[chrneu]

It's relatively easy. It's basically a command for each step you want to do and it tends to fail gracefully nowadays.

If you can install a linux distro you can flash a custom rom on a well-supported phone.

If it were more mainstream I could see GUI apps to manage all this for people, if they don't already exist. Idk I just use adb.

[paulryanrogers]

It's also high risk. I've bricked two phones doing it.

[a456463]

I flash phones almost every other week. And tablets. I have been flashing since Androids came out. But never bricked. But maybe that is why I don't have any problems.

[Onawa]

I've been flashing phones for over 2 decades and have never bricked a phone. How did you manage that?

[crtasm]

Potential for a brick varies massively depending on phone model, doesn't it?

[Markoff]

it's pretty much impossible to hard brick phone, you can almost always recover it

I'm running custom ROMs for the last 15 years

[eldaisfish]

That describes relatively easy for you, but not for the average person who can’t even be bothered to change the default ringtone.

[keyringlight]

The challenge I've found when looking for instructions for flashing one of my old phones is the assumption of knowledge some rom builders have, or perhaps an assumption about their audience. This seems like it has the potential to bit someone in the ass because if they're relying on other sources like the lineageOS wiki or forum posts elsewhere for example there's no guarantee it'll stay available, complete, or relevant to their variant over time. It's an added burden for what is a gracious volunteer role, but it's a handicap if they want more people using the fruits of their labor.

[yellowapple]

I can't be bothered to change my phone's default ringtone and yet I've had very little issue installing LineageOS and GrapheneOS on the various phones I've owned over the years.