I started using Android with the Orange San Francisco, as it was branded in the UK, "underneath" it was the ZTE Blade. It was a very cheap device, but you could unlock the bootloader, install a custom recovery and a custom ROM, it was great. The custom ROMs had much better performance than the standard software, removing all the bloatware that the operator included and you could upgrade to a later version of Android. It came with 2.2, iirc and you could get 2.3. There was a massive community surrounding that particular device on Modaco, similar to XDA Developers I guess, but run by a handful of people (or one guy, not sure) for those who aren't aware of it. I started programming when I was 13 or 14. The school I went to was pretty good in this regard, or maybe that was standard, but they taught Visual Basic as part of the IT classes. In my spare time I got a copy of Borland Delphi from a magazine and started hacking on Object Pascal. I created a GUI for an encryption library, for absolutely no reason other than why not and I even got some responses about it. I was browsing Sourceforge, Freshmeat and Slashdot around this time, to be featured anywhere there would be amazing. Well soon after this I completely gave up on programming for no other reason than I was a teenager and probably became more interested in Extreme Metal more than anything else. Android and the hacking communities on Modaco and XDA Developers got me back into programming. Early Android was a place where you could modify and experiment to your hearts content. I mean even back then you had to get the right device, i.e. don't get a Samsung. As time went on, then came along CyanogenMod, to be honest it was probably there when I had my ZTE Blade, it probably wasn't supported and I hadn't heard of it yet. But it was truly a golden age, maybe not secure. As time has gone on, Google has locked down Android with every release, it has become homogenised and now they are now naming Android Q, Android 10. Alongside Windows 10 and mac OS X (10), just how corporate and unoriginal can you get. I get that Google is a company and Android is essentially a product, I guess all I'm saying is, I just miss those early wild heady days.