Be Together, Not Consistent

From Ron Amadeo, at Ars:

OEMs try to “brand” the software by changing the colors and icons, which usually makes things look worse and really only serves to make things harder for new users… [it] would be nice if all the designs and buttons on those devices looked the same.
And wouldn’t it be nice to live together…

Luckily, help is on the way. Finally, Samsung users will be able to revel in sameness by running the stock Android they crave. Goodbye hellish TouchWiz skin and hello…

Today, Samsung started posting skins from third parties, and one of the best-looking and most popular ones is a theme that brings TouchWiz more in line with stock Android.
…custom theme that sits on top of TouchWiz… Wait, what?
There are actually two different Stock Android skins fighting for acceptance in the Samsung Theme Store.
So competing themes that look sort of like the stock UI, but are limited to a single manufacturer. Well that certainly won’t make things harder for new users. Sweet! Problem solved.