PandaHome versus GDE? Or Alternative Home Replacement?

[DGalt]

I know, it makes me sad that 1/2 the time I feel my girlfriend's less powerful hero is much smoother than my droid. apps load faster, yes, but still...i don't understand why hers scrolls so much smoother than mine

 

[johnlgalt]

Hey, where is the Home++ thread in the application forum? i couldn't find it. thanks.

http://androidforums.com/android-ap...-beta-home-replacement-so-much-potential.html

really liked gde but it fc a lot and the application menu scroll was smoother than native but still choppy. Been using dxTop and have really been liking it. Just got updated a minute ago and i see that the dock icons are much bigger, which is very nice.

Try the application curtain and scroll the icons you almost feel like you are scroillng icons on an iphone, extremely smooth.

It has 2 curtains an all apps and a most recently accessed app queue, you can slide those curtains away and there is a permaenet dock where you can place youf 5 most used apps like phone, mail, contacts, GV etc. Nice to have phone button on every screen. Youdont need to slide the curtains back because they can be popped up by holding back arrow or menu. So far no lagginess or FCloses after 3 days of heavy use.

I want to try GDE ... but it is getting late and I may wait until the AM to try it so I have a good solid day with it. Home++ was smooth as silk - for all of an hour. Then it started doing stupid things to me....

Ive used both, I like pandahome better because it provides the most additional features.

GDE give you the dock at the bottom with a 2 customizable buttons, which are nice, but not a lot of benefit.

Pandahome gives you the configurable side docks that can hold multple icons each, and the ability to show apps in alphabetical groupings both of which are very useful!

However I will concede that GDE is definitely more smooth running. Pandahome needs some work to run a little smoother. I did notice that if you turn off the automatic orientation it runs a little better, but it will still hang-up/lag at times. if they can get these issues under control it will be A++.

TBH, I use the edges to move from screen to screen - never have been a fan of 'sidebars' and I don't think I want to get to know them now....

Just bought dxTop to give it a try and it gets HUGE kudos for one thing - it brought in the desktop icons from the stock Droid home page.

That's a great feature...you can always change things, but being able to start w/my preferred setup in a new home screen (including shortcuts that are tedious to recreate) is excellent. Gold star to the developers...all home screen developers should have a "do you want us to import home screen icons/widgets/shortcuts from any existing home screen?" option.

What I don't like so much about dxTop is tha it seems easier to get "lost" in terms of what screen you're on, even w/the dots. LIkely just the change in design adding the new vertical geometry, but it will take a little getting used to. Srolling in the app list is good, but not completely smooth/amazing. home screen scrolling is good...just slight unevenness to it.

I don't like that it turned off my pattern lock setting...that's a big no-no. Don't mess w/my security settings!

Pandahome holds promise, but performance just hasn't been great for me.

Haven't tried openhome in a while, I'll have to take another look at that one.

I'm starting to feel like I need a 12 Step program for home replacement apps...

Thanks for the info, rf - looks like I am trying dxTop next....

i don't get my dxTop took away the middle homescreen. 5 screens with the diamond configuration (one in the middle, then one to the top, bottom, left, and right) would have been much better imo (I am currently using 5 screens and if I find a contacts/bookmarks widget I'll need at least 1 or 2 more).

dxtop is a little confusing at first but I think the idea was you could get to any desktop with 1 swipe. It added a lock screen which is nice but since it doesnt have music control I just unchecked it to use the droid lockscreen and pattern. App curtain scrolling is certainly the best of all the current droid home replacements about as good as the Sense on Eris or Hero (which is actually sad to say that the droid should strive to perform as good as sense, no kudos agin to Moto/google

I know, it makes me sad that 1/2 the time I feel my girlfriend's less powerful hero is much smoother than my droid. apps load faster, yes, but still...i don't understand why hers scrolls so much smoother than mine

I know, right?

 

[JonKyu]

I know, it makes me sad that 1/2 the time I feel my girlfriend's less powerful hero is much smoother than my droid. apps load faster, yes, but still...i don't understand why hers scrolls so much smoother than mine

I know makes me sad too! Perhaps its HTC's sense UI at work and not the stock android 2.0 UI?

 

[DGalt]

I'm sure that's what it is. The thing is, Sense UI is just a skin for android (kind of). I don't really know if getting the same smoothness will require one to root the phone or what. I guess we'll have to wait and see (so impatient though!)

