Developers got a nice gift from HTC today in the form of the official release of the HTC Hero kernel source code. To those of us who simply use our phones the offer isn’t that exciting.

However, for developers the release of the source code means that developers can release custom ROMs for the device to extend its functionality. That is something that the average Hero user can enjoy.

Custom ROMS can add things to the device like tweaked GUI, more stability, and other slick features. I wonder how long it will take the first custom ROM to be offered to Hero users.