That would be my bet. He probly has some process(es) on the background eating resources...

Sometimes our beloved multitasking can become an antifeature. Maybe maemo has failed to offer multitasking with a proper priority management. On the same time the iPhone does have multitasking, it is just inflexibly tuned for a specific usage behavior dictated by the bitten apple folks.

We need an application called “iPhonizer” where you list programs like Angry birds and when you are using them it puts all other processes to sleep or something...

Maemo is great because it is flexible... Byt how about automated and acting as you desire with little need for configuration? Possible, but are we there yet?