Home instead of Sense?

[arock]

So this topic came up in the root thread and i didnt want to take that thread way off topic so i started this one. If you disable sense and run home instead, does sense still load in the background when you restart your phone even if you have home set as the default?

 

[Caddyman]

I would say no. fwiw though, I wouldnt run regular home....to plain

 

[JrzDroid]

I would say no. fwiw though, I wouldnt run regular home....to plain

i 2nd that

 

[alexhendershott]

I recently switched from Sense to regular Home. I got sick of Sense. Stock Android just feels snappier and less of a battery drain IMO. When root comes along, I'm really hoping for the stock Nexus One 2.1 ROM to work well on my Eris.

Current setup:

 

[MOS95B]

What widgets are on your home page?

 

[alexhendershott]

The clock at the top is "Digital Clock Widget".

Digital Clock Widget v1.7.6 Application for Android | Tools

Weather is "Weather from Yr/Widget" by Thomware.

Weather from Yr / Widgets v9 Application for Android | News & Weather

 

[jkmasi]

Very nice!

This is probably an easy question, but is "regular Home" an application? Or just stock android?

 

[soulfetcher13]

Hey Alexander, that volume control bar, what is that

 

[alexhendershott]

Regular home is still an application, I believe. It's the GUI that lets you manipulate everything. The only other way to have your phone be usable would be through a shell or terminal.

HTC Sense, Openhome, dxTop, etc are all home replacement applications that sit on top of the existing framework.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, that's just my basic gist. I'm sure someone else can provide a more technical explanation.

The volume control is AudioManager Widget.

AudioManager Widget v1.0.6 Application for Android | Multimedia

 

[jreed2560]

I too have personally made the switch from Sense to home. I "seem" to get a lot less lag especially with messages. I don't miss the sense widgets at all. I use sms unread count, gmail unread count, beautiful widgets. The only thing i would like to have is the HTC calendar widget. I've come to appreciate the minimalist look of the stock android.

 

[alexhendershott]

I too have personally made the switch from Sense to home. I "seem" to get a lot less lag especially with messages. I don't miss the sense widgets at all. I use sms unread count, gmail unread count, beautiful widgets. The only thing i would like to have is the HTC calendar widget. I've come to appreciate the minimalist look of the stock android.

Ditto, and I also miss the HTC calendar widget. Although I highly recommend the very customizable calendar widget I have on my 3rd screen. Theres even an HTC skin that I am using right now.

Pure Calendar Widget:

Pure Calendar widget (agenda) v1.7.1 Application for Android | Productivity

 

[pkopalek]

I think Sense UI, with its 7 home screens, sweet integrated widgets, and (slightly better) ease of use is what makes this phone comparable, UI-wise, to the iPhone.

Sense UI is part of what I'm proud of when I'm showing off my phone.

Home is great too. Android is a great OS. But 3 home screens are the same as 7. And you have to hunt for all the widgets you want. Most people find what they want. But 7 screens gives you lots of real estate to put all of those widgets. Most of your apps have to either be in folders or using Application Manager or just under the button at the bottom of the screen.

Most of my useful apps are right on my 7 home screens, so that anyone I can toss my phone to can play with it (without understanding Android).

Home requires you to understand Android a little bit. Which is great for me. But I've converted 7 people to the HTC Eris/HTC Hero already (depending on their carrier). Sense UI is part of what makes that possible. It's a little slower, yes. Laggy, yes.

But sleek and smooth looking. Yes and yes.

 

[ChiTownJim]

I just made the switch to home, I miss the widgets now but I'm trying to find some replacements , I just haven't had time to play with it. But it's much much faster then with Sense UI, and I had a bad lag weekend so this morning i switched to Home, I'm gonna try to get it customized the way I want... But one I can root it, slightly overclock it, get rid of some of the stock apps and realocate the memory I'll definetly be going back to Sense I just really really like it.

 

[ChiTownJim]

Another thing is when I kill all apps with home I have anywhere between 95-105m available with sense I was only getting about 70 .

 

[pkopalek]

That's a great point, Sense is definitely a RAM hog.

But the OS will kill processes once your available memory gets too low anyway.

A Task Killer will let you see that, reasonably. I haven't thought of the RAM cost difference.

+1 for Home

 

[smacky]

It's the best thing I've ever done for my phone. Got rid of task killers, lag, and other craptastic issues. If HTC gets off their asses and fixes the keyboard lag issues and whatnot, then this phone becomes more manageable. With 2.1 and, hopefully, its optimizations, the phone will be a lot less frustrating than it was with Sense.

 

[jkmasi]

If I disable Sense and then want to go back to it later, will all of my apps and other customizations be there? Or will I have to start over?

 

[jreed2560]

If I disable Sense and then want to go back to it later, will all of my apps and other customizations be there? Or will I have to start over?

Yes. It should go right back to the way u had it.

 

[jkmasi]

It's a little scary... but I kind-of want to try it!

 

[jreed2560]

nothing to be scared about. Ur not going to brick your phone turning sense off. Your not uninstalling anything either. If you want to be completely sure, save your scene and you'll have nothing to worry about.

ps. If you have htc widgets on ur home screens they will not work with the stock home. This doesn't mean they are gone, just not available.

 

[Frisco]

If I disable Sense and then want to go back to it later, will all of my apps and other customizations be there? Or will I have to start over?

I've done that several times.. back and forth with no loss of any configurations in "scenes" or other areas at all.

I still end up using Sense, even though I like the idea of having the choice just in case I begin to see a real reason. Right now Sense does not seem to slow my Eris down or drain he battery at all.

 

[jreed2560]

Not stating this as "hard evidence" but I did notice that with my Eris running stock android and my wife's IQ Eris running Sense, that opening up the same applications took longer on hers by an average of .25 to .5 seconds. (neither running a task killer btw)

 

[NPH-]

how can i make the switch to home???

also, if i switch to home and realize that i want to switch back to sense, can i do this or not???

 

[jreed2560]

how can i make the switch to home???

also, if i switch to home and realize that i want to switch back to sense, can i do this or not???

menu>settings>applications>manage applications
scroll down to sense and select it then select clear defaults
hit the home key and a pop up will appear. check the box to do this action by default and then select home. Repeat this process (only swap home and sense) to go back to sense.

 

[NPH-]

thx jreed!

alright everyone... im gonna make the switch and see how I like it

if this will reduce lag on my end I am all for it