My take on the task killer debate

[OfTheDamned]

I use a task killer and you can't stop me. Na nanny boo boo...

lol

I have to say that it is nice to read a task killer thread were nobody is angry about it.

 

[Demache]

I guess I just didnt think about it, I had Linux Servers and Windows Servers running way more then 4 gig way before then.. so I just figured XP would do it too..

Looking back, it appears Linux was supporting this in the late 90s.. And Windows picked up on Server 2000..

See there the problem. You applied server OS logic to consumer OS. They are never quite the same. If I remember correctly, different Windows 2000 server flavors have different RAM limits. I never really understood why though.

 

[teleburst]

Hey - new Eris owner here. Love you lot lots <g>. I've learned a lot in the days that I've been reading the forum. Damn, lots of lots here...

I got ATK the first day because I thought it would be useful. I'm agnostic on whether it's a "needed" app...let me rephrase that, I'm probably on the side of saying that one might need it while others might not. I found it kind of useful but had no way of knowing whether it was a true battery/memory saver or not, but I kinda like the certainty of knowing that you don't have things running in the background if they aren't needed. I actually uninstalled it when I was swayed by the back and forth by the view that it might actually take up more memory/space than it saved.

Anyway, the question I have is about internet browsing. When you open the browser, does it stay actively connected to the net even if you use the back button all the way back to the google screen and then hit the right phone button to "power down"? It seems like it does since it doesn't seem to reload when you re-press the internet icon on the home screen. If this is the case, then ATK might actually be useful just to terminate the program. I assume that I could also just go into airplane mode and then back out of it immediately to break the connection.

Anyone know if I'm right about not being able to back out of an active connection simply by using the back button? If that's the case, I might use airplane mode as a "workaround", but it just seems a little inelegant. But the more I think about it, it *is* only one swipe (I have airplane mode on the home screen immediately to the left of my "home screen") and two button press thing, which seems almost as easy as pulling the windowshade down and selecting ATK and then removing internet (six of one, half a dozen of the other, as my mom used to say).

In the scheme of things, maybe this is "overthinking" things, but I'm curious.

To all of those who want to shoot me for bringing this back to the front page of the forums, I say, Sorry "dude and dudette".

 

[0wrx2]

when i first got my phone i was all about the task killer. i would kill tasks like it was my job. whenever i got a little bit of lag... bam! then i read an interesting thread on here and decided to try living without it. i will never use a task killer again. my phone has run so smooth since uninstalling it. no lag like i used to see.

it may work for some but for me... get that sh*t outta here.

edit: heres that thread
edit edit: basically OTD has me too scared to ever use one again

 

[teleburst]

when i first got my phone i was all about the task killer. i would kill tasks like it was my job. whenever i got a little bit of lag... bam! then i read an interesting thread on here and decided to try living without it. i will never use a task killer again. my phone has run so smooth since uninstalling it. no lag like i used to see.

it may work for some but for me... get that sh*t outta here.

edit: heres that thread
edit edit: basically OTD has me too scared to ever use one again

Thanks for your response.

I'm not really interested in the debate itself. I'm more interested with the "sticky" internet issue. Can I disconnect from the net simply by using the back button or do I have to "physically" take down the internet app either through a task killer or using airplane mode?

 

[Frisco]

If task killers are not important, then I bet you never use task manager in MS windows right?? And you leave all over applications open all day on your computer and never close out..

You make a good point, a sort of peripherally small issue with me in all this: the name, "task killer" has been the focus, or was at the beginning of the debate a long time ago when Methuselah was in diapers (yes, they had diapers then.. I think they were sea shells strapped on or something, but still..).

"Task manager" is more like it.

 

[jps]

so i rebooted my phone last night just to check out the memory consumption while i was sleeping. if android os really does do all this memory management like everyone is saying, how do i fall asleep with 52mb of ram then wake up 6 hours later with 35mb of ram?

 

[cableguynoe]

so i rebooted my phone last night just to check out the memory consumption while i was sleeping. if android os really does do all this memory management like everyone is saying, how do i fall asleep with 52mb of ram then wake up 6 hours later with 35mb of ram?

It managed 17mb of ram while you were sleeping

 

[jps]

It managed 17mb of ram while you were sleeping

lol. my phone MANAGED to eat 17mb of ram while i slept,

 

[Thedarksunlight]

My take is that this is a stupid and overdone convo. I use it cause its free and whats the harm?

