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Coming from the school of stock Android users, the hack and root community has always fascinated me. Whether it is their extreme dedication to cracking every Android device on the planet, the speed and ferociousness displayed when ripping into new OS builds, or the fervor they show for the platform and its open nature, you have to give them quite a bit of credit. While we report news coming from the hacker community on a daily basis, I have always viewed the crowd taking part in said activities as a small niche group of die-hard programmers with too much free time. While a lot of the last sentence is probably true, I would do better to call them anything but small.
Case in point: Peter Alfonso recently debuted his “BuglessBeast” build of Android 2.2 for the Motorola Droid. He tweeted the download link from bit.ly and sat back as madness ensued and the build quickly spread across the internet. And thanks to some statistics that can be accessed through bit.ly we are able to get a glimpse of just how many Droid owners crave the customizations and power unlocked through custom ROMs. An astounding 37,642 users downloaded the ROM through bit.ly alone (and this isn’t counting any instances where the build was re-hosted).
True, millions of Droids have been sold, so 40,000-ish may be a drop in the bucket, but considering Peter Alfonso also offered a completely unmodified version of Android 2.2 for the Droid at the same time that only garnered about 1,000 downloads, it shows this number wasn’t simply padded by impatient Droid users who wanted Froyo (besides, builds of Froyo for Droid have been floating around almost since the OS was officially announced).
This equates to almost 40,000 members of the Android community who are actively interested in the custom ROM scene, and that’s not including owners of any other Android handset. No wonder it seems these guys are so quick when they have such a huge community to exploit.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising when things like an open-sourced OS and overly-enthusiastic programmers go hand-in-hand, but it sure is enough to make you re-evaluate your own considerations of root. Is it really a fringe movement? Or is root becoming more and more common with each new Android handset that is released. I for one am starting to feel like Luke Skywalker on a maintenance scaffold somewhere in the depths of Cloud City: “Root, I am your father. Come with me to the Dark Side.”
[via MobileCrunch]
I was going to just install the leaked beta of Froyo for my Droid but then I figured why not try BuglessBeast? I’ve heard good praises about it on the interwebs.
I’ve been running it for over a week. I love it. Though, my buddy did not have as good luck as I did getting it installed and rolling.
What does a custom rom such as this add?? Big up to the guys who give up their time though.
Oh come on, really? I love pete as much as the next Droid enthusiast but he didnt have anything to do with 2.2 on the Droid! This is simply FRF84B(released by P3Droid) with the Bugless Beast name slapped on it. I encourage you all to read this post by P3Droid.
http://www.mydroidworld.com/forums/motorola-droid/2922-truth-about-froyo-overclocking.html
Pete is awesome dont get me wrong, but this isnt his rom.
Overly enthusiastic, too much time on their hands, whatever!
Beautiful ROM Peter, nice work;)
now if those 40,000 would donate a few to pete he could pay for his college.
Bugless Beast is the best! I’ve been using it since January, upgrading every time Pete puts out a new ROM. Love all the devs, but always come back to Pete.
Actually the rom is his when you consider all the stuff he did after frf84b was released such as add scripts, deodex, zipalign, and optiping, and he added syscntrl or whatever. If it was just a normal rom, why would anyone choose it over all the other froyo roms? Because pete has a great track record of releasing quality custom roms. Shut your mouth legion, you don’t know shit.
Legion, have you any clue what you’re talking about? Pete gives credit where credit is due each time he releases his ROMs and P3 is included in this list, however he has tweaked it and it easily is the quickest most stable ROM out there right now – believe me, I’ve tried them all.
I’ll give credit to P3 as well, but there is no doubt Pete has put in countless hours to make his ROM scream.
That is all.
ooooooor he could pay for people to wait on him while he tirelessly attempts to crack the (expected) encryption on the Droid X boot loader! :)
“Actually the rom is his when you consider all the stuff he did after frf84b was released such as add scripts, deodex, zipalign, and optiping, and he added syscntrl or whatever. Shut your mouth legion, you don’t know shit.”
Scripts = nothing, wow some terminal emulator commands, Ill sure use those alot…….
Deodex = already done
zipalign = not even neccesary
None of these things added anything to the FRF84B release. Read the post I linked. Considering you didnt even know what he added when replying to me, I would say you dont know ****.
@Legion I read it. So what? That guy’s ROM is a Toyota and Pete’s is a Lexus. Same stuff with a better nameplate.
EVERY FRF84B Rom out there is EXACTLY the same. The only thing that can be changed is to add a theme. If anything credit the Motorola Engineer that lost his job over leaking this file.
Dag pete gets around, I was running his bugless beast on my EVO for a while, perhaps this may mean he’s working on a bugless beast 2.2 for the EVO?? Hmmmmmm Cyanogen or Bugless beast? Decisions, decisions…….
@ swazeddahustla, considering cyanogen is built from source, Cyanogen.
Here is what the dev responsible for 2.2 on the Droid has to say……
P3Droid –
The Truth about Froyo/Overclocking
Hey, if you have been around long enough you know who I am, I switched to Android 6 months ago and changed to P3Droid, I am sure many of you have used the 2.2 leaks and possibly my kernels. So here is the truth.
