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Multitasking is something the Maemo 5 OS can do really well. Really Really Well.
Especially when you couple it with the Hardware on the Nokia N900.
Here’s more about it.
The Nokia N900 has a ARM Cortex A8 “superscalar” microprocessor core which is running at 600 MHz. Probably might be even faster if someone manages to Overclock it (The current cpu running at 100% is clocked at 600Mhz). I’m guessing it could go upto 650 Mhz and stay stable ? (Considering there might be some amount of leeway in there).
Now to go with that, there’s 256 Mb of Ram. Nokia says there’s up to 1 GB of application memory (256 MB RAM, 768 MB virtual memory). So in Theory if/when Apps run out of Physical Ram, they could use that 768 Mb of virtual memory.
And then on top of ALL of that, there’s a 3D graphics accelerator with OpenGL ES 2.0 support to help with all the visuals.
This all, coupled with the Maemo 5 OS, means the N900 is a serious beast at Multi-tasking and there’s nothing that comes anywhere near it, in this regard.
Even with 18 Programs running simultaneously, the N900 still had about 164 Mb of Ram left to play around with.
Maemo 5 also puts Multitasking in the limelight. When you press the Menu button (top left in above screenshot), you’ll see any programs you have left open, first. Tap the Menu button again, and you’ll go to the menu.
Likewise, if you’re in a program, tapping the menu button will take you to the Currently Running Programs list. Another tap on the on-screen button, will take you to the menu.
It isnt hidden like the current version of Symbian and it’s long-press-menu-key-to-see-running-programs.
Another nice feature is that in the currently running programs list, you can close programs directly from right there, by tapping the “x” mark on the top right side of their individual screen. These screens are all live, instead of icons (like in Symbian), which is really useful to see what’s going on in which program.
A couple screenshots arnt enough to explain this though. Here’s a short video showing what Multitasking on Maemo 5 looks like, and how it all works.
So as you can see, Maemo 5 can really handle Multitasking.
Have any questions about Multitasking on the N900 ? Something we missed ? Do let us know in the comments y’all !
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff
Being a Linux user and having "only" the NOKIA N97,my question is simple. Could Maemo 5 be modifiedto run on the N97. Xmas would come early for me then.
hey Cj, your N900 is NAM or European? Have you managed to get Nokia Messaging working with inbuilt client?
Not that I know of. Seems very unlikely tho. Maemo needs a bit of hardware specs that the N97 simply doesnt have.
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