PLEASE READ: Do NOT worry about Apps running in the Background

[cereal killer]

This subject has been talked about a lot in here since the Droids release. I've talked to a developer who is very well versed in Linux/Android and he summarized the following as correct......

Android is different to most other phone operating systems. It's closer to Linux than any other type of operating system. Lots of services and applications constantly run in the background just like they do on Windows. However, and this is important, they do not have to use up a ton of resources. A service or app can be loaded, yet use almost no additional memory, and 0% CPU until it actually has to do something.

In general, killing off stuff is a waste of time. Android automatically asks apps to close that aren't needed when it needs more memory. Killing off some of the processes you are killing off also means it'll slow your phone down, as these processes only need to reload, and when you do need to use them it means the phone will be slower for the few seconds it takes to reload them.

[garrett]

this is nice to know..... i wasnt sure how close android was to linux... and me being an ex-linux administrator this is a good thing...

[kennyg23]

It makes sense. I have that app killer program but it doesn't seem to close all of them anyway.

[cereal killer]

I deleted the App Killer...it just leads to OCD : )

[Dream]

Great thread, this should be stickied

[thetruth]

Thanks for the info. Now I can rest easy.

[Bill M]

that's the way it should be! Devices such as the blackberry or any other phone device shouldn't need a battery pull or an app that mimicks a battery pull or closes out applications.
These phones cost a lot of money and they should work right out of the box.

And firmware updates should be for updated features, not to fix things that should already work!

[ahampton2k]

Thanks for the info...am used to Storm where I had to try and keep every precious mb free by keeping apps closed. Will try to remove app killer and let the os do its job.

[ThePhoneGuy]

This subject has been talked about a lot in here since the Droids release. I've talked to a developer who is very well versed in Linux/Android and he summarized the following as correct......

Android is different to most other phone operating systems. It's closer to Linux than any other type of operating system. Lots of services and applications constantly run in the background just like they do on Windows. However, and this is important, they do not have to use up a ton of resources. A service or app can be loaded, yet use almost no additional memory, and 0% CPU until it actually has to do something.

In general, killing off stuff is a waste of time. Android automatically asks apps to close that aren't needed when it needs more memory. Killing off some of the processes you are killing off also means it'll slow your phone down, as these processes only need to reload, and when you do need to use them it means the phone will be slower for the few seconds it takes to reload them.

Is there a reference so i could back up my statement to someone else, killing apps is a pain and you become obsess about it, but does wi-fi, gps, maps eat up the battery or doesn't matter if they run.

[souljerr]

Excellent news. I was hoping this was the case.