There are only two releases of Froyo for the Droid, (I should know I released them both). Therefore all releases will run the same, there is nothing a person can do that will make the build perform differently because no one has the ability to change the files used to build Froyo.
WHAT CAN BE DONE
The only thing that can change the performance of froyo is the kernel. Here there might be minor changes, but all kernels will be built the same, from the same source. Each kernel developer might use different speeds and voltages, (this will affect performance). This will be the biggest determinate of changes in ROM performance.
HOW MANY ROMS ARE THERE
Again there are only two (2) froyo (2.2) ROMs out, I will not tell you the build numbers but I released them both. Anything else out is a theme of these ROMS, as such, please remember to pick one based on the looks because the performance will not change unless you change the kernel.
ive been using petes roms for months. work like a charm. never an issue! actually “smarter” than the stock roms!
@legion
Well not sure when CM6 will be ready for the EVO, but bugless beast v3 wasn’t 2.2, it was 2.1 but it was SICK!!! But there are so many good dev’s working on the EVO right now its hard to choose. Right now Damage Control is probably the best thing out for the EVO as far as 2.1, but there are some 2.2 ROMs cooking.
I downloaded this a few weeks ago for my Droid. At first a few. Bugs but corrected itself and now incredibly faster than nexus 2.1. 5 pages and flash and the speed made me love it. Never unrooting my Droid!
dustin, perhaps you should go way back to the original Droid scene and realize who did what. I was there. Pete, put simply, took the work of others, combined it, and called it his, only giving a handful of credit. So what he has going today is actually a compilation of others’ work plus some of his. It’s a nice smooth and stable package, nonetheless, but he doesn’t deserve all the glory you and others give to him. Yes, I used BuglessBeast for quite some time, but then I switched to CyanogenMod before getting my Incredible.
that’s cause pete’s a straight G
@fish yeah, straight G for Goatse
“What does a custom rom such as this add??”
Well first of all you get froyo before the release. Custom roms are usually faster than stock, give you the ability to overclock (or underclock and set profiles for when each is done–such as underclocking when screen is off), and wifi tether. Some have scripts that allow you do various things such as remove programs like the amazon store if you do not want it or keep a certain amount of memory free. I used a custom boot animation which speeds up boot up times. Lastly, it is just fun to tweak.
I just posted the smoked glass theme by AdamZ for the Froyo BB v0.4. If you’re interested in trying it out with BB, get it here: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/bugless/50429-custom-smoked-glass-froyo-bb-v0-1-a-7.html
Buglessbeast is nice, but Sapphire is more stable IMO, but the Holy Grail will be CM6, props to Cyanogen & Koush!
I prefer Kangeraid 5.0.9 myself currently running at 800 mhz but downloaded a couple of Chevy’s kernels tonight
@Legion
The post you’re referring to from p3droid was on 6.22…before the froyo open source code being released from google.
I’m using BB v0.4, but an unbiased person can’t ignore what Legion has written…
I don’t get the last line. Instead of scaring people away from root why don’t you guys write an article showing how easy and painless it is, and how there is always a way back to stock.
@tristan…maybe because it isn’t always easy and painless and there is significant risk to it. i’ve been in the software industry for over 12 years, in testing, implementation, training, and design capacities (meaning i have a good amount of relevant experience so I have an idea what i’m doing, in general). i tried rooting, was initially mildly successful, then had some fairly major problems and had to “go back to stock.” that didn’t work either, and after i spent about an hour crapping myself thinking I’d bricked my phone, i ended up doing a factory reset…and I’m still not convinced all the behind the scenes crap on my phone is 100% gone or that my phone is working 100% correctly.
on an somewhat related note, i was using a bugless beast 2.1 ROM when I rooted.
on a less related note, for the 2.1 ROM i used vs. stock 2.1…there really wasn’t a whole lot of “extras” that made it worth it, in retrospect. the only reason i rooted was to have 2.1 sooner. granted i haven’t checked out what’s in the 2.2 BB ROM as compared with stock 2.2, but, for me, it’s totally worth it to wait for 2.2 to get rolled out officially for my Droid.
@myself…my point may have gotten lost in all that. simply put, it’s not always easy and painless, and there is risk involved. i have relevant experience and it didn’t go well for me, at all. Rooting isn’t something to be undertaken lightly.
Also, i only mentioned that the ROM i’d used when I was rooted was BB in the interests of full disclosure. i’m not knocking Pete’s work in any way. it’s entirely probable, and probably likely, that i did something wrong when i was rooting – which goes back to my original point that it’s not always easy and painless, even if you have a reasonable idea what you’re doing.
I found it pretty easy, just study up a bit before you root, I haven’t had any issues. I had rooted my droid to 2.1 before that came out, then went back to stock for a while, and now rooted again for 2.2 usage. Everything works fine.
-niko
I just rooted last night before 2.2 came out for my Droid (1). I just wanted to see what it was all about. From the point of looking into it (rooting) until I was done (with my apps back up and working) – up and running BB 0.4 was about 3 hours – and I’ve never rooted any phone before. I didn’t think it was difficult at all. BTW, there are disclaimers everywhere about how ‘risky’ the procedure is – I just chalk that up to the bane of our society – effin lawyers.