If u do not want to use it then don't but every verizon store that I have played with a android phone had advance task killer downloaded

 

[Demache]

lol. my phone MANAGED to eat 17mb of ram while i slept,

Probably ran something while you were sleeping.

 

[Frisco]

lol. my phone MANAGED to eat 17mb of ram while i slept,

I don't trust any of the data I see in various areas of the device at all. RAM, battery percentages, signal strength, cache sizes.. I look at it all as having a very wide margin of error.

The things I go by for "measurement" have to do with the performance of the various functions of the device. The simplest, of course, is the battery; no matter what the meter says, if the device goes black after a few days of use, I know the battery has somewhere around 5% or less of charge in it and probably about .5% or so, especially after letting it sit powered down for a while and then reboot it without charging it.

Signal strength is so inaccurate that I'm surprised they even try providing a visual representation bar or number at all; we see no bars while enjoying great reception and calling capabilities. We see three bars and hear "half-word breakup" during calls, etc.

Again, I know I'll get disagreement on this from tech types, but those numbers, that "data" in the about phone area and the notification bar is all just the device making guesses about itself. The telling thing in any functional area of the device is performance.

 

[cableguynoe]

I don't trust any of the data I see in various areas of the device at all. RAM, battery percentages, signal strength, cache sizes.. I look at it all as having a very wide margin of error.

The things I go by for "measurement" have to do with the performance of the various functions of the device. The simplest, of course, is the battery; no matter what the meter says, if the device goes black after a few days of use, I know the battery has somewhere around 5% or less of charge in it and probably about .5% or so, especially after letting it sit powered down for a while and then reboot it without charging it.

Signal strength is so inaccurate that I'm surprised they even try providing a visual representation bar or number at all; we see no bars while enjoying great reception and calling capabilities. We see three bars and hear "half-word breakup" during calls, etc.

Again, I know I'll get disagreement on this from tech types, but those numbers, that "data" in the about phone area and the notification bar is all just the device making guesses about itself. The telling thing in any functional area of the device is performance.

I dare ya to make the same assumption about your gas gauge

 

[Blue218]

I guess OTD converted me....I've been runnin with NO task killer or manager except for what is there on 2.1 OTA and my Eris seems to be smoother/less laggy. I am still tryin to look for a task manager/killer that doesn't take up too many resources and something that will allow me to store some apps that I seldom use on my sd card and then also let me retrieve those apps when I need them.

 

[OfTheDamned]

I guess OTD converted me....I've been runnin with NO task killer or manager except for what is there on 2.1 OTA and my Eris seems to be smoother/less laggy. I am still tryin to look for a task manager/killer that doesn't take up too many resources and something that will allow me to store some apps that I seldom use on my sd card and then also let me retrieve those apps when I need them.

System Panel

 

[hrbib21]

^I've been using ATM but I'm trying that now.

 

[teleburst]

Still looking for an answer to my question (if anyone can figure it out from my wordy intro post a few posts up) <g>.

 

[Frisco]

I dare ya to make the same assumption about your gas gauge

I can't find a gas guage app.

Actually, I don't trust auto gas or even speedometer readings as being very precise. Keep my tank topped .. etc.

 

[OfTheDamned]

Hey - new Eris owner here. Love you lot lots <g>. I've learned a lot in the days that I've been reading the forum. Damn, lots of lots here...

I got ATK the first day because I thought it would be useful. I'm agnostic on whether it's a "needed" app...let me rephrase that, I'm probably on the side of saying that one might need it while others might not. I found it kind of useful but had no way of knowing whether it was a true battery/memory saver or not, but I kinda like the certainty of knowing that you don't have things running in the background if they aren't needed. I actually uninstalled it when I was swayed by the back and forth by the view that it might actually take up more memory/space than it saved.

Anyway, the question I have is about internet browsing. When you open the browser, does it stay actively connected to the net even if you use the back button all the way back to the google screen and then hit the right phone button to "power down"? It seems like it does since it doesn't seem to reload when you re-press the internet icon on the home screen. If this is the case, then ATK might actually be useful just to terminate the program. I assume that I could also just go into airplane mode and then back out of it immediately to break the connection.

