What has happened to optimization?

[MissionImprobable]

Between Samsung's nonsense, Verizon's bloat, and poor base design I'm at 2gigs of RAM usage at startup. Android is never going to be as valuable an ecosystem as it could be as long as apps and processes ate pushed out without consideration for how efficiently it all works. Marshmallow alone is not going to be the panacea for all the unnecessarily woes that are Android. We see time and time again that it is real world users producing custom ROMs, root-only kits, and the perquisite self removal of bloat that are the only times that Android ever shines as it should.

HTC has by necessity made headway with the software skeleton that serves the A9, but this is not the norm. Even 'clean' Google devices come with unnecessary and poorly optimized software. I was on the verge of going to iOS with my latest upgrade, but the monthly hit or miss updates are just as much of a headache as far as I'm concerned, and damn if the 6s isn't brick-like in its weight, but that's all that held me back.

Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?

 

[94lt1]

I honestly think we should all fight bloat...and fight for the ability to further optimize our devices..but its probably just fine for the average Joe and Jane..

 

[MissionImprobable]

The Android Forums joint app I'm running to post here is using half a gig. That's more than some devices even have free after boot. The lack of efficiency makes me think this stuff is designed by the government =p

 

[Jonny Kansas]

The nature of RAM itself lends it to being mostly full.

RAM stands for Random Access Memory. Computers & phones alike move things into & out of RAM as needed to facilitate faster loading of certain apps.

RAM is dynamic, ever changing. It would be weird to see RAM usage at 0℅. That's just not how RAM works.

 

[MissionImprobable]

I know it shouldn't be at zero, that was never my claim in the least, but it shouldn't be violated to the point of apps crashing out when only a few are open. The OS and the apps themselves should be getting more efficient in how they run, not less. Optimization has been a problem in Android in comparison to iOS from the start, and in many cases it's taken a turn for the worse. The RAM usage should be high when heavy usage warrants it or when there's a reason to keep data in memory, such as in an app that might be opened and closed frequently to observe the content, and it should taking ending every process manually to drop that and cpu usage back down when the phone has been sitting idle on the home screen.

 

[RolKrys80]

Dang, 2 GB at startup! That's more than most of the computers I had for over half my life!

Don't really have any solutions here, but mostly just wanted to lend some sympathy and support. This kind of bloat is the exact opposite of what Android should be. Android was originally like the Linux/Ubuntu vs. Apple's Big Business. Where can we turn when all of the developers are exactly the same? Maybe things would get better if more people started programming themselves. Anyway, good luck!

 

[kodiak799]

This is why I always scratch my head at people who think ram and storage isn't that important. Apps and the OS keep adding features and hogging more ram/storage.

And it's not just about needing to keep ram full - many apps now WANT to keep themselves in ram with background services running to push updates and notifications or track you. You have to launch the app the first time, but then those services are enabled by default and you SHOULD NOT have to turn them off (should be opt-in). And some apps still insist on running - Greenify SHOULD NOT be needed at this point, but it is. One or two apps might not be a big deal on battery drain, but after you get 10-15 apps bleeding your battery like that it becomes significant.