Who has unlocked the bootloader and rooted own Android device surely has heard about custom firmwares.
A custom firmware is an aftermarket distribution of the Android operating system. They are based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
Using a custom firmware has many advantages:
– remove unwanted programs installed by your carrier
– receive more frequent security updates
– have access to the current version of Android (most carriers take months to update devices on their network to the latest version of Android, if ever)
– better performance
– extra features
Here is a list of most popular custom firmwares (also called custom ROM):
Lineage OS born from CyanogenMod.
MIUI, developed by Xiaomi Tech, the famous chinese manufacturer.
Paranoid Android, developed by their team.
AOKP, developed by their team, isn’t numeric, the builds are divided in Nightlies and Milestones.