 

[Redflea]

Just thought I'd mention that after installing dxTop I had the slide to unlock screen rather than the pattern lock, which I have been using since I got my Droid.

Didn't like the fact that dxTop messed with that.

Had to reboot the phone to get my pattern lock back...no one else has mentioned this, so maybe just something odd that happened to me.

 

[bruceo]

I'm sure that's what it is. The thing is, Sense UI is just a skin for android (kind of). I don't really know if getting the same smoothness will require one to root the phone or what. I guess we'll have to wait and see (so impatient though!)

Actually sense is MUCH more than just a skin. It has apps and core functionalites that far surpass android 2.0 + apps. The only thing I can really tell that is any different is Google Nav and market app.

BTW does anyone's phone fail to launch the droid's market app. Often after several reboots it still wont launch and it sort of locks up the phone causing apps and widgets not to launch or work then if reboot, disable wifi and go data only it will launch. I think there is something screwed up with droids wifi. I noticed this on both droid i have had. I originally thought locale was causing the problems but noe that i am not using locale i am thinking locale turning on and off a buggy wifi was causing the probs....

 

[Redflea]

Actually sense is MUCH more than just a skin. It has apps and core functionalites that far surpass android 2.0 + apps. The only thing I can really tell that is any different is Google Nav and market app.

BTW does anyone's phone fail to launch the droid's market app. Often after several reboots it still wont launch and it sort of locks up the phone causing apps and widgets not to launch or work then if reboot, disable wifi and go data only it will launch. I think there is something screwed up with droids wifi. I noticed this on both droid i have had. I originally thought locale was causing the problems but noe that i am not using locale i am thinking locale turning on and off a buggy wifi was causing the probs....

OT, but I've never had the market app not launch.

 

[DGalt]

Actually sense is MUCH more than just a skin. It has apps and core functionalites that far surpass android 2.0 + apps. The only thing I can really tell that is any different is Google Nav and market app.

My point is, Sense UI only has the capabilities that the Android OS provides it. Meaning, anything Sense UI can do any Android based phone should be able to do, at least with comparable hardware specs. The way I think of phones with Sense UI is they're phones running Android that have their own ROM loaded onto them by the manufacturer. Now, I don't know whether you can achieve that same level of functionality without rooting the phone. Like I said, time will tell. It would be nice if devs could figure out how to create the smoothness of Sense UI (which is all I'm looking for, I couldn't care less about the social networking aspect of Sense UI) without rooting the phone.

 

[Watashi]

I just got the demo dxtop, and I like it. Two things though, the 4 screen layout being in a diamond took me a bit to get used to and the lock pattern disappearing. Rebooting only brought unlock pattern back upon boot up, subsiquent screen timeouts went right to dxtop slide lock.

It seems so far to be very fast and extremely minimal lag on screen changing and scrolling. I do like the app doc at the bottom.

 

[El Blacksheep]

Thank you sir. Stability has been the #1 issue on every home replacement I've tried (openhome, dxTop, and Pandahome). I, along with others I'm sure, would really appreciate it if more people chimed in on stability. Of the home replacements I've tried, Pandahome is easily the most stable on my droid.

I don't care how fast it goes or how many screens I can add or how fancy the dudads are if it crashes . I'm currently using the stock home for this reason.

Yea, and after making the switch I'm having GDE withdrawls
I mostly miss the dedicated call & contacts buttons, but also the fade screen switching and the screen looping.

Still, it beats all the glitches.

Boring!

C'mon, join us in the deep end. Worst case you get a force close or two per hour, and in the meantime you can be a part of creating the cutting edge!

fixed for accuracy!

 

[Gremlin256]

Sorry getting confused which theme had 4 screens? Home ++ or GDE? Can someone be kind to post screenshots?

 

[Watashi]

dxTop has 4 screens in a diamond pattern, top/bottom and left/right.

 

[El Blacksheep]

Sorry getting confused which theme had 4 screens? Home ++ or GDE? Can someone be kind to post screenshots?

GDE can have up to 7 screens, user's preference
Home++ has 4 screens

 

[Fadelight]

I decided to try gde just to see what it was like... it is awesome! I have to use a launcher dock to replace the side bars from panda, but I actually like this setup a lot better.

