Go Launcher EX - doesn't work well on the Desire?

[jimdriver2]

Just after some opinions here.

I've been a big LauncherPro fan for a long time, but though i'd try some other launchers out to see what they offer.

I was quite impressed by Go Launcher EX, except that it's not really that stable at all on my Desire. Regularly when returned from a app to the Homescreen it will decide that it needs to restart, so there will be a lag of about 20 seconds while it rebuilds all the screens before I can do anything again.

Now it could be because i'm running 8 homescreen screens, and they include 3 PureMessenger widgets (Facebook, Twitter, Gmail) which seem to be quite memory hungry. But I tried removing them and seeing how well it worked and it was better, but not loads.

So i'm wondering if anyone else is running Go Launcher EX and what they're experience is with it? I'm beginning to think the Desire can't really handle it, or rather can't handle it if it's being used to (nearly) it's full extent.

 

[SUroot]

I do have the issue where it has to rebuild the icons. Think thats a bug which they thought they addressed, I dont get any other lag issues though with 10 homescreens. Even with pure messenger widget. I find screen transition much smoother than launcherpro but the memory usage is higher than Launcher pro for sure. I dont have sense running in the background mind you.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

I've been using it for about 3 months, I only have 5 screenss and not many widgets. Its never restarted on me or hung but I rum a rooted rom on gingerbread.
I hope you are not running any auto taskillers as you might find its killing the launcher as it idles very well. Do t use auto taskillers anyway

 

[shauny13]

long time user, i've never had any problems with it. Have 6 screens. But like Rastaman i am rooted. (non sense rom). Occasionly it will rebuild icons, but not very often. V happy overall with it.

 

[Nagrom]

I too was a huge LP fan, but I wanted to try something new. Opted for Go, and never looked back. I have 9 screens, all with widgets. Never really had a problem with it. Yes there is the very occasional issue with icon rebuilding, but for what I need, the positives far out weigh the negatives. Even went back to LP for an hour to see if the things I didn't like had improved. Soon came back to Go. I also use Go Weather, Go SMS, Go Contacts, and Go Dialer. The Go Dev Team make awesome apps.

 

[Hadron]

I oscillate between Go and LP, though spend more time with Go these days. Don't have any problems, to be honest.

If you are unrooted, have you set Sense to the "clean slate" scene (or whatever it is called - the one with no widgets). That will reduce the memory that Sense uses in the background.

 

[StevenSeed]

I'm still really puzzled as to why people insist on third party launchers. I have had my Desire for a year and a half (I was one of the first - woo hoo!) and I've tried Launcher, GO, ADW, but always end up coming back to Sense.

Reading some of the other threads, it looks like I'm the only one that does!

...but in answer to the original posters' question, for the short time I did use Go Launcher, I did find it the best of the third party ones and didn't see any issues with lag, icon reloads or anything like that.

 

[SUroot]

I'm still really puzzled as to why people insist on third party launchers. I have had my Desire for a year and a half (I was one of the first - woo hoo!) and I've tried Launcher, GO, ADW, but always end up coming back to Sense.

Reading some of the other threads, it looks like I'm the only one that does!

I don't particularly like sense. It wasn't apparent when I got it but shortlyafter I found it very restrictive. Especially in the dock area. It meant I couldn't have my home screens as I wanted as I needed to accommodate most-used functionality within reach.

Personally I feel the rosie sense launcher to be detrimental to the whole idea of android being customisable. I don't even use sense Roms anymore and to be honest ive never looked back.

 

[Hadron]

I'm still really puzzled as to why people insist on third party launchers. I have had my Desire for a year and a half (I was one of the first - woo hoo!) and I've tried Launcher, GO, ADW, but always end up coming back to Sense.

I was the opposite - I tried alternative launchers about a week after getting the phone and never went back to Sense!

Like SUroot I just found Sense very limiting and inflexible. The "scenes" thing was the one good idea, but I didn't use it much. The dock was a waste of space, and once I found launchers with adjustable grid sizes, variable numbers of homescreens and scrolling widgets that was game over.