Anyone know if I'm right about not being able to back out of an active connection simply by using the back button? If that's the case, I might use airplane mode as a "workaround", but it just seems a little inelegant. But the more I think about it, it *is* only one swipe (I have airplane mode on the home screen immediately to the left of my "home screen") and two button press thing, which seems almost as easy as pulling the windowshade down and selecting ATK and then removing internet (six of one, half a dozen of the other, as my mom used to say).

In the scheme of things, maybe this is "overthinking" things, but I'm curious.

To all of those who want to shoot me for bringing this back to the front page of the forums, I say, Sorry "dude and dudette".

Well the answer is no. Backing out of the browser does not sever or turn off the connection to the web. Since the phone is really always connected to the web, the only way to really sever it's connection is to turn off mobile network and wifi or turn the phone off. I guess I'm not fully understanding your concerns about being connected though. You should have an unlimited data plan with the phone, so this shouldn't be a problem.

 

[hrbib21]

Still looking for an answer to my question (if anyone can figure it out from my wordy intro post a few posts up) <g>.

To answer part of your question, the OEM browser keeps running when you hit the back button. I use a task killer (ATM, though I am liking System Panel) in order to end it.

About being connected, it's as OTD stated above.

 

[tommy_ed]

just installed systempanel, will try it out

 

[Houstatlanavegas]

OK, I personally use AppSwitcher, i used to use advance task killer but i unistall to see if it sped up my phone speed and i havent notice a change.

Now again i still do have AppSwitcher on my phone and i used that when i feel i need to kill some apps, espeically music when im in class but i believe that one should choose themselves.

But still, AppSwitcher is not a a focused task killer. so i dont know if for some of you that makes this a useless reply but i would like to put in my two cents.

-Food 4 Thoughts-

 

[teleburst]

Well the answer is no. Backing out of the browser does not sever or turn off the connection to the web. Since the phone is really always connected to the web, the only way to really sever it's connection is to turn off mobile network and wifi or turn the phone off. I guess I'm not fully understanding your concerns about being connected though. You should have an unlimited data plan with the phone, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks.

I just don't like the idea of having the browser open when not necessary. I don't mind having all of the other connections "at the ready" but there's just something about having the browser open that seems a bit "wasteful" in terms of resources. and it's probably just a deep-seated psychological thing stemming from Windows and malicious software. And this is my first unlimited data plan so I guess I'm still harboring fears of data charges for unintended downloads.

As I said, I'm probaly overthinking it a bit. I've been disconnecting the browser using the airplane mode. I might keep doing that just to keep from having my head explode.

It's weird because I'll keep 10 browsers open on my desktop all of the time.

Thanks for the answer...

 

[Demache]

I dare ya to make the same assumption about your gas gauge

I drive a '99 Ford Escort, and his advice is almost head-on when applies to the gas gauge. I don't trust it as any more than a rough estimate. What it reads depends on the position, the temperature, how long its been running, among other things. Right now, I've driven 100 miles since the last fill-up, and it still reports slightly below full. Its an economy car, but there is no way its THAT efficient. I only have a 10 gallon tank! I've also had it run out of gas when it was slightly below 1/4th. After you get to know your car, you can guess the average mileage it gets before another tank. So in my case, about 300-350 miles for everyday city driving in the summer. And that tends to be more reliable then solely on the fuel gauge alone.

Also, another example. I had to recharge my Eris since it was at 2% after not charging for a day. I've had it plugged in for a few hours, but I a restart. Before I restarted, it said it was at 99%. Then when it rebooted it went down to 65%. The battery isn't bad, it just wasn't reporting the correct charge.

 

[jsamps0n]

While I would agree in theory that "unused memory is wasted memory", there was a point made in this thread that all is fine until the OS needs to free some memory in order to perform another action, at which point some overhead would be incurred to swap something out and make that page of memory available for use.

As an old-school systems programmer, we learned that this "paging" activity can significantly slow things down if not managed correctly. That said, my thinking has been that killing un-needed tasks could be useful in order to avoid the extra overhead of paging.

However, while using ATK, I don't always see an "available memory" bump after killing a bunch of running tasks (assuming that the "available memory" indication is even close to accurate).

Putting the pros and cons of ATK aside, I have 2 lingering questions:

1) Is there a decent and accurate app available for memory mgmt?

2) Why do absolutely random apps start themselves without any indication? (I frequently find things running when I open ATK that were not used/opened and this is after previously killing all the "safe" apps that were running)

Thanks for your thoughts...