Task Killers: Why they are good for you.

[supitsmike]

Alright, out of everything that I've read/head/seen/covered on any Android site this speculation probably has to be the most insignificant completely blown out of proportion. Today kids, we are going to chat about:

Task Killers

It seems as though after some poorly misunderstood post on some forum somewhere, some kid here thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and say that Task Killers make your phone run slower.

This, my friends, is a complete lie. I'll tell you why:

Very much like Windows, Android OS was designed to do things all at once, Multi-task. You know, run multiple things all at the same time. The Android Operating System was designed to run up to six (6) programs at once (Even rudimentarily showing it, press and hold home on your phone -- see what happens)  -- we're not going to include the regular system processes such as Settings, Android System, etc.

Each Android phone comes with a specific amount of on board memory. Most, about 256 M(ega)B(ytes) of memory. Not that much, huh? Well, it's plenty for your Android phone, because as it just so happens, each program on the market doesn't run any more than a few megabytes.

Now, what you need to understand about the Android Operating System is that it's not going to perform flawlessly down the the last bit of MB that you have on your phone -- that's a lot of programs that it needs to run, and is restricted by the cap of 6 processes it can run simultaneously.

Lets say, for arguments sake, that I really like to Social Network, I like to keep up with Android News, and I do all the Basic functions on a phone. What a task killer would list, as processes that are running would look something like this:

-Myspace

-Facebook

-Twidroid

-Messaging

-Music

-Browser

-Settings

-Android System

-Gmail

-Calendar

-IM

-GTalk

-Meebo IM

Before we go on, lets count how many things would consistently be looking for information to bring to you (Thus the beauty of Android Phones):

-Myspace

-Facebook

-Twidroid

-Messaging

-Gmail

-IM

Looks pretty normal right? It is. There you see, six different processes that are running simultaneously, to go and bring you information right to your hand -- no looking necessary. 

So what about the other 7 processes that are running at the same time? What are those doing? How are those behaving? Why are they still going? Well -- it's because you opened them up, and there is no native way to stop them from going. That's why Task Killers (Such as Advanced Task Manager ) are great to have. They are basically the way you would press "Exit" on a program on your computer. Completely shuts down the process until YOU open it up again.

Now, you're going to probably ask me, "Well Mike, does having those other 7 processes run still really make a difference?" And that answer depends on the person. If you have a lot of programs installed on your phone, yes. Because not only does those apps take up memory (ROM), but so does the current running processes -- at the same time. Meaning, that you can have before you turn any apps on, say if you stopped all processes,  more ROM than you would at the time of usage of your phone. If you have plenty of on board space, you have a little bit of arm room to have a few processes running here and there.

Or in other words:

Before I play with any apps, lets pretend I have 200 MB of space on my phone.

After I start to use my phone in regular use, It could go as low as 170 MB. Because these processes are using up space all at the same time.

Now generally, 170MB of space isn't bad at all (Heck, the HTC Eris comes with about 190 to start). When it gets bad is when you're using all those processes at once. You should start getting worried if you get to the double digits with MB -- only because it takes a lot for it to happen. 

Now what does this mean to you? This means that at the end of the day, saying "Yeah it's better for my phone to handle10 Processes at the same time" is untrue. It's meant to handle six. It can take on 18 processes. But you're not going to be anywhere near the speed and quality of the phone as you would just simply going into a task manager, and click off processes you're not using.

I am not saying that having a Task Manager is completely necessary, I'm saying that they are probably the most recommended apps for anyone who knows anything about Multi-Tasking -- and you should pay attention to the advice. It frees up space for you phone, it gives it leeway, it makes it snappier -- and those people who say otherwise obviously haven't restarted their phone and ended or seen all the processes that run at boot. There are approximately 18 of them, and there is no way in high heaven your phone performs the same as it does then, as it would without those unneeded processes. 

So to answer your question, if you had it -- because from now on I'm going to link this thread if I see it: Task Managers are GREAT for you, and they can ONLY help.

Thanks for your time,

Mike

[willanaya]

Amen. Supitsmike for prez!

[supitsmike]

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willanaya wrote:

Amen. Supitsmike for prez!

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I just got tired of all this speculation of "ZOMG IS TASK MANEGHERZ GOOD FOR U?"

And so I had to type this up quickly, as the frustration got to me. Maybe it can get sticked as well?

[alxnet]

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supitsmike wrote:

It seems as though after some poorly misunderstood post on some forum somewhere, some kid here thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and say that Task Killers make your phone run slower.

This, my friends, is a complete lie. I'll tell you why:

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FWIW, here are a few interesting snippets I dug up about Android and multitasking:

"Apps that behave properly give up their memory and take next to no CPU time to sleep. The only CPU time they take is the time to list the process. What TPX does is unnecessary. On a Linux based OS, which is the only true multitasking OS for phone, you don't need to kill apps if they aren't actively using memory.

Managers like TPX will cause folks who don't understand the sleep process and backgrounding on Linux to close way more than they should. Look at all the threads here and other places about function X not working and the answer is "You killed the background process".

Again, probably too much information, but I hope this helps folks realize that the Android phones are not iPhones and not WinMo phones and background apps, as long as they are coded right, are not screwing up their performance."

Also the following:

Quote:

If you get Android, you need to get an AppManager from the Android Market because all performance (including that of the phone) will grind to a halt when there is too much running (there is no other across the board way to close an application than using an AppManager)

This is simply not accurate. It is not necessary to use an app manager or task killer with Android. Android is designed to close apps itself when needed to free up resources. In fact, some task killer users have gone as far as to set up their managers to kill processes that are actually essential, causing the kind of lag and instability they were hoping to avoid in the first place.