Spoiler alert : If you value your time , don’t waste your time reading my whole thread/post because this thread/post is going to very long.
I don’t expect Carl Sir to see this post (bcoz of his duties and responsibilities) but with 0.001% hope I’m writing this thread/post to share my journey. But before I start, I apologise for any spelling or grammatical errors because I’m not using any AI or any other stuff to hide my imperfections and mistakes.
Hello, I am from India. I am currently 16 years old and from my childhood(I know I’m a child right now writing this post/thread 😂), I am really passionate about technology specially about “Android”. As far as I remember I was first exposed to Internet during September of 2018. At that time in our home we had two devices , one neglected by everybody and the other used by everybody. The device neglected by everybody was “Samsung Galaxy Star Pro-gtS7262” and the device used by everybody was “Xiaomi Redmi Note 4”. The Samsung device had 512mb ram🗿, no wonder why everyone avoided it. As a typical kid who knows the difference between luxury and necessity, I used YouTube and other sources to download modded versions of the offline games I played back then. (Shadow Fight 2, Temple Run 2,etc.) While doing so, I stumbled upon thumbnails and video titles on YouTube with the phrase “no root”. This single phrase and my curiosity to know more about this phrase changed my perspective towards computers and smartphones , gave me a new identity, made me who I am today. At that time, I used to be so hyped about OS updates but throughout my entire life(till now) “happiness had always been short-lived”, so after 1 major update(MIUI 11) , the device reached its EOL. But I didn’t leave hope, I went to good old YouTube to check if there is any workarounds to install MIUI 12 on Redmi Note 4(I know I was an absolute dumb back then🥲) , I found a solution, but it required “root”. This time I was determined to know about “root”.(I remember on my first encounter on the word “root” I thought “root” of plants 😂🌲🌳) .On my way to know more about “root”, I was quite unsatisfied with the explanations given by most of the youtubers because I wanted to know deep about the topic like how rooting works at the system level. Back then , when I was at 5th standard, I used to think that Xiaomi is the best in the world because whenever I searched about Custom Recovery or Custom ROM , everytime the Youtubers showcased a Xiaomi device. Another reason is that unlike most other companies, Xiaomi used to make their kernel sources open source and has an active developer community. I had no idea about OnePlus or any other brand back then. I don’t remember exactly but around that time or earlier I saw an advertisement of OnePlus, If I’m not wrong Carl Sir was also present there but I just ignored it thinking another company shipping a device with lack of freedom (in terms of rooting and stuff like that) . At that time I felt something is missing , I was kind of bored after using the same UI for years. Then we the whole world came to a standstill die to COVID 😷. Our school like many others started online classes but the Redmi Note 4 just couldn’t keep up with the long class sessions due to over heating (at ambient room temps of 21-22°). So my father got a new device for me and my sis. The device was “OPPO F15”. After using it for first one or two days I was quite satisfied with the ui but after a few days it felt boring again. At that time I came to know about OnePlus , their signature Oxygen OS, their unique UI , their easter eggs(Calculator one) and the unique tagline “NEVER SETTLE” . I wanted to try Oxygen OS GSI on the Oppo device so bad but I had two problems 1: I didn’t have a pc back then 2: Oppo didn’t allow bl unlocking for “security” purposes. After my father sensed my enthusiasm towards the subject “ Computer”, he bought me one. I was happy but I think I would be more happier if Oppo had released kernel source code and had allowed bl unlocking “officially”. I mentioned “officialy” because Oppo restricted it’s users from unlocking bl by restricting fastboot access. No matter which method you try, the device will show fastboot verify fail and would simply reboot. But I didn’t leave hope and I came across an exploit called “bootrom” or brom exploit which works on some mtk powered chipsets and luckily the device’s chipset was supported. I used “mtkclient” to unlock bl and root the device by flashing magisk patched/injected boot image. After rooting I was one step closer towards trying out OOS GSI, but then I realised that I will need a custom recovery as a fallback to recover the device if something goes wrong. And as expected nobody had ever tried making a custom recovery for the device so I decided to create my own. Except decryption, the recovery was working fine. After spending months on the project I finally gave up trying to fixing decryption because the GSI didn’t boot, rather rendered the device useless by triggering bootloop. I recovered the device and decided to never try GSI in future ever but I was too much inspired by “NEVER SETTLE” so I flashed GSI with an updated version of OOS and I was successful in hard briking my device. Again somehow with my pc , a USB cable and the phone , I managed to recover the device (IMEI became null 😭). After that incident I decided to never play with Android(NOTE: this decision is restricted only to that OPPO device only) and use ported OOS stock apps (including launcher) using magisk module. I was quite impressed by its UI and aesthetics. No I am not a fan of "sToCk Ui) but rather I was fan of its unique design language and UI aesthetics and some thoughtful features like the OnePlus Scout integrated with the System Launcher. I also liked the Calculator Easter Egg , the boot animation and the overall smoothness of the UI. After using the ported apps, I wished to have a OnePlus device and wanted to experience OOS. Few months forward ,I came to know that Carl Sir is leaving OnePlus and The Color OS will be merged with Oxygen OS. I was quite sad after hearing it because I wanted to experience OOS so bad. Actually to be honest I don’t care about internals and features after they merge with OOS and COS but what I do care about is the UI and I saw in the official community post they won’t change the UI . I saw that apart from launcher and features the UI or COOS 12 resembled OOS so I decided to stick to my plan of having an OnePlus device. 13th Nov 2023, I got my first OnePlus device, OnePlus 11. Till the moment I didn’t boot up the device for the first time , I was super happy and excited to use the device but after I pressed the power button , I immediately noticed the missing Oxygen OS logo from boot animation, I ignored it thinking it might be a bug. But to my horror I was greeted with the completely trash Color Os 😔. Now those who have read until here might think my I am writing this here in the Nothing community. I am writing this here because next time I will definitely get a Nothing only “if” Nothing could promise OOS like ui and OOS vibes. Personally I don’t like the notification shade of stock Android 12 and later. Also the slider/toggle of OOS 11/12 was quite unique. I’d wonder if OnePlus Scout like integration would be possible on Nothing Launcher. Even though I don’t expect Nothing to take my suggestions because OnePlus and Nothing, Oxygen OS and Nothing OS are two seperate entities and have their own identity and I respect that. So, I am currently learning more about Android from documentation and other sources and about programming languages like Java , C and C++ because I have made it my goal to build my own Oxygen OS , my own custom ROM. I know it is a very childish and unrealistic goal for a single person because currently I don’t know anyone who could guide me or help me in the process.
If any custom rom developer is reading this please share your thoughts, link to any resource(s) that could help would be much appreciated.
Thank You.
