Last modified: 2023-03-29

LineageOS

Info

LineageOS is a free and open-source operating system for various devices, based on the Android mobile platform.

In essence, replacement for Android.

Some phones are better than others. If you are considering to purchase a phone witch is supported by LineageOS, definitelly check out the community section, where people often write about their experiences.

For example here is a reddit post about Redmi 5 Plus from 2018:

I own a Redmi 5 Plus. With the new generation (5) you have to wait 360 hours to unlock your bootloader. Previously it was 72 hours, but now it's an actual half month.

Also consider that there are tons of steps to perform before that - create a Mi Account, apply for having your Mi account set up as a developer account, add your devices to your Mi developer account, ensuring your ROM can even unlock the bootloader (there's a switch in MIUI, and my ROM couldn't, I had to flash the Global Dev ROM to do it, which you can do without unlocking the bootloader).

All of this creates a hurdled process just to be able to flash a ROM that isn't made by Xiaomi, so I wouldn't recommend Xiaomi for LineageOS.