[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] littlewierdo:
I dont know what bothers me more, the fact that people dont seem to know how to speak / write English anymore or the fact that people are so willing to jump all over someone for asking something (albeit in a rather rude fashion) about something that is a valid concern...

So, a few things to mention that has not yet been mentioned.

1. 6-8 apps that came installed with your phone that 'I' would consider bloatware CAN be removed without root. What I consider bloat is software that either I have no use for OR software that costs service fees (which I guess technically goes into the category of software I have no use for - otherwise Id be willing to pay for the service fee). Nearly ALL of the AT&T apps can be uninstalled (the only one that cant is ATT Navigation). Start by looking at all the apps that came pre-loaded with the phone and start removing the ones you dont want.

2. Root your phone and 'rename' any apps that you dont want. Be careful with this, dont go nuts. ONLY rename apps that you know are something you dont want (for me, ATT Navigation, ATT Ready2Go, Allshare, & Media Hub). I usually just change the extension from apk to bpk and then reboot the phone. The other software I would coin as 'bloatware' was able to be removed. Alternatively, you could use an app called Titanium Backup on the market to 'freeze' these apps which I assume is the same thing from what I recall (this requires rooting). The key is, dont delete these apps because when an official firmware update comes around, you will need to be able to restore these apps before updating. Yet another option is to use an app called Autostarts that (after you have root), you can use to prevent programs from starting automatically.

The OP has a point from his/her perspective. But you have to remember, it isnt the fault of Android...

The carriers and phone manufacturers that have ****ed up the OS by overlaying it with crap. Anyone remember the last PC they purchased that came pre-installed with a bunch of crapware? This is the same deal, but this isnt Google/Androids fault, this is the carriers and phone manufacturers fault.

I wouldnt worry about ram usage all that much. Im on stock and Ive never rooted my phone (so I still have the apps I mentioned above - ATT Navigation, ATT Ready2Go, Allshare, & Media Hub) but I uninstalled what I didnt want (and was able to uninstall without having root) and my phone is sitting at 450 MB of used ram out of 750. This leaves 300 MB of ram which is more than enough for any apps I choose to run (most apps are under 5-10 MB of ram).

If performance is still an issue, under settings->display->Animations, you can set this to None (this is what I have done with mine) and it helps a bit with responsiveness. I dont care as much about how 'pretty' my phone looks as I do my phone being as snappy as possible.

I did want to mention something else, the comparison of Android to Windows with regards to ram.

Two points.

1. First, actually, in Windows, you DO have more than 10 apps running. The difference is, Windows isnt actually showing you all of them, Android is. If you are running Vista or Win7, open Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Tab) and hit the 'Processes' tab at the top. My Vista PC currently has 56 processes running, some of which came with Windows, others (like Dolphin Text Editor) are apps I personally installed.

2. Ram works completely different in Android (which is based on Linux) than it does in Windows. In short, more ram usage is 'usually' not a bad thing. In fact, many Linux developers have said that unused ram is a waste.

Here is a link to a long article that talks about ram in Android and how it works, I strongly recommend you take a gander thru it. Explained are reasons why task managers are good, task killers are bad as well as a very good explanation of how ram works in Android. It is written in simple plain English, not a whole lot of techno garble in there but it is somewhat lengthy (about a ten minute read for me).

http://www.androidcentral.com/ram-what-it-how-its-used-and-why-you-shouldnt-care

If the phone is sluggish, it probably isnt ram usage, its likely how poorly the overlays and additional software laid on top of the OS has been written.

Let me give you a brief example. If I handed you a brand new piece of paper and told you to crumple it up into a tight ball, you could do this slowly or you could do this quickly. Software is the same way. Written poorly, regardless of the hardware you are running it on, it can perform well, or not so well depending on how well it is written.

This is a classic case of TMI (too much information) - if they didnt tell you, you wouldnt know. This is why benchmarking drives me nuts. Lets assume for a moment that you didnt know exactly how much ram was being used on your phone? Is there a particular reason this matters to you (performance, something not working correctly, etc)?

When you go to see a doctor, do you try do diagnose yourself or do you tell him the symptoms? Do you 'make up' what is wrong (aka hypochondriac)? So often I see this in the tech world, people creating problems when there isnt really any. If the phone is working fine, dont create a problem in your head.

Real world performance is what truly matters. If the phone is working fine, ignore the ram usage. Let Android do what it was programmed to do and just enjoy the hardware.