Notice the most LineageOS installs is Waydroid...
I miss the free era from 10 years ago. Back then it was probably still called CM.
Now manufacturers are extremely closed: Xiaomi started by making Android ROMs, but today the most practical way to unlock its BL is through exploits...
I remember on xda with my Galaxy S Plus i9001 [1], we had:
- dual boot [2]
- Ubuntu touch [3]
- different kernels with various optimizations, overclocking, etc
- an absurd amount of ROMs, aside from CyanogenMod and LineagesOS there was ParanoidAndroid, Carbon, JellyBean, AICP, plus all the ROMs made specifically by users for this phone
- the latest linux kernel, somebody just compiled it for AOSP, I think it was version 3 or 4 against 2, which was the standard for every other phone, it ended up on some tech news website
I think It was a really great modding scene and a lot of people learnt stuff from that. Mainly by bricking their phones and having to fix them.
[1] https://xdaforums.com/f/galaxy-s-plus-i9001-android-developm...
[2] https://xdaforums.com/t/app-kernel-dual-boot-s-plus.2462783
[3] https://xdaforums.com/t/new-test-porting-ubuntu-touch.238260...