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I've definitely been there. For probably a majority of the phone models, the modding community is a loosely-organized collection of barely-tested hacks and vagu
by ufmace 13y ago
I've definitely been there. For probably a majority of the phone models, the modding community is a loosely-organized collection of barely-tested hacks and vague tales of something that worked for somebody once. Use anything you find there, and you will probably run into lots of strange problems that nobody available has any idea how to solve, so you're on your own to debug it and get your device back into a usable state.
If you manage to get it working in some modified state, it's entirely possible that some random thing will cause it to go completely off the rails at some random moment, whether or not you need it then, or have access to alternate hardware, troubleshooting tools, or anybody who could help.
If you really want to have a modified phone, it's probably best to check out the community first and choose a phone model based on what is best supported. Even then, you probably shouldn't mess with it much if you aren't in a position to troubleshoot any problems that come up.
- agravier 13y agoThis is factually true; however I found that you presented it in a surprisingly negative light, for a contributor of a site called "hacker" news.
- georgemcbay 13y agoIt is both true and practically useful advice... what's negative about that? Speaking from years of experience (and as someone whose day job is Android app development) for every Android phone that has high quality developer support for 3rd party OS builds in the custom build "scene" there are dozens with really crappy half-ass amateur hour "support", and this tends to happen more on the phones that most non-hacker-types want to mod (because their carrier/vendor has stuck them on an old version of the OS for no good technical reason, etc). If you aren't on the latest flagship phone from a big vendor or on a Nexus device, you probably shouldn't bother with custom builds unless you are prepared to deal with a lot of random issues.
- ufmace 13y agoI'd say that a necessary part of being a hacker includes considering the purpose and importance of things that you're hacking on. Hack on your hobby Raspberry Pi or the side project you're working on at home to your heart's content. Don't hack around on the production servers for your multi-million dollar business. The phone that you use to organize your real-life events, keep in touch with the people in your life, get important alerts, etc. is more towards the production server level of importance than the toy gadget. I recommend thinking twice before putting some hacked-up barely-supported ROM on it.
- gbog 13y agoI feel the complete opposite: the phone I use everyday and has become more important in my digital life than my pc, must be hacked (owned) by me even more. Hacking means making it work to your needs, despite all the limitations some clever suits have decided on your behalf. For example my phone carries some immigrant files and I need them stored as files, therefore I am not able to use non hacked Apple devices.