Built-In Task Manager

[androidassistant]

I was reading that programs like Task Killer and Advanced Task killer, while immediately freeing up memory and hopefully conserving battery, may actually cause your device to run slower and buggier than if you were to uninstall it sompletely.

Of course, you're stopping a running task, so I could see how that might not be a good idea to constantly be doing. (and plenty of you know how addicting they can be!)

To me the Android OS has many components to that of Windows 7 for PC (don't get me started on their OS). You have your (metaphorical) 'desktop' and 'icons', etc. Why not have a Task Manager built into the OS? It could be a standard app, a setting, a widget, anything! If the OS told the program to end properly, everything should still run smoothly.

It's been so long using programs like these, you forget that this is, more appropriately, Android's problem. And once there's a system in place where you don't have to download more stuff to use less memory, the world will be a happier place.

 

[HumanMachine]

I was reading that programs like Task Killer and Advanced Task killer, while immediately freeing up memory and hopefully conserving battery, may actually cause your device to run slower and buggier than if you were to uninstall it sompletely.

Of course, you're stopping a running task, so I could see how that might not be a good idea to constantly be doing. (and plenty of you know how addicting they can be!)

To me the Android OS has many components to that of Windows 7 for PC (don't get me started on their OS). You have your (metaphorical) 'desktop' and 'icons', etc. Why not have a Task Manager built into the OS? It could be a standard app, a setting, a widget, anything! If the OS told the program to end properly, everything should still run smoothly.

It's been so long using programs like these, you forget that this is, more appropriately, Android's problem. And once there's a system in place where you don't have to download more stuff to use less memory, the world will be a happier place.

Educate yourself.

Task Killers... The Answer from Google & Developers. - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum


One more

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/cwovf/in_light_of_all_the_discussions_right_now_about/

-HM

 

[Schwin97]

The fact of the matter is that android does have task management built into the OS - but it is not something that the user needs mess with. The idea is that the OS is smart enough to determine when it needs to kill a task based on need, and the OS will kill tasks if it needs more resources. The issue with task killers isn't so much that it could mess anything up on the phone, but it could turn off notifications and updates that you are expecting to take place.

 

[dan330]

i choose to forget about it.. not to think about it...


i am so much happier and my evo thanks me everyday.

 

[snapper.fishes]

Not always, especially if you have beta apps on your phone.

IMO task killers are still necessary, but should only be used for buggy apps.

 

[takeshi]

To me the Android OS has many components to that of Windows 7 for PC (don't get me started on their OS). You have your (metaphorical) 'desktop' and 'icons', etc. Why not have a Task Manager built into the OS? It could be a standard app, a setting, a widget, anything! If the OS told the program to end properly, everything should still run smoothly.

Read up on how Android works. While it has similarities to Windows it's designed very differently as it is a mobile OS while Windows is a desktop OS. Once you've looked into it you'll understand why. Don't assume that your superficial metaphor also applies under the hood.

I was reading that programs like Task Killer and Advanced Task killer, while immediately freeing up memory and hopefully conserving battery

Task Killers are not the way to address battery life concerns. There's not much of this dead horse left to beat.

It's been so long using programs like these, you forget that this is, more appropriately, Android's problem. And once there's a system in place where you don't have to download more stuff to use less memory, the world will be a happier place.

Again, read up on how Android works and you'll understand why free memory isn't inherently desirable. I haven't followed the link above but it's probably a good start. There are plenty of existing guides and threads to refer to -- no need to reinvent the wheel yet again.

The issue with task killers isn't so much that it could mess anything up on the phone, but it could turn off notifications and updates that you are expecting to take place.

Problems can certainly go beyond just missed notifications or updates.

IMO task killers are still necessary, but should only be used for buggy apps.

Apps can be forced stopped without a task killer. What does a task killer bring to the table?

 

[snapper.fishes]

Apps can be forced stopped without a task killer. What does a task killer bring to the table?

How? How would you kill an app that has crashed but stubbornly refuse to force close?

 

[dan330]

menu > setting > applications > manage applications > all...

select the app.. force close.
uninstall...

 

[snapper.fishes]

menu > setting > applications > manage applications > all...

select the app.. force close.
uninstall...

So instead of clicking the task killer icon and killing the task in just two steps, you want me to go through 6 steps to kill the app. Not to mention that it takes a while for the app list to load.

 

[Guamguy]

People need to understand two things:

Android can kill Dalvik VM apps.

Android cannot kill native statically compiled apps on its own without user permission.

The latter stems from its Unix/Linux heritage. This is true for every OS based on a Unix/Linux kernel (MacOS, iOS included).

There are a few apps out there that are statically compiled native apps. Many games belong to this category, and you kill them when you press "quit". Some IM apps are, like fring and Palringo. Browsers like Opera Mobile and Firefox mobile are grouped in this.

Samsung now includes a Task Manager with the Galaxy S Froyo update, the Tab or among the later batches of Galaxy S and beyond. This Task Manager does a great job of identifying native apps.

Usually, a Dalvik app would "die" after a while as the Dalvik would kill them. While a recently used app may still appear in the long press Home menu, the Samsung Task Manager will only show apps that are truly active or have an Activity in memory resident. By Activity I mean an interface where a user can actually interact with. A true native app will stay memory resident as long as it can until you actually go back to the app and do a formal quit, or put a Force Stop, or kill it with the Samsung Task Manager. In this sense, these native apps are very much like classical native apps you do see with Symbian and Windows Mobile

Other Task Managers tend to show active Services and this is deceptive to users, which cannot differentiate between the "Service" and the "Activity" of an Android app.

What are Dalvik apps?

These are written in Java, then executed within the Dalvik Virtual Machine. Until Android 2.1, its not true native execution. Comes Froyo, these apps are compiled into native processes on the fly, call Just In Time or dynamic compilation.

What are native apps?

These are written in C languages (C++, and in iOS, Obj C), then statically compiled. Unlike Dalvik apps, which are distributed in byte code, these apps are distributed directly in executable binary. There is no dynamic compilation, these apps are executed directly by the processor. They are also executed outside of the Dalvik Virtual Machine. These are your real native Linux apps.

The Dalvik (.apk) apps which represent the vast majority of Android apps, because they are sandboxed, are less susceptible to hardware changes, such as processor types, GPU types and so on. It does so at a slight cost of increased processing overhead, however. And once again, these apps can be killed by the OS itself without user permission.

Native apps are faster, but they are more sensitive to the kind of CPU and GPU being used and if misbehaved, have more potency to crash the system. These apps cannot be arbitrarily killed by the OS without user permission. These is where the task killers are useful.