 

[spectrrr]

I'm going to have to go with none of them... nothing quite "perfect" for me.


dxTop
Likes: sweet double menu bar with "recent" items
neutral: 4-screen diamond concept is designed to make it easy to single swipe to any screen.
dislikes: diamond patter is confusing to me. limited to 4 screens. nothing "more" to the program.


GDE:
likes: permanent phone button and customizable button. multiple transition effects (face, cube, drag) that all work well, AND allow scrolling from one side of the screen to the other. Menu system is intuitive and allows for a little customization by setting up folders. LOVE the application dock widget for the home screen.
dislikes: application dock widget on the home screen does not allow customized user organization, Icons are placed in a completely illogical order - This REALLY bothers me! Dock application menus could use a tad more work. Not very many themes available, many of the ones there are poor quality.


pandahome:
likes: LOVE LOVE LOVE the two trays on the side of the screen for putting shortcuts.
dislikes: I like that you can have up to ELEVEN home screens, and the helpful dots will show you exactly what screen you are on. Apps menu can be sorted to show ONLY a certain letter range, which usually eliminates scrolling to find what you're looking for.
dislikes: No easy way to navigate through the home screens quickly. If you have eleven home screens... well just hope the hell you don't need to get to the other side very quickly!!! No further menu customization beyond the two side trays. Need a little something "more" for the apps menu.


Perfect combination?
dual menus, mapped to long press keys (from dxTop)
home screen transitions and options (from GDE)
FIXED application dock widget (from GDE)
permanent button for phone and something customizable (from GDE)
application sidebars (from pandahome)
"you are here" lights that show what home screen you are on (from pandahome)
sort main applications menu to only display a certain letter (from pandahome)

 

[El Blacksheep]

give home++ a try. it's a beta and already looks great, so i've got high hopes for when it goes official.

 

[MSU]

I'm using openhome right now and it is ok. I'm going to try out some other ones here when I get a chance.

I do think it slows down my droid though.

 

[FLroofpro]

Just got GDE yesterday and really like it. Very fluid and no FCs yet. Would be nice to be able to change icons on shortcuts and more control over the app dock widget, but so far very pleased. Smoother that the stock home surprisingly.

 

[Brenton]

I keep trying desktop replacements as they appear but I always go back to DXTop. I simply can't go past the application categories and the live folders on my desktop that connect directly to the app categories. I have folders on my desktop for Media, Tools, Apps, Manage, Games etc. whenever I DL a new app, it automatically goes into the folder on my desktop called "testing" (a live folder pointing to apps with no category). Once I have trialled the app and think it's worthy, I categorise it by long click and set category, it then moves automatically from "testing" into whatever folder matches the category I choose. This is the biggest gripe I have with other home replacements, all the apps are just a mess and desktop folders are a chore to keep updated - DXTop does it all for me with very little fuss, exactly what home replacements are meant to do - make things better and easier.
It has a built in dock, has 2 apps drawers; one shows running apps, while the main is categorised by whatever categories you set (or list by size, DL date, name etc), you can change icons easily; both for shortcuts or folders, you can rename app shortcuts, quickly and easily uninstall apps with just a few clicks; no need for more uninstall programs. You can fit 5 apps wide in folders instead of 4. No others come close that I can find. Oh yeah - and fast.

 

[Dave17]

give home++ a try. it's a beta and already looks great, so i've got high hopes for when it goes official.

This is the first home screen replacement that I have tried. So far, no FCs. The only things that I've noticed are:

1. Occasionally, when returning to the home screen the power strip does not return fully to the dock (stops about halfway.) I press the menu key twice and then it returns all the way.

2. I was initially confused when swiping from screen to screen, thinking that it was getting stuck between home screens 1 and 3 (thinking of stock home as screen 2). Then I realized that it's actually a fourth home screen and the two edges of my wallpaper were abutting there. Doh!

I haven't tried animated widgets yet. So far, I like Home++. Very tight for a beta.

Dave

 

[bruceo]

OT, but I've never had the market app not launch.

Think I narrowed down the problem to SportsTap widget. Once I removed it all of my have stopped.

 

[minyangmao]

I'm going to have to go with none of them... nothing quite "perfect" for me.


dxTop
Likes: sweet double menu bar with "recent" items
neutral: 4-screen diamond concept is designed to make it easy to single swipe to any screen.
dislikes: diamond patter is confusing to me. limited to 4 screens. nothing "more" to the program.


