[nerys]

ahh no actually your entirely missing my point.

if I only have 80mb of memory at my disposal then I can only "RUN" 80mb of programs at any one point in time.

I will reiterate my point which was in my opening post.

How much memory does my phone have. Got that 288mb.

is having 81mb free with no processes in the task manager running normal? YES OR NO.

if yes. End of line I need no more info. IF NO I would like to know why and what I need to fix.

its really that simple. I have no idea why your blowing it up.

I don't care how many background programs linux and android want to run as long as it does not slow it down FINE run whatever it feels like running. I don't care.

what is the threshold if any for android between bloated and smooth?

I know in my winmo side if I get below 45-50mb free memory the system gets REALLY sluggish even with NOTHING running.

so when clean ram can no longer get me over 45mb I "reboot" no big deal

SO some new questions.

DOES such a condition exist with android on the TP2. is there a threshold of get below this and system gets unstable (though so far its EXTREMELY efficient at maintaining a memory level free)

ie should I always strive to maintain X amount of memory free to keep things smooth or does that not apply with android??

I KNOW it applies to some extent since previously (yesterday) when I whacked those background applications the system performance IMPROVED.

the only reason to run an app in the background is two fold.

#1 to load it faster when its recalled
#2 its actually performing a background function

If I need NEITHER of those two it makes no sense to slow the system down running it.

Do you agree or not? if not why? will it not slow my system down running them?

I am new to android maybe I am wasting my time trying to clean up ram but IT DID make the system faster by a visibly significant amount.

even just "swiping" the screen left and right is now visibly smoother and faster.

so stopping those apps DID help.

but how much? ie would stopping half of them have been enough?

I don't know the answers to these questions. WHY spend hours experimenting and never knowing if my data is even valid when I can just ASK someone else who has already done all this and just learn from them.

I read the thread where task killers are a bad idea. SO I chose not to use them. instead I altered the built in systems killer threshold as suggested. works like a dream I am happy.

PLUS it improves battery life DRAMATICALLY.

ie my phone actually goes to SLEEP when I turn it off now. before the orange led stayed lit tell me its still "active" chewing up the battery.

I had no way of knowing why sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not. since I set the memory free such that pretty much all backgroud apps close not only is it faster but it almost 100% of the time goes to "green" proper sleep now.

so thats another plus.