 

[Oh Dae Su]

Another +1 for GoLauncher here. Had my desire about 2 days before installing it, never had any problems with 5 home screens with no problems or lag. And as already mentioned you can customize the dock to your liking.
Now rooted and using MIUI XJ ROM so no longer using it but if I changed to a ASOP ROM I think I'd install it again

 

[runamonk]

I've been using Go Launcher for ages now and I haven't had a single crash. Frankly I haven't had a crash with any of the others major ones either. Maybe you've got something installed that's not playing nice with it?

For the people who ask what is the point of using a third party launcher, I have one simple answer: Customization.

I use a very simple layout, very minimal, custom icons and minimal text widgets. I also use the app drawer to hold all my active apps, I hide all the apps that I don't use. These phones come installed with all kinds of bloat that I don't need or want.

 

[jimdriver2]

Thanks for the replies guys. GO from what people are saying it does sound like it's a memory (RAM) issue for me with GO.

My theory is that it uses more RAM than LP does, and that combined with the Pure Messenger widgets, which whilst awesome seem to use a load of RAM as well. I was pushing the system quite hard with the config I had on GO, as I had 9 homescreens, and a load of widgets on them, including 3 Pure Messenger ones. I did try once cutting it down and it seemed a bit more stable. The redrawing only occurred when I came out to the homescreen from apps, which would suggest Android is doing memory stuff behind the scenes to run the app(s) but in doing so that messes GO up a bit.

The advantage LP has for my purposes is that it has the option to force itself into a kind of priority memory position on 2.2 (which i'm running) which makes it more stable.

It's not that big a deal, as you've gotta expect the handset not to be able to keep up with the software possibilities a year after getting it. And I wasn't gaining much more functionally from GO. It certainly looks and feels a little nicer and (ignoring RAM issue) runs a bit nicer, but I wasn't doing much more than LP on it.

Oh well, something to look forwards to on next years handset, when I can upgrade.

 

[SUroot]

Do you use Go Notifications? That is a HUUUGE RAM footprint. I had to uninstall that

 

[Usta]

I'm using Go Laucher EX for more than 4 months already and I love it: smooth, a lot of themes, easy home screen and app drawer management, easy backup/restore.
The other GO products, like GO Weather can be very resource demanding, so I don't use them.

 

[GrenW]

Hmmm was thinking of switching after LP looking more abandoned by the day. Time to try GO by the look of it.

 

[StevenSeed]

Personally I feel the rosie sense launcher to be detrimental to the whole idea of android being customisable. I don't even use sense Roms anymore and to be honest ive never looked back.

Like SUroot I just found Sense very limiting and inflexible. The "scenes" thing was the one good idea, but I didn't use it much. The dock was a waste of space, and once I found launchers with adjustable grid sizes, variable numbers of homescreens and scrolling widgets that was game over.

For the people who ask what is the point of using a third party launcher, I have one simple answer: Customization.

Sense was written by proessionals at HTC, specifically to work for HTC phones, so by definition it's the best launcher to use for the HTC Desire. 3rd Party Launchers are written by people who don't work for HTC, and have to be used on any Android device.

In my car I have a great stereo that was designed by the manufacturer to fit my car. Doesn't have as many features, but it works, fits perfectly in the dashboard and it sounds great. Why would I want to rip that out and replace it with a stereo that doesn't quite fit right into the dash, isn't acoustically designed for the space in the car and isn't as tidy for just a few extra features? And if my car is unrooted (which it is), I would have to stick it on top of the manufacturer's radio anyway?

 

[SUroot]

Sense was written by proessionals at HTC, specifically to work for HTC phones, so by definition it's the best launcher to use for the HTC Desire. 3rd Party Launchers are written by people who don't work for HTC, and have to be used on any Android device.

HTC use android on their devices, ergo their hardware is designed specifically to run android so the "designed to work on HTC phones" is a flawed argument. The best software on any device is subjective.

The hardware is universal and any Android launcher that isn't stupidly high spec'd in the graphics department will run as well on HTC hardware as any other equally spec'd Android device.

HTC sense (the launcher part) runs straight on top of android. Sure it has some dependencies in the kernel and frameworks, but at the end of the day HTC's launcher is just a launcher.

