How do you decide which ROM?

[mitchb2]

I'm just starting my root-research.

My biggest question is: are the current 2.1 ROMs based on the Nexus 2.1 or the Droid 2.1?

And how do you decide which ROM is "best" ?

[Corinacakes]

i personally like droidmod best because it does all the work for me. whatever you decide you need to do it fast lol

[mitchb2]

whatever you decide you need to do it fast lol

Why? Is the new update going to block rooting?

[toddegreene]

The most current ROMs are based on ese53 (the soon to be released Droid 2.1).

As to which ROMs are best, that's the fun of it, you can try them and decide for yourself. I've used Ultimate Droid, Simply Stunning, Bugless Beast, DroidMod (and SholesMod), Smoked Glass and I'm sure a couple I don't remember. As of this moment, Bugless Beast and Smoked Glass run the best on my system. I've had to change overclocking kernels because AdamZ's run hot on my system for some reason.

You decide which is best for you by comparing performance, stability and visual appeal on your personal device. Or in other words the one you and your Droid like the best.

Also, as you get more comfortable with modding, you can tweak ROMs yourself. Just make sure you have a good backup, it's all that stands between you and one of those "I BRICKED MY DROID!!!!" posts.

[toddegreene]

whatever you decide you need to do it fast lol

Why? Is the new update going to block rooting?

Won't know until it gets here.

[NeverEndingXsin]

The beauty of rooting is that your free to try any of them and revert back to your previous one if you don't like it. Me personally before installing any other rom I make an advanced nandroid backup so that if I ever feel like using something different I can just restore it =)

Try as many as you want and have fun with it. Some roms will run better on your phone than others as well as kernels. Just find what works for you =)

[JhankG]

Once you're rooted and have SPRecovery, it is really easy to try each ROM out. DroidMod, Ultimate Droid, BB, and Smoked Glass are probably the most popular. Out of those, DroidMod is the only one that is not based on the 2.1 update for the Droid.

[BlooS]

It all depends on my mood. I switch roms on a daily basis. The most fun. Part of rooting for me is flashing roms and testing out new things. Just remember to always create a nandroid backup so you can go back to your previous settings quickly.

[mjs31]

You will never know which one you want, believe me. I switch all the time to see what is new and improved. All of these developers are great. Just remember to give a rom a fair shake. Sometimes you will install one via update.zip only to find it slow or jittery. If you like the looks and feel otherwise, I strongly recommend you do a nandroid install to wipe all the other crap off your system. You will be amazed at the response improvements nandroid can have vs update.zip
Can be a little more work, but worth it many times.

I am currently running ultimate but may gives petes new version 9 a try soon.

[Slipstream]

I think what he's driving at (and I'm curious too) is... what exactly is the difference between one vs. the other? Why would someone choose BB over Cyanogen, or Cyanogen over DM? I gather that some "work better than others" depending on the phone, but why / how?

I think it would be fantastic if someone could do a comparison between all of the major ROMs to give the noobs an idea of where to start. I know in my case, all I really care about is overclocking for a tad more speed, and maybe the black notification bar / skinning abilities. I don't care about tethering, I don't care about tinkering with the functionality of the OS, and I want everything to work properly (I bought the smart phone to BE a smart phone, not a toy ).