GDE:
likes: permanent phone button and customizable button. multiple transition effects (face, cube, drag) that all work well, AND allow scrolling from one side of the screen to the other. Menu system is intuitive and allows for a little customization by setting up folders. LOVE the application dock widget for the home screen.
dislikes: application dock widget on the home screen does not allow customized user organization, Icons are placed in a completely illogical order - This REALLY bothers me! Dock application menus could use a tad more work. Not very many themes available, many of the ones there are poor quality.


pandahome:
likes: LOVE LOVE LOVE the two trays on the side of the screen for putting shortcuts.
dislikes: I like that you can have up to ELEVEN home screens, and the helpful dots will show you exactly what screen you are on. Apps menu can be sorted to show ONLY a certain letter range, which usually eliminates scrolling to find what you're looking for.
dislikes: No easy way to navigate through the home screens quickly. If you have eleven home screens... well just hope the hell you don't need to get to the other side very quickly!!! No further menu customization beyond the two side trays. Need a little something "more" for the apps menu.


Perfect combination?
dual menus, mapped to long press keys (from dxTop)
home screen transitions and options (from GDE)
FIXED application dock widget (from GDE)
permanent button for phone and something customizable (from GDE)
application sidebars (from pandahome)
"you are here" lights that show what home screen you are on (from pandahome)
sort main applications menu to only display a certain letter (from pandahome)

Thanks for breaking it down so well! =) appreciate the work;

FYI I just removed PandaHome cause it was lagging my phone too much; that is my major complaint with Droid right now is the ridiculous lag after I tap an app or scroll to a dif menu; ah the good ole days of iTouch with no lag; and yes, I deleted all my widgets, and yes I have Advanced Task Killer auto-kill and I manually kill too; I've actually taken to killing Advanced Task Killer so that even THAT doesn't take up memory;

Gonna have to check out that launcher dock and see how much memory it takes.

Does anyone know how much memory GDE memory eats up compared to PandaHome? My guess is that it would be dependent on what widgets you have, but was wondering if anyone had an estimate; PandaHome was taking 20-40 depending on what was running widget-wise;

Side question; is the amount of "Free Mem" a good indicator of how laggy scrolling and app opening will be, or is it something else? it seems to have a good correlation in my experience, but I may be wrong.

Cheers!

 

[mrthundercleese]

...
2. I was initially confused when swiping from screen to screen, thinking that it was getting stuck between home screens 1 and 3 (thinking of stock home as screen 2). Then I realized that it's actually a fourth home screen and the two edges of my wallpaper were abutting there. Doh!
...

Decided to try Home++ and that right there is actually annoying to me along with the notification pulldown showing the background where the notification bar used to be (if it's hidden). The wallpaper thing may be no fault of the dev though and if it can't be remedied then I would rather it not wrap (or at least give me an option). I haven't used any wrapping home themes before so I don't know how that compares.

It is VERY stable though which is great. Only one crash and I've been using it heavily since I posted earlier in this thread. Very good for a beta. Looking forward to the finished product.

 

[blazingwolf]

Thanks for breaking it down so well! =) appreciate the work;

FYI I just removed PandaHome cause it was lagging my phone too much; that is my major complaint with Droid right now is the ridiculous lag after I tap an app or scroll to a dif menu; ah the good ole days of iTouch with no lag; and yes, I deleted all my widgets, and yes I have Advanced Task Killer auto-kill and I manually kill too; I've actually taken to killing Advanced Task Killer so that even THAT doesn't take up memory;

Gonna have to check out that launcher dock and see how much memory it takes.

Does anyone know how much memory GDE memory eats up compared to PandaHome? My guess is that it would be dependent on what widgets you have, but was wondering if anyone had an estimate; PandaHome was taking 20-40 depending on what was running widget-wise;

Side question; is the amount of "Free Mem" a good indicator of how laggy scrolling and app opening will be, or is it something else? it seems to have a good correlation in my experience, but I may be wrong.

Cheers!

Stop killing things and see if that helps. No, free memory is not a good indicator for lagging on the Droid.

 

[minyangmao]

Launcher dock doesn't quite do it for me; I really want something that keeps my fav apps available on on my homescreens. I suppose i could just make multiple shortcuts lol =)

Anyhow, I think I'm on a new kick - make the Droid as smooth as possible, meaning the least amount of widgets and least amount of processes running.