Since HTC runs android which is open source and universal, any launcher will run on a HTC device as well as another. The code is the same. It's not like a ps3 EA game that needs to be reprogrammed to work on an xbox.

Like I said, the HTC launcher is limited compared to many third party launchers. I also found that it uses more memory and battery than third party launchers.

Developers that create 3rd party launchers are professionals. Further to that they are not working for HTC which means they can develop what they want the way they want with no.constraints and in my opinion makes them a better breed of developer with better options and possibly even more passion for their creations.

In my car I have a great stereo that was designed by the manufacturer to fit my car. Doesn't have as many features, but it works, fits perfectly in the dashboard and it sounds great. Why would I want to rip that out and replace it with a stereo that doesn't quite fit right into the dash, isn't acoustically designed for the space in the car and isn't as tidy for just a few extra features? And if my car is unrooted (which it is), I would have to stick it on top of the manufacturer's radio anyway?

Yes, but the reason I rooted was because all my music sounded tinny on the fairly low end, rebadged manufacturer's stereo. I'm a music lover and i need the best available for me.

Luckily I have a stereo that fits perfectly in this car and better yet it was free. Just had to wire it in.

You can fit this stereo too. The only downside for you is you have to use the existing wiring which isn't ideal but the music is still better.

Of course you may be perfectly happy with your stereo and that's your prerogative. Not everyone likes music as much as I do and I know that and that's fine. However by the same token, these people must understand that some do have this passion and will fit the stereo that is better for them and not try to belittle them with analogies that dont quite work when they don't fully understand where they are coming from.

 

[Hadron]

Sense was written by proessionals at HTC, specifically to work for HTC phones, so by definition it's the best launcher to use for the HTC Desire.

Because we've never heard of anyone improving on a manufacturer's software, on any type of device, ever?

Seriously though, there are no right or wrong answers in this game: "best" means "what works for me", and that's fine.

 

[StevenSeed]

Just so we're clear, I wasn't trying to belittle anyone - the analogy was just to try and get my point across.

Your reply did make interesting reading though, I guess that's the good thing about Android over other OS's, you can do what you want with the launcher (including nothing at all).

 

[SUroot]

Just so we're clear, I wasn't trying to belittle anyone - the analogy was just to try and get my point across.

Your reply did make interesting reading though, I guess that's the good thing about Android over other OS's, you can do what you want with the launcher (including nothing at all).

I'm sorry I think that last comment was harsher than intended. Do accept my apologies

 

[StevenSeed]

I'm sorry I think that last comment was harsher than intended. Do accept my apologies

Don't worry, you never need to apologise to me - I have to cope with ten times worse than that on a daily basis.

For me this launcher issue is like coffee - I really want to like it because I love the smell, but I just can't drink it. At the same time I get frustrated because so many others are enjoying something I just can't seem to get into.

I've decided to give 'Go' one last chance. I downloaded it yesterday and I'll give it a week, see how we go (no pun intended).

 

[SUroot]

The thing is you want to enjoy coffee but don't. Some people like tea and that's how it is

 

[vaggelis83]

I do have lag sometimes when i scroll between pages and when i open folders. i don't know if it's normal. I uninstalled the notifications and it seems to be a little better.
I am rooted with Ginger Villain 2.8.

 

[Nagrom]

I don't particularly like sense. It wasn't apparent when I got it but shortlyafter I found it very restrictive. Especially in the dock area. It meant I couldn't have my home screens as I wanted as I needed to accommodate most-used functionality within reach.

Personally I feel the rosie sense launcher to be detrimental to the whole idea of android being customisable. I don't even use sense Roms anymore and to be honest ive never looked back.

I agree 100%. Never liked sense, and as soon as I discovered home launchers, I stopped using sense. Like Dan, I don't use sense roms either.

 

[deanshep85]

I went the best option really.....installed GO Launcher and then installed the "Sense" theme on GO...yea its a paid theme buy like a quid or something I forget...BUT it gives you a perfect Sense 3 button launcher bar AND perfect size icons for it, so you can just change it the way YOU want...


and did someone say tea? I like tea....someone go make me a cuppa now