Android OS sucks for mem management.

[aaf709]

I use System Panel, but only for monitoring. If I get a message that an app isn't responding and gives me a choice of either waiting or force close, I choose waiting.

 

[dcook12]

It's alright FBM - the more the merrier

OK..Have the task killer from the developers bookmarked now......this could be a competition of who can get the link up faster when a task killer or backround applications post comes up again...lol:icon_eek:

 

[takeshi]

Why does this thing insist on keeping crap sitting in RAM? Windows does a better job then this, cmon Google.....

Definitely read up on Android. It's designed to do so. I'll leave the why as your homework as plenty have provided resources for you to refer to.

 

[Darkseider]

Task Killers!?? Did someone say task killers?! TASK KILLERS BAD!!! BURN THEM!! BURN THEM WITH FIRE!!!

 

[Detonation]

Why does this thing insist on keeping crap sitting in RAM? Windows does a better job then this, cmon Google.....

Unlike Windows, an app running in the background of Android isn't necessarily using memory.

 

[turdbogls]

it is so weird, i completely understand the way Android OS works and manages it's RAM. and i understand that task killers are not necessary, however, every time i delete my task killer, my phone boggs down terribly about half way through the day (heavy user) so i have decided to keep my task killer on my phone and i am happy. i have a feeling it is only an issue with the D1's tho as the newer phones have double the RAM.

 

[Dave12308]

Why does this thing insist on keeping crap sitting in RAM? Windows does a better job then this, cmon Google.....

First of all, it has NOTHING to do with Google...... Zilch, Zero, Nada. Android uses a Linux kernel which handles the memory management. It works exactly the same as any other Linux based OS out there. And Linux has one of the best memory management schemes in the business.

If you don't want an OS that intelligently allocates RAM, then a Linux-based mobile OS is not the correct OS for you. You would honestly be better off with an iOS based device (although that supports multitasking since v4.0 so even that might not be a good fit for you)

 

[Dave12308]

it is so weird, i completely understand the way Android OS works and manages it's RAM. and i understand that task killers are not necessary, however, every time i delete my task killer, my phone boggs down terribly about half way through the day (heavy user) so i have decided to keep my task killer on my phone and i am happy. i have a feeling it is only an issue with the D1's tho as the newer phones have double the RAM.

If you are actually getting better performance with a task killer installed, then it's pretty likely that you've got a 3rd party app installed that is misbehaving. I am a heavy user of the Droid 1 as well, and mine can go weeks without bogging down.

 

[dvdcatalyst]

Why does this thing insist on keeping crap sitting in RAM? Windows does a better job then this, cmon Google.....

Windows kinda does the same thing. I'm not sure about Windows Phone 7, but Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows CE/Windows Mobile also keep "crap" in memory.

Years ago, the idea was that the more free memory you have, the faster it would run. However, most OS'es now keep things like libraries used for apps(dotNet/Java) partially loaded in memory, so when you start an app that uses those libraries, they are already there.

On Apple OS X / iOS, Quartz provides the "Mac-look", and most of it stays in memory, so programs that use it load a lot faster. Running a task-killer on that will result in iTunes running just as slow as it does on Windows. On Windows, dotNet is usually partially preloaded.

One of the main complaints about Vista was that it needed so much memory, however, all it did was just fill the memory with parts of your most-used apps, in case you wanted to use them. This is also why ReadyBoost was introduced with Vista. ReadyBoost uses a USB stick to access some pre-cached stuff with the idea that it can load that simultaniously when accessing the harddrive without affecting its performance.

The problem with Vista mainly was that its memory management to free up used memory for other apps was not as good as it should have been, which is one of the reasons why Windows 7 is considerably faster.

The general idea of memory these days is that if its there, you might as well use it. free memory and used memory takes up just as much power.

Here a link of a comparison between vista and xp on memory management.

Coding Horror: Why Does Vista Use All My Memory?

The question shouldn't be "Why does Vista use all my memory?", but "Why the heck did previous versions of Windows use my memory so ineffectively?"

and here a more fitting article for Android that analizes the google blogpost about task killers.

FAQ: Why You Shouldn’t Be Using a Task Killer with Android

• Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when more memory is needed.
• Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when it’s done doing what it needs to do.
• Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when you haven’t returned to it in a long time.
• Most services (while possibly running in the background) use very little memory when not actively doing something.
• A content provider is only doing something when there is a notification for it to give. Otherwise it uses very little memory.
• Killing a process when it isn’t ready only causes it to have to reload itself and start from scratch when it’s needed again.
• Because a task is likely running in the background for a reason, killing it will only cause it to re-spawn as soon as the activity that was using it looks for it again. And it will just have to start over again.
• Killing certain processes can have undesirable side effects. Not receiving text messages, alarms not going off, and force closes just to name a few.
• The only true way to prevent something from running at all on your phone would be to uninstall the .apk.
• Most applications will exit themselves if you get out of it by hitting “back” until it closes rather than hitting the “home” button. But even with hitting home, Android will eventually kill it once it’s been in the background for a while.

After having my X for a week, I played a little with task-killers, but haven't noticed a bog down. The only bogdown I get is due to using SetCPU to underclock it for batterylife.
If you are using a different "Home" maybe check and make sure there are no widgets running on the old "Home" ?