this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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What makes it "custom"? If you install Linux on a laptop that comes with Windows pre-installed, is Linux then a custom OS it's not being a default? Why phones are any different? Calling it custom you play to the manufacturers pockets making it sound shady and unofficial giving them right to take the control from the customers devices. Soon we won't own anything we buy.
I've never thought a custom ROM sounded shady.
To me it was always, "we only have vanilla or chocolate on the menu, but if you're willing to risk bricking your phone, you can get cookies and cream."
I picked cookies and cream.
On PC it is usually called "other"
To me it feels more like a full appliance as it's not even intended primarily to install anything else.
But I can also see your point as a valid argument.
Because for phones they kinda are custom. The smartphone hardware landscape is an absolute clusterfuck of proprietary blobs and closed source drivers and all sorts of shit that makes it so you need a lot of work to customize the base os to work on any particular device. ROMs have rather short lists of compatible phones, and each one of those had to have a build specifically developed for them. You can't take, say, grapheneos and slap it on any phone you like.
The same applies to every pre-installed OS. They are all customized from AOSP, but only third-party operating systems are called such. That was my point there.