Multitasking on Android - Page 2 - maemo.org

mscion | # 11 | 2016-06-23, 13:56 | Report

Originally Posted by marmistrz View Post

Well, the problem is not the number of apps running at the same time.

Often I do it this way: open one app in the morning, use the phone all day (with this one minimized or used once or twice), and open it back in the evening.

Android would've killed this a long time ago.

Yes. That is a good point. I've tried the same where I've opened a document editor made an edit and then put it in background. Sometimes it lasts a day and sometimes it doesn't. I had wondered if there was a time out but as far as I can tell androids main criteria for killing jobs is ram memory based. It could also be device dependent. Main lesson there is if you are working on, say, a document, using android and you do not want to lose changes save them before moving on to something else. Btw, terminal emulator is run as a service. I've never seen it closed, no matter how long I've had it running in background.

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aegis | # 12 | 2016-06-24, 10:22 | Report

Originally Posted by marmistrz View Post

Well, the problem is not the number of apps running at the same time.

Often I do it this way: open one app in the morning, use the phone all day (with this one minimized or used once or twice), and open it back in the evening.

Android would've killed this a long time ago.

How is that a problem?

If the app isn't doing anything then it saves state and releases resources saving your battery. It restores state back to where you left it when you resume it. If the phone has plenty of RAM then it restores the activity instance from RAM instantly. It makes no difference and is arguably safer than an app that doesn't save state but relies on continuously running. If it is doing something then it keeps a background service open.

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marmistrz | # 13 | 2016-06-24, 10:23 | Report

And now run a desktop app from a chroot. Whoops, no one thought about saving the state... And why should he

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aegis | # 14 | 2016-06-24, 10:44 | Report

Originally Posted by marmistrz View Post

And now run a desktop app from a chroot. Whoops, no one thought about saving the state... And why should he

That would be a **** desktop app. Even desktop apps do that today as 'desktop' includes being mobile on battery. Some OSs also actively power down apps reducing priority. Eg. MacOS has 'App Naps' to conserve battery life.

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marmistrz | # 15 | 2016-06-24, 11:23 | Report

Well, most desktop apps just stay idle, don't save anything until explicitly requested to. See pluma, gedit, mnemosyne, galculator, banshee..

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pichlo | # 16 | 2016-06-24, 11:52 | Report

Originally Posted by aegis View Post

If the app isn't doing anything then it saves state and releases resources saving your battery.

I can give you plenty of examples where saving and restoring the state wastes the battery rather than saving it. Especially if "restoring" involves starting the application from zero and then reloading the last saved state. If the saved state is "in the cloud", as is quite common nowadays, chances are it may not be exactly the same as it was when you left it but a few seconds behind.

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nodevel | # 17 | 2016-06-24, 12:19 | Report

Originally Posted by aegis View Post

That would be a **** desktop app. Even desktop apps do that today as 'desktop' includes being mobile on battery. Some OSs also actively power down apps reducing priority. Eg. MacOS has 'App Naps' to conserve battery life.

That sounds like a good advice against using those desktop OSs, not like an advice to have it on mobile too

I didn't know MacOS did this, but I'll keep my distance, thanks.

Originally Posted by mscion View Post

Multitasking, meaning you decide when your app dies, can apparently be improved using apps or xposed modules...

It's worth mentioning that the Xposed framework requires root which is a no-go on devices like BlackBerry Priv (mentioned in the other, HW-focused thread) and unfortunately on some other phones (Samsung) as well, unless you want to rely on a random binary from the internet (SuperSU) with no available source code. I thought most/all Android phones were safely rootable, but I learned the hard way it's not the case. So it's probably good having transparent root as one of the conditions for a purchase.

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mscion | # 18 | 2016-06-24, 13:58 | Report

Originally Posted by nodevel View Post

That sounds like a good advice against using those desktop OSs, not like an advice to have it on mobile too

I didn't know MacOS did this, but I'll keep my distance, thanks.

It's worth mentioning that the Xposed framework requires root which is a no-go on devices like BlackBerry Priv (mentioned in the other, HW-focused thread) and unfortunately on some other phones (Samsung) as well, unless you want to rely on a random binary from the internet (SuperSU) with no available source code. I thought most/all Android phones were safely rootable, but I learned the hard way it's not the case. So it's probably good having transparent root as one of the conditions for a purchase.

I might add that apps like Ram Manager also needs root. Also if you root your phone you will not be able to use Android Pay or Samsung, Pay for example, if you are so inclined. Rooting allows you to customize you phone in so many ways. It's part of the fun for me.
There are some new approaches to rooting that may be more robust.

http://www.xda-developers.com/chainf...ifying-system/

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aegis | # 19 | 2016-06-24, 16:06 | Report

Originally Posted by marmistrz View Post

Well, most desktop apps just stay idle, don't save anything until explicitly requested to. See pluma, gedit, mnemosyne, galculator, banshee..

Most desktop apps on Linux you mean. That's not how the very same apps work on a Mac.

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marmistrz | # 20 | 2016-06-24, 16:17 | Report

Originally Posted by mscion View Post

I might add that apps like Ram Manager also needs root. Also if you root your phone you will not be able to use Android Pay or Samsung, Pay for example, if you are so inclined. Rooting allows you to customize you phone in so many ways. It's part of the fun for me.
There are some new approaches to rooting that may be more robust.

http://www.xda-developers.com/chainf...ifying-system/

And we have basically no alternative than Android right now (if we wish a hwkb)
So sad.

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