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GDE vs OpenHome

K

=KLRS=ZERO

Android Enthusiast
i would like to know the pros and cons of each one and which one you are using currently. if you are using a different home replacement, say what it is and what is better about it than OpenHome or GDE.
 
GDE was good until the most recent update. Now it force closes all day; slows my phone down a lot.

Uninstalled. Stay away til the dev fixes it.

Sorry, didn't really answer your question but just wanted to warn you
 
=KLRS=ZERO said:
i would like to know the pros and cons of each one and which one you are using currently. if you are using a different home replacement, say what it is and what is better about it than OpenHome or GDE.
Click to expand...

You know my answer... Panda Home, it's as good as the others and free.
 
Something else to consider is Advanced Launcher. Search for it over on XDA.

But GDE is far better, I'm not seeing force closes, but naturally that would be a big issue.
 
I had all of them, unless someone can tell me otherwise i couldnt find an option to have different pics on the home screen like stock behold2. rt now im back on stock but GDE was pretty good
 
Panda home is better than both because its free and you can use the open home themes and aHome themes and freshface themes that support aHome theme no GDE support though.
 
If it were Panda vs against anything not GDE, I'd say Panda. As it is, Panda is terrific if you're looking for something free with good theme/icon support. After trying out GDE though, I simply couldn't go back to Panda. The different screen transitions and english dev/support were the two deciding factors for me.

I haven't personally seen any force closes with my installation of GDE, but if that were to happen, I would certainly go back to Panda.
 
i have them both but i like GDE more than OpenHome even though openhome has more themes and panda is pretty interesting too but for some reason it didn't work out for me
 
Hmmm well then there might just be something here to be had for me I might give GDE a try since apparently its that good.
 
I havent tried GDE yet but open home has been perfect for me. The 3 themes i like are gchrome, dark hero and HTC hero.
 
I'm pretty sure that you can get limited trial versions of most of those. Or at least a 24hr refund window.

I'm waiting for my behold 2 to come in the mail, so once it does I'll try out every Home Replacement that I've heard about thus far. In this order of interest:

1.) Panda Home
2.) GDE
3.) OpenHome
4.) Sweeter Home
5.) DXTop
6.) aHome
7.) Open Gesture

I'm sure there are others... I'll add those to my review if I find them.
 
I tried GDE and liked it...until there was an update. I had to reboot and it sent my phone into a boot loop. *sigh*

I'm concluding that most of my complaints with the phone deal with 1.5. I can deal with Touchwiz.
 
Since different Home replacement programs behave differently with different phones, and since the Behold 2 so desperately needs a Home replacement app, here are my thoughts on how these Home replacement apps perform on the Behold 2. Versions and prices are noted. Keep in mind that when you change Home programs, you will “lose” your placement of shortcuts and widgets. That setup is stored with your old Home program. You can change your Home app by going to Menu → Settings → Application → Manage Applications. Then select the Home program you're currently using, and select “clear defaults.” You will then be asked which program you want to use the next time you press the Home button.



DxTop 2.8.5:
$2.99

  • 4 home panels arranged in a diamond pattern. Each screen is always 1 swipe away. Some people love this, some people hate it. I thought it was pretty clever, but I don't need 4 screens. For those who need more than 4 screens.... tough. I don't think you can increase the number of home screens with DxTop.
  • 2 application drawers/tabs on bottom of screen instead of 1. Left drawer/tab thingy is for all apps (ie, the normal function of the app drawer.) . Right tab is for recent and currently running apps. Right drawer functions as a task killer as well.
  • Has a basic weather widget included.
  • Performance is very smooth. Doesn't use any fancy zoom effects or anything, so that's probably why.
  • Problem unique to the Behold 2 + DxTop: This phone uses a dedicated unlock button on the side of the phone, unlike most other Android phones which use the screen unlock swipe. DxTop doesn't take this into account, so you have to unlock the Behold 2 twice when using DxTop: Once with the button on the side, and once on the screen. This is cumbersome and irritating. Other home replacement apps don't do this, so DxTop may fix this issue in the future. Side note, the screen unlock graphics that DxTop uses are quite attractive. I just wish they could replace the hardware button's functionality.
  • Includes a screen capture function.
  • I think the whole app drawer thing is pretty ugly, and I'm glad Google is doing away with the idea for version 2.1. So having two app drawers taking up the whole bottom of the screen is ugly x2 for me.


Open Home 3.6.1
$3.99 + WA sales tax? (I don't live in Washington, but whatever.)

  • Can choose number of home screens, from 3 to 7.
  • Basic theme is, IMHO, fugly. Fortunately there are a ton of themes on the Market. Most are sports themed, but there are a couple which are decent. Dark Hero was my favorite.
  • Uses an iPhone-esque zoom when you press the Home key. This is pretty, but resource intensive for the tiny Qualcomm 528 Mhz CPU. As a result, some of the zoom transitions can stutter. You can turn the animation effects off in preferences, and this helps performance a lot.
  • Includes a “RAM Optimizer” widget. Not sure what exactly how it works, but seems to smooth the scrolling and transitions after you run it. Nothing mind blowing, but a nice feature.
  • Clock widget is a low res rip off of the HTC clock widget. Its hard to read, and I wouldn't care if you could change the clock skin, but you can't. (you'd have to find another app for a decent clock.) Beautiful Widgets are back, and look great.
  • Includes an additional Dock a la OSX. I thought it just got in the way, so I turned it off.
  • Can use aHome themes.
  • Includes Screen Shot function and task manager.




