it is also pretty customizable and you don't need to know your way around rom cooking, to get it to fit your needs.

about your other questions:

- the differences between those roms are to be read in the respective threads.

while sun_dream's rom contains little apps like htc large title bar or touch image viewer, xplode's is a little cleaner and contains hardly any external programs, so you can make it whatever you like, which makes me an xplode fan, although i miss the large title bar, which makes the clock, the battery and the network icons in the task bar more finger friendly.

- the reason why i am not on the latest xplode build is:

i use build 21202, which is xplode's release R6.1 (release 6.1, not wm6.1!), because i find it very stable and fast, while release R7 has little synchronization issues, when it comes to contacts, and R7.1 has tiny sync issues with exchange. i need to sync my device regularly with my home pc and my work and i have more than one device, so without flawless synching, i'm screwed. those roms are not yet options for me. probably i should have mentioned those little bugs earlier, because that can also influence your decision on which rom to pick.

cheers,

Chef_Tony