This is a guest post by Dana Harrison. Check up on his other activities at The Linux Experiment and his other posts on audiophonik.

Hi, all!  You may have noticed all ready by reading my slightly different name, or perhaps you’ve heard of me over on the wildly popular site I co-founded, The Linux Experiment, but I am not the usual Phil.  My name is Dana, and I’m a young professional working in IT for a large insurance company.  I work with Phil and also had the pleasure of founding The Linux Experiment with him.

For reasons unbeknown to me, Phil asked me a few months ago to install Slide Screen for Android onto my Rogers HTC Dream – that’s a ‘T-Mobile G1′ for any American readers out there.  Slide Screen is basically a complete home screen replacement for the standard Android interface, and is meant to reduce screen clutter and information overload in a nicely presented, simple, single location.

Installation and Setup

This was just about the simplest thing in the world, as is the installation of most standard Android applications.  Open up the Android Market, search for Slide Screen, and install.

Setup was also quite simple, offering the option of either completely replacing my home screen (which I chose) or running as a launchable application.

First Impressions

I have to hand it to the folks at Larva Labs – they know how to code a nice-looking interface.  The Slide Screen interface is certainly clean if nothing else, but while preventing me from experiencing information overload, I feel I may have been left out of information altogether.

Among other frustrations, I found the Slide Screen application significantly slowed down the all ready slow ROM included on the Rogers HTC Dream.  In addition, the constantly running application reduced battery life noticeably.

The notification widget for missed calls also, inexplicably, did not actually bring me to my call log(s) as expected, but instead populated the number in my phone application for quick dialing.

I also found the ‘simplification’ of information rather strange.  Instead of keeping the information I want in plain view, I found that the application held information I want in inconvenient (ie, having to launch it myself) places.

Final Thoughs

While I can see the merit in this application, it’s not specifically for me.  If the folks at Larva Labs can find a way to integrate more popular applications into the main screen while reducing overall memory footprint, I may explore it again in the future.

For now, I am falling in love with the Sense interface of my HTC Magic!