Re: How do you use multitasking in N900?
 

I usually have always some widget running on the desktop, like the media-player widget, email-widget, calendar-widget, and the 2 widgets to see the IP & gprs-traffic (I've forgotten the name but they are so reliable that you never have to look up the name :-).

Apps without window, which are always running:

* "Recaller"

* OpenWatch ( + bluetooth)


Those Apps which need open windows, I usually close when I don't want to use my N900 anymore (e.g. at night).

I frequently use in parallel:

* Skype (only via wireless LAN, but I always have wireless LAN around - at work and at home)
-> for IM & Phone Calls

* www2sms (everything from now on on wireless & 3G)

* Xournal

* media player

* fmms (I receive my emails via MMS)

* email (If I want to answere an email and I don't have a PC around)

* Fahrplan (I don't have a car, so have to lookup the bus shedual frequently)

* Opera & Maemo's default browser (I always have to compare the speed and usability -- opera is better/faster/more usable but no flash!) (2-3 tabs in opera or 2-3 windows otherwise).

* Other not so frequently used apps:
MStarDict & QStarDict & Wallet

So, I guess, I'm in the range >6 Apps at the same time :-)

regards,
nexus

Re: How do you use multitasking in N900?
 

I have many widgets running and i use web, mail, fmms, mp, x terminal, im, and contacts. I think I use more than 6 apps at the same time.

Re: How do you use multitasking in N900?
 

I usually multitask more* when I'm using the application manager. I just fire up the browser to read something while waiting for applications to download or update.

The kinds of applications i use at the same time: email, web, conboy, media player, VoIP, all IM accounts (MSN, jabber) and a twitter client.

Please, a huge amount of RAM would definitely make things better!

[*] I would very much like to multitask while the application manager is running. However, the N900 seems to freeze while application manger is installing applications.

Re: How do you use multitasking in N900?
 

It seems like I usually have at least 3 windows open while actively using, but I also depends on how close I am to power.

If I can plug it in, probably around 6. The problem is the phone - great once it gets going, but coming in from the background is not always a smooth experience. Missed a call yesterday because it was unresponsive while opening I believe I had web, email, maybe one other window open. I also run Conversations, Battery, Foreca, FM trans, shutter, timer and Media player widgets (in addition to a bunch of shortcuts)

Re: How do you use multitasking in N900?
 

Dear Peter,

Typically I close the apps not required: Because of fears, that they consume to much power. If I had an easy indication, which app does not put any load on the CPU etc. while in background, I would leave open several of these applications as long as the device stays responsive (eg. phone, email, browser, penpen, calendar, contacts, media player) simply to eliminate the loading time.

However, even with the tendency to close apps, I have open up to 4 apps simultaneously.

Multitasking is a feature much appreciated! MeeGo as an OS should not limit the number of simultaneously open apps -- only the hardware may do so. (The larger the screen, the more apps will be run simultaneously -- and hopefully not only screen time sharing but also screen space sharing.)

Re: How do you use multitasking in N900?
 

I'd like to see a sound system implementation that is capable of supporting multitasking properly. Its not very good at the moment.

Re: How do you use multitasking in N900?
 

Well whatever thing is displaying CPU use to you is stupid and counting the iowait figure as cpu use. Iowait is cpu being idle. It's different from regular idle in that there would be processes wanting to run, but data they need is not in ram.

While you're in the browser and the browser eats more and more ram, everything you aren't using gets dropped from memory on a least recently used basis. When the browser then has things it needs on emmc and stalls waiting for it, and you try switch to something else, it's not either in ram anymore.

Something very small, that continously or regulary executes the same code, has the best chance of actually continuing to execute smoothly. Not anything huge enough to have a gui though. Under large memory pressure, an app's code to process a button tap will have been dropped from memory in between you tapping on the button, if there's alot of other stuff going on that needs ram.

On N810 I was toying with the idea of creating a small daemon with its memory locked (so it can't be dropped from ram) to monitor memory hogs and pause big users of memory if the system slowed down, letting other smaller tasks complete first. It'd give up attempts at multitasking under heavy memory and IO pressure and instead execute everything as batch mode. Unfortunately my N900 with doubly sized RAM compared to N810 arrived before I got to it..

Re: How do you use multitasking in N900?
 

I should look and see where it's deriving it from. I'm just taking the simple CPU meter from the repos as a reference, since the system is usually too bogged down to get to top in time.

Right, and as you mentioned later nothing is locked in RAM to protect it from getting swapped out. I'm aware of why it's not responding to taps, it just strikes me as sloppy that such things could be allowed to get pushed out of RAM.

I suppose using something like that to profile Maemo, and lock certain pages in RAM would be useful. The telephony stack and hildon-desktop remaining interactive would be better than allowing the whole thing to come to a screeching halt.

Re: How do you use multitasking in N900?
 

Options, options, options. ;)

Re: How do you use multitasking in N900?
 

Well if you lock one thing in memory, everything else suffers... Also, I imagine getting X to sensibly ensure that it's able to always service certain apps is going to be a gigantic effort to program..