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You can root your phone to get rid of OEM skins.
I agree though, and it's one of the main reasons I went with a Nexus phone. I find that all the OEM skins are hideous. I'm not sure if charging money for widget packs is a good idea. However, HTC would make boatloads of money off of its weather and clock widget. Despite being an ugly waste of space, everyone seems to want it. People without Sense whine about not having that widget all the time.
Note that I don't like the stock Android skins either. They're just as ugly as the OEM skins. Custom launchers and themes are so much better than anything the manufacturers, including Google, can churn out.
wordsSoraX64
Heres whats wrong with all this
-Most people don't have even a rudamentary knowledge in rooting or even custom launchers
-OEM skins are, objectively speaking, more resource intensive than stock android. This creates an inconsistent and unfriendly experience
-OEM modification slows android updates. Its not a far claim to put the majority of the fault regarding android fragmentation firmly at the feet of the OEMs
The last reason alone is evidence enough that OEM skins are bad and should be stopped or controlled
[QUOTE="SoraX64"]wordssemianonymous
Heres whats wrong with all this
-Most people don't have even a rudamentary knowledge in rooting or even custom launchers
-OEM skins are, objectively speaking, more resource intensive than stock android. This creates an inconsistent and unfriendly experience
-OEM modification slows android updates. Its not a far claim to put the majority of the fault regarding android fragmentation firmly at the feet of the OEMs
The last reason alone is evidence enough that OEM skins are bad and should be stopped or controlled
A user who doesn't know about rooting doesn't care about how the resources are being used. I've never seen someone complain that "Sense takes up too much RAM" who hasn't known how to root. The same goes for Android updates. 95% of the users wouldn't even know the difference between Froyo and Gingerbread, and most of them won't even know what ICS is until they eventually use it. Skins are good for uneducated end users because they provide the functionality that those types of users require. Power users like you and myself are given more freedoms and so we know that using a skin both slows the phone and the upgrade schedule. Of the thousands upon thousands of Android devices sold every day, many people will not even be familiar with the term "rooting" and they will never complain about the skin that their OEM of choice applied to Android. They'll just use the phone. The people who know what they're using will stop and say "I'm okay with the resources this skin takes up because I like how it looks/feels/runs and the features are nice." or "I would rather choose to have more available to me at any given time, so I'll install something closer to vanilla Android."I don't think you should have to download the OEM skins, the should come on the phone, but there should be an option somehwere on the phone to get rid of the skin and go to stock android and vice versa. I actually like Blur on the Razr, and I've downloade Go Launcher, I've themed my phone, and yet I still go back to stock because I like the way it looks and it runs smoother than with a custom launcher, to me at least.
[QUOTE="semianonymous"][QUOTE="SoraX64"]wordsSoraX64
Heres whats wrong with all this
-Most people don't have even a rudamentary knowledge in rooting or even custom launchers
-OEM skins are, objectively speaking, more resource intensive than stock android. This creates an inconsistent and unfriendly experience
-OEM modification slows android updates. Its not a far claim to put the majority of the fault regarding android fragmentation firmly at the feet of the OEMs
The last reason alone is evidence enough that OEM skins are bad and should be stopped or controlled
A user who doesn't know about rooting doesn't care about how the resources are being used. I've never seen someone complain that "Sense takes up too much RAM" who hasn't known how to root. The same goes for Android updates. 95% of the users wouldn't even know the difference between Froyo and Gingerbread, and most of them won't even know what ICS is until they eventually use it. Skins are good for uneducated end users because they provide the functionality that those types of users require. Power users like you and myself are given more freedoms and so we know that using a skin both slows the phone and the upgrade schedule. Of the thousands upon thousands of Android devices sold every day, many people will not even be familiar with the term "rooting" and they will never complain about the skin that their OEM of choice applied to Android. They'll just use the phone. The people who know what they're using will stop and say "I'm okay with the resources this skin takes up because I like how it looks/feels/runs and the features are nice." or "I would rather choose to have more available to me at any given time, so I'll install something closer to vanilla Android."I'm sorry, but why even buy a phone if you know the stock UI/modified OS suck? Unless you can get the hardware at a discount and then place your custom ROMs on it, I don't see the point.
I tried the rooting and maybe because I have a phone (Droid 2) that has a very small ROM community, but I find the whole process tedious. OEMs should at least give phone users an option to have vanilla Android without having to void their warranty/contract.
It seems that you misunderstood my post. -If you don't like the OEM skin on a phone but you like its hardware, you can buy it and just run AOSP. If Moto phones were unlocked, I would buy one and never use Blur, I would just run AOSP. Good hardware makes the phone for me. -My post refers to those who aren't well versed in the Android world. 8 out of 10 people who have Android phones don't care about their skin overlay. I'm willing to bet that many of them wouldn't even know the name of the skin. -If you buy a phone with a poor development community and you don't like the OEM skin, then return the phone and get a new one or deal with your choice.I'm sorry, but why even buy a phone if you know the stock UI/modified OS suck? Unless you can get the hardware at a discount and then place your custom ROMs on it, I don't see the point.
I tried the rooting and maybe because I have a phone (Droid 2) that has a very small ROM community, but I find the whole process tedious. OEMs should at least give phone users an option to have vanilla Android without having to void their warranty/contract.
Cwagmire21
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