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Explain "Bloatware" and "watered down".....Prime on VZW

veccster

veccster

Android Enthusiast
If the Prime comes to Verizon as the Droid Prime or Galaxy Prime, many speculators have said it will be "watered down with TouchWiz and Bloatware" - what exactly does that mean?

Having only ever had the DInc with Sense, I don't know what a "pure UI" looks like. Is it really better? Why? Does it still have pre-installed widgets and ringtones and wallpaper?
I use GO Launcher anyway so I have way more options than what Sense ever gave me.

As for the Bloatware, what is the big deal? Are you bothered that there are a few apps on your device that you don't use? Do they consume battery life? With a launcher, you can hide them - out of sight/out of mind. Does it really ruin a phone to have "bloatware"?
 
Ignore the speculators. The system dump has been leaked and there is no reason to believe it will have anything other than the pure Google UI.
 
veccster said:
As for the Bloatware, what is the big deal? Are you bothered that there are a few apps on your device that you don't use? Do they consume battery life? With a launcher, you can hide them - out of sight/out of mind. Does it really ruin a phone to have "bloatware"?
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It does run in the background and does consume battery life. I last counted 5 separate processes running for "Social Networking" for MotoBlur on my Droid X (last I ran stock). I don't use any of those social networks but there are always 5 processes running for them that I'll never use.
 
I just switched from a EVO 4g to a NS4G and the EVO by no means is a slouch of a phone but the difference in lag and snappiness was huge. Not being bogged down by a bunch of crap makes all the difference in the world, I wasn't a believer either until I actually saw the difference.
 
Not to mention the space it saves on Memory and storage. My Evo was constantly trying to tell me to update Blockbuster, Nascar, etc.. was very annoying...
 
i honestly think that its stupid that Google allows HTC, Samsung, and Moto to put a custom UI on their phones. Its basically not even android no more except that all of them have Android market on them lol. That's probably the biggest reason why there is android fragmentation. I prefer stock or "vanilla". Hopefully when ICS it stops because ICS is a complete visual overhaul and looks like a high class OS.
 
veccster said:
If the Prime comes to Verizon as the Droid Prime or Galaxy Prime, many speculators have said it will be "watered down with TouchWiz and Bloatware" - what exactly does that mean?

Having only ever had the DInc with Sense, I don't know what a "pure UI" looks like. Is it really better? Why? Does it still have pre-installed widgets and ringtones and wallpaper?
I use GO Launcher anyway so I have way more options than what Sense ever gave me.

As for the Bloatware, what is the big deal? Are you bothered that there are a few apps on your device that you don't use? Do they consume battery life? With a launcher, you can hide them - out of sight/out of mind. Does it really ruin a phone to have "bloatware"?
Click to expand...

As for why the stock UI is better: the major factor for me is updates. I don't want to have to wait for the manufacturers to have to make OS updates compatible with their UI (and then run through provider QA) before I see it. No UI means updates straight from Google, as soon as they are available. As an update junkie, I like this.

To your question about the widgets and ringtones and stuff: you'll have less. I think a couple basic widgets for stock apps (music player, etc) and the basic ringtones. (This is also assuming it stays the same in the new OS. I haven't seen ICS at all yet) So you'll lose some shit if you're used to Sense. After rooting the thing I really missed was the great Sense full-screen calendar widget. But I can compensate for that.

Bloatware was annoying for me on my DInc once I started getting the annoying "out of application space" error that a lot of DInc owners got. I eventually rooted to get around this (and I now run a Sense-less, vanilla GB ROM) but it'd be nice to get a phone where I won't have to root to make it the great phone I want it to be. It'll just be that out of the box.
 
RLeWorm said:
i honestly think that its stupid that Google allows HTC, Samsung, and Moto to put a custom UI on their phones. Its basically not even android no more except that all of them have Android market on them lol. That's probably the biggest reason why there is android fragmentation. I prefer stock or "vanilla". Hopefully when ICS it stops because ICS is a complete visual overhaul and looks like a high class OS.
Click to expand...
Open is open...and Google's mantra is open. That means others can take Android and make it what they want (hello, Amazon). If I wanted a pretty walled garden, I would get an iPhone. :) However, there's nothing wrong with choosing a phone based on how "pure" the Android experience is if that is important to you.
 
