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Help Task Killer - Good or Bad?

LunchBB said:
Is any task killer program good or bad for MT4g? What's your thought and why?
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Task killers are bad for Android, read this article to understand why.

Basically:

  • 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.

It's best to let android manage the system.
 
Oh I remembered back in Windows CE or Windows Mobile, the OS is supposed to close apps. But people all complain what they want is a close app button. The OS was not doing the job. So I hope Android will be better in memory/app management.
 
LunchBB said:
Oh I remembered back in Windows CE or Windows Mobile, the OS is supposed to close apps. But people all complain what they want is a close app button. The OS was not doing the job. So I hope Android will be better in memory/app management.
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When I got into the android OS I didn't quite understand how the system was doing things and I wanted to be able to close tasks completely. So, I vowed to become an android developer and write my own task manager. Along the way I learned a lot of things, including how the system manages itself.

Today I am a registered software developer, I have written my own apps and published them in the android market. However, you won't find any task killers written by me because one of the things I learned is that a 3rd party task killer is redundant because the android system takes good care of things on it own. Using a 3rd party task killer is circumventing the system management that is already in place.
 
Good thought! but how developers benefits from tasks killers if they are free? Okay, I'm being naive here. =)
 
Isn't that info only TRULY relevant to 2.2? (obviously the version in question...so it's a moot point anyway)

but...I thought 2.1 and below wasn't quite so good at killing processes on its own and could actually benefit from a task killer.

No?
 
Basscasey said:
Isn't that info only TRULY relevant to 2.2? (obviously the version in question...so it's a moot point anyway)

but...I thought 2.1 and below wasn't quite so good at killing processes on its own and could actually benefit from a task killer.

No?
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Actually, Android was coded from the beginning to manage the system quite well on its own. Third party task killers were never really needed, though the task killer devs won't admit it :)
 
So then it is just my imagination that my phone runs better when I (manually) kill the apps using a task killer. BTW, I never leave the task killer open, I kill it too.

Guess I just like to kill stuff...
 
Texter said:
So then it is just my imagination that my phone runs better when I (manually) kill the apps using a task killer. BTW, I never leave the task killer open, I kill it too.

Guess I just like to kill stuff...
Click to expand...
Perhaps it's the fact that you feel better after killing a task that makes it appear that your phone is running better. Power of suggestion can do some amazing things.
 
Yeah, maybe so. But, I still like to kill stuff. Might change my mind in the future.

BTW, does the iPad need some sort of task killer? No way to go backwards when running one of those apps. You always hit the home button.
 
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