Changed my mind.....

I've had a Galaxy Nexus and tbh the vanilla experience didn't make me a believer. After removing bloat, I really don't see much if any difference between touchwiz and vanilla. Call me crazy.

My nexus is sooo slow and the screen and colors are subpar. The battery life is beyond horrible. I learned that I should go for the best phone, not for the most vanilla phone. And the best is the Note line. No compromise.

jaj324 said:

Can Knox be removed or disabled?

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Yes it can. I successfully disabled the Knox on my Note 3. It takes rooting and a little effort.

jaj324 said:

Did you freeze it with Titanium Backup?

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No, I rooted with SafeStrap first which bypasses Knox without tripping it.

Then I downloaded SuperSU which is the access management tool that everyone gets after rooting. SuperSu then asks if you want to disable Knox and then you just click yes.

But will there be an exploit for note 4?

Yes.

We can only hope a bill would pass for the bloatware. IMO, having to root, Loki or bootstrap a handset so you can remove bloat or adjust CPU is silly. I have a N5 and a '13 N7. No bloat out of the box. You can unlock, root, install a recovery, ROM and an OC kernel in under 10 min with ADB alone.

I don't go for the phones with the best hardware just to have to perform surgery on them. I go for the devices that are the easiest while being close to what I want spec-wise. Being one of the first to get new OS upgrades is a little bonus too. Not saying Nexus line is the best, just easier.

All we really need is root for the Note 4 to freeze the bloat. Otherwise I'm happy with the stock Rom on the Note 3.
I don't know your tab but see if it can be rooted and start freezing apps that are identified as being safe to freeze with Tibu.

Spec2nirvash said:

We can only hope a bill would pass for the bloatware. IMO, having to root, Loki or bootstrap a handset so you can remove bloat or adjust CPU is silly. I have a N5 and a '13 N7. No bloat out of the box. You can unlock, root, install a recovery, ROM and an OC kernel in under 10 min with ADB alone.

I don't go for the phones with the best hardware just to have to perform surgery on them. I go for the devices that are the easiest while being close to what I want spec-wise. Being one of the first to get new OS upgrades is a little bonus too. Not saying Nexus line is the best, just easier.

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To be frank, "bloatware" is too subjective a term. I think that's part of the issue. One could make a legit claim that many Google Apps classify as Bloatware, as they are simply mandated apps that can be easily gotten from the Play Store and a lot of people don't use many of those that are pre-loaded. The same goes for Samsung or the Carrier.

But I don't personally see an issue with Samsung, HTC, or Motorola preloading THEIR OWN applications on their devices. Google can mandate it, why can't they load their own. To the same end, it's hard to bash the carriers for going "me too."

I do think the Carrier preloads are a bit more dubious, especially seeing as how they have their own sections in the Play Store for their phones, which make it trivial to discover/find their apps. It's right there in your face when you click on "Apps" in the Play Store ... "Verizon Wireless."

Google, Carrier, and OEM should all have their own Section in the Play Store to make their apps easier to discover. It is too hard to find, i.e. Samsung's Apps in Google Play Store especially since they have so many subsidiaries publishing apps using similar Developer Names.

Also, I like the trend that Samsung has started with installing not full apps, but Links to Install the apps on their phones. That way, they can still make their services easily discoverable on the handset, but don't necessarily have to force the entire APK into the FW. Everyone should adopt that method. If the user doesn't want it, they can disable the link and nothing is lost.

jaj324 said:

A customer should not have to root (hack) their own property in order to remove worthless software installed by the manufacturer or carrier. Especially if it voids the warranty. Its just not right. I dont mind them putting the bloat on the phone or tablet but I do mind not being able to remove it. I am currently using a Nokia 1520. When you set up that device it has all the usual at&t bloat as well as some Nokia bloat. All you have to do is uninstall what you dont want in the same way you uninstall an app you installed from the store.

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I agree - I've never rooted any of my phones due to the loss of warranty. Of course, that'll be why they add some of this rubbish no doubt, as they know those in the know will root.

Yes you can protect knox but I wonder how many users blunder in, root their device then break/brick it as a result and they are out of warranty all of a sudden!

Shame those apps Samsung (and others) add can't simply be uninstalled...

As for carrier crapware, I always buy unlocked and sim free in the UK so no issues there. I did have a vodaphone device back in the day and even that was full of their rubbish!

I see two reasons now why I need to root my phone to get rid of Samsung file explorer because it doesnt have ftp and Samsung video player because it doesnt have the latest codec. I dont know what else I would find. I dont like to root it but I have no choice.

chong67 said:

I see two reasons now why I need to root my phone to get rid of Samsung file explorer because it doesnt have ftp and Samsung video player because it doesnt have the latest codec. I dont know what else I would find. I dont like to root it but I have no choice.

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You should be able to disable those apps without being rooted, the same as most other bloatware.

chong67 said:

I see two reasons now why I need to root my phone to get rid of Samsung file explorer because it doesnt have ftp and Samsung video player because it doesnt have the latest codec. I dont know what else I would find. I dont like to root it but I have no choice.

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Samsung's file manager has FTP support on the Note 3 and S5. At least every one that I've seen. I see some users have Dropbox there instead, and that's too bad.

JimSmith94 said:

You should be able to disable those apps without being rooted, the same as most other bloatware.

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Yes, both of those can be disabled.

The File Manager and Video Player are certainly not bloatware, but yea... if you don't like them by all means seek out an alternative that suits you better.