i always wonder if XDA forum android-device hacking shiz actually makes perfect sense for folks who are linux whizzes, or if it's always a touch-and-go, poorly documented, kinda tenuous, Shit Could Go Wrong kinda situation for just about everyone
finding The Current Correct Information for This Thing You Want To Do is always such a mind-boggler
i used to be whiz-ish and to me your take is right on the nose 👃 @alyx
@viv @lifning second-hand AT&T HTC One (M7, the original model)
last official AT&T rom was apparently 5.0 marshmallow, not good
XDA and such have 7.0/nougat roms that apparently work well. i'm a little skeptical since it only has 2GB RAM but who can say?
my first android device was the (awful imo) viewsonic g tablet, which was famous for shipping with an awful 2.2 OS that was easily replaced by custom roms, 2.3, 3.0, etc. but i remember trying those fancy new roms... they went up to honeycomb i think, which seemed very cutting edge -- and they were unusable on the hardware despite the devs and forum die-hards seeming OK w/ 'em. made me forever skeptical.
@viv @alyx my first was the very popular (and thus well-tested/supported) Motorola Droid 1, which stopped being supported at 2.2, but I used a 2.3 ROM called "Bugless Beast" (in name only, for it was neither) and later Cyanogen, until it finally hardware-died.
For later phones, I stuck to Cyanogen since it was generally better-supported and more reliably updated than random xda forum projects. But Cyanogen's gone now, isn't it? :( Thankfully OP3 official Nougat image has been fine for me so far