All I want is a Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich, and not one from the freezer down the hallway... I take that back I will take one of those to!
 
I've used Sense, Vanilla Android and TouchWiz. Vanilla is by far the best user experience out there. Sense has a few nice features and TouchWiz is just God awful, but the main thing you have to keep in mind is that these aren't just launchers. They change things top to bottom from the contacts, phone, calendar and in the case of the Fascinate with TouchWiz even the search provider itself (Bing instead of Google). While this can all be changed with a rooted phone, it is just better to have a vanilla phone from the start.

As far a bloatware goes, don't you think it should be up to you as to what you have on your phone? To me, it is like buying a house and the builder telling you what furniture you have to have in it.
 
OfTheDamned said:
As far a bloatware goes, don't you think it should be up to you as to what you have on your phone? To me, it is like buying a house and the builder telling you what furniture you have to have in it.
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Actually, it's like buying a house and the builder has made design decisions while building it. I don't think it's terribly unreasonable to have made design decisions when building, and if you don't like those decisions, you can and should seek out another house.

I used to think the custom software was awful, but I've changed my mind in a lot of ways. It's a market differentiator. Each phone is different. The software is open source and to restrict that hinders the very nature of open source.

So, we all have a choice. If everyone wanted vanilla Android, we would all own Nexus phones and the manufacturers would quickly realize that vanilla Android is the way to go. We all buy a package deal, though, just like anything else in life.

I don't really like that my car is an automatic, but there were other appealing things so I'm driving an automatic. That doesn't mean they were stupid to make the car in an automatic.
 
binary visions said:
Actually, it's like buying a house and the builder has made design decisions while building it. I don't think it's terribly unreasonable to have made design decisions when building, and if you don't like those decisions, you can and should seek out another house.

I used to think the custom software was awful, but I've changed my mind in a lot of ways. It's a market differentiator. Each phone is different. The software is open source and to restrict that hinders the very nature of open source.

So, we all have a choice. If everyone wanted vanilla Android, we would all own Nexus phones and the manufacturers would quickly realize that vanilla Android is the way to go. We all buy a package deal, though, just like anything else in life.

I don't really like that my car is an automatic, but there were other appealing things so I'm driving an automatic. That doesn't mean they were stupid to make the car in an automatic.
Click to expand...

While I will agree with you when it comes to things like Sense, TouchWiz, Blur, etc. I talking more about app bloatware here and I will respectfully disagree with you when it comes to apps like VZ navigator, Blockbuster, City ID, any of the V Cast apps, etc. If I'm buying a skinned phone then I more or less know what I am getting into, but the app bloat that is thrown on the phone is typically just garbage. If they were apps that could be uninstalled then that would be fine, but having silly Tetris demos or Blockbuster apps locked onto the phone is just ridiculous. Like I was saying, I should be able to remove stuff from my phone if I'm the one paying the bills.
 
"vanilla" Android is like buying_insert your favorite car here_. What you see is what you get.

The manufuacturer UI is like them taking your favorite car slapping NASCAR stickers all over it. Throwing some fuzzy dice over the rear view mirror and adding shag carpet and neon lights into the interior.

Some do a better job of it than others but they take the car you purchased and add what they want onto it. You like the black carbon fiber hood? Too bad we are painting it white. Those leather bucket seats are nice right? Well say goodbye to them, we like cloth better.
 
cereal killer said:
"vanilla" Android is like buying_insert your favorite car here_. What you see is what you get.

The manufuacturer UI is like them taking your favorite car slapping NASCAR stickers all over it. Throwing some fuzzy dice over the rear view mirror and adding shag carpet and neon lights into the interior.

Some do a better job of it than others but they take the car you purchased and add what they want onto it. You like the black carbon fiber hood? Too bad we are painting it white. Those leather bucket seats are nice right? Well say goodbye to them, we like cloth better.
Click to expand...


Great Analogy!
 
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