Panda Home 1.8.0
Free

  • Up to 11 home screens... if you're into that kind of thing.
  • Basic Android theme is smooth.
  • Can load themes from other Home Replacement programs, like Open Home, but these themes will not look, behave, or perform exactly the way they would in their native apps... it's just the basic skin which Panda Home borrows.
  • I used the Dark Hero Theme for Open Home. Performance was... mixed. I might stick with basic theme.
  • Panda Home Assistant available with long press on desktop. Pretty useful for changing settings. I wish DxTop had something like this.
  • In a week of use, I got one or two force close errors. Not a ton, but pretty irritating.
  • A bazillion mini docks on the sides which pop out when pressed. Cool if you like docks. I don't.


GDE: 0.2.0.01 (kind of deceptive version number since it performs as well as any other app. This didn't feel beta at all)
About $3.60 (it was 2.99 GBP)

  • Has some cube, stretch, fade, and other transitions for switching home screens that I don't use. Up to 7 home screens.
  • Starts out with an empty desktop... not even a Google search box. But don't let that throw you off...customize!
  • GDE has one of the more polished, put together feels of all the programs. I like that it actually has a dedicated phone icon... something the other themes forget you might actually want.
  • The stock theme for GDE is meh, but the Hero theme for GDE is my favorite theme of all.
  • GDE re-arranges the app drawer into a single item per line, alphabetical list by default. This was really irritating to me because I'm more visual.... but fortunately it is changed quite easily: Click the bars icon in upper right.
  • Includes an application dock widget which lets you pack a lot of icons per row. Not really interesting to me since it basically duplicates the point of having multiple home screens as far as I'm concerned. But does allow you to have a row of similar themed icons, like a work row, or entertainment row if you're into that kind of thing.
  • Nice, clean interface for changing GDE settings. IMHO the most well thought out and complete, with the possible exception of Panda. It doesn't take you 5 minutes trying to figure out how to change something.
  • Performance is smooth, a nice balance of polish and simplicity, without unnecessary eye candy bogging things down. (I used the normal screen transition effect, not the cube.)




The first Home Replacement that I really liked was Open Home. I'm currently really enjoying GDE, and I'm going to give it some more time before choosing between the two. They're both very good... Open Home offers a few more features/add-ons, but GDE feels smoother and easier to use. I'm leaning towards GDE for its performance and smoothness, but it needs a week of use before I can feel confident in that selection.


Other thoughts: definitely get Better Keyboard, or some other keyboard replacement app. I didn't realize how terrible the Samsung keyboard is until I tried something else.
 
I have used both Openhome and GDE and really like GDE (using now) the interesting thing is that I did not realize how fast GDE is until I went back to touchwiz for trouble shooting purposes and saw how slow TW was OMg (goodness). I just can't wait for an OTA
 
GDE all the way. Im actually not bothered by touchwiz but i can see the annoyance people feel. Decided to try home replacements because i read so much on them, started with open home and i didnt like it panda is just as good and free. Panda home was really good and it gave me the feel of my mytouch on the b2, i also really liked the docks it was just a nice touch. But after trying GDE i fell in love GDE is what touchwiz should have been. Its has smooth transactions between screens and still gives you a distinct cube experience but with stock android menus.
 
The last time I tried a home replacement (GDE...loved it) and rebooted the phone, I was stuck in a boot loop. I had to hard reset it to get back to normal, and now I'm learning to live with TouchWiz.

So I'm curious...have you tried rebooting the phone after loading a home replacement and if so, did you have any problems?
 
My phone did go into a boot loop when I had both Open home and GDE on my phone, I was using GDE at the time, I had to do a hard reset when I got back up and running I installed GDE and have been using GDE since. It has been over 2 weeks and no problems. I do not know if it was because I had both Open home and GDE on the phone that caused the problem or just a glitch but so far so good.
 
I had Open Home, Panda, and GDE installed at once with no issues.... I guess it's luck of the draw. I un-installed panda cause I didn't like it, and Un-installed OpenHome because it kept running in the background, even when I had selected GDE as my default and tried to force close Open Home.

Rebooted every time I tried a new Home app just to even the playing field. Never had an issue. Again, luck of the draw I guess.


nogdolan said:
My phone did go into a boot loop when I had both Open home and GDE on my phone, I was using GDE at the time, I had to do a hard reset when I got back up and running I installed GDE and have been using GDE since. It has been over 2 weeks and no problems. I do not know if it was because I had both Open home and GDE on the phone that caused the problem or just a glitch but so far so good.
Click to expand...
 
markanon said:
DxTop 2.8.5:
$2.99

  • Problem unique to the Behold 2 + DxTop: This phone uses a dedicated unlock button on the side of the phone, unlike most other Android phones which use the screen unlock swipe. DxTop doesn't take this into account, so you have to unlock the Behold 2 twice when using DxTop: Once with the button on the side, and once on the screen. This is cumbersome and irritating. Other home replacement apps don't do this, so DxTop may fix this issue in the future. Side note, the screen unlock graphics that DxTop uses are quite attractive. I just wish they could replace the hardware button's functionality.
Click to expand...

There is an option to turn off the unlock screen. Has been at least since the Behold 2 came out, and I suspect earlier.
 
Also note one of my favorite things about dxTop: that second menu allows you to kill running applications (long touch on the app, and it gives a menu).
 
I download GDE and love it. So far I've been running open home but the widgets are a bit better on GDE . The only problem so far, there's no screen capture feature like open home and the settings menu is limited.

It's hard to choose so I just alter back & forth between the both of them.

BTW - I also found a copy of beautiful widgets 2.36 before they received a C&D and the weather animations are absolutely gorgeous. Love the toggle switches as well
 
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