I'll try, Camilo, but I'm not really an Android Wizard
(Most?) Android devices have three operating "states," if you will: A boot loader, a recovery console and the normal running system. (Which everybody calls the "ROM" code, for some reason.) The boot loader is designed to allow one to install code via the USB interface, in conjunction with (custom) code on a computer (usually). The recovery console code has menus to allow you to do a number of things to... well, recover from a broken ROM, clear the device's cache, reset it to as-delivered from the factory, etc. The ROM, well, that's the Android OS.
Replacing Samsung's garbage corruption of Android with CyanogenMod (a ROM) is a two-step process (well, three, actually, as you'll see later):
- Replace Samsung's recovery console with the Clockwork Recovery Mod (CWM) or the TeamWin Projects Recovery (TWRP) (Why their acronyms aren't actually acronyms is another mystery)
- Using the new recovery console: Install the CyanogenMod ROM
Then you can boot into an unpolluted Android environment
Of course: You'll also want to be able to actually
do something with the resulting thing, and, for that, you'll need apps. For apps you'll need the App Store (okay:
Play Store... whatever). For that you'll need to install a package called "GApps." You must be careful to install the GApps package that matches the version of CM you installed. The GApps package is installed from the recovery console (CWM or TWRP).
Then you boot into CM, re-sign-up with your Google account, re-install your other apps, set stuff up, configure, etc., etc. and Bob's your uncle
As for "less desirable": Could be.
I wouldn't hesitate to buy a used Samsung tablet with CWM and CM on it, because, now, I know what it is on a personal level.
It's probably possible to put things back. Or at least Samsung's corrupted version of the Android ROM. One of the steps you'll execute, as part of the installation, is a "nandroid" backup of your tablet from CWM or TWRP. From there it might be possible to get Samsung's recovery console back. I don't know.