Mac OS X Lion Notes: iOS Scroll Bars, Any Corner Resizing, Dock Changes

[Philotech]

I can't believe I read the entire 20 page thread, but I have and can say I agree with KnightWRX. I do not want to be told how to use my computer. I want to be able to tell the computer what to do. If I want to have a program listening on a specific port, it should remain open and listen until I close it. I do not want the OS to arbitrarily suspend it just because I haven't touched it for an hour. Nor do I want all notification traffic routed through some offsite server. Personally, I'm not impressed with the dumbing-down of the OS and abstracting control away from the user.

Nobody said the OS would shut down Photoshop while you're working at a photo, how come you and so many others impose that anybody is saying that?!?
We are only assuming that Apple makes the dots go away because from a user perspective it doesn't matter if a program is technically running but doing nothing until the user invokes it or technically not running and doing nothing until the user invokes it. Nothing else.
Of course apps may use any kind of indicators showing that it is online or processing photo batches or whatever. For some reasons inexplicable to me, apparently nobody cares for a (dock) indication that iChat is online or that Photoshop processes batches, but everybody wants to know that iChat is "running". What does it tell you? Only that it uses 0.001% of your CPU and memory resources (because it's paged out), which is totally neglectable. Or that it uses any amount between 0.001% and 80% of your CPU and memory in case of Photoshop, because the dot doesn't tell you if you have huge photos open or that PS is batch processing.

So effectively the dot tells me that a program does use a lot of system resources or that it does not use any system resources. or, to the point, a glowing dot means yes or no, it depends. Great, that's very valuable information!

In iOS only one application can run at a time, there's no true multi-tasking. That's not the case in OS X. For example, it's good to know when Photoshop, Lightroom, Nikon Capture NX, Photo Mechanic and PT Gui are all running at the same time, because they take a lot of resources. Another example is that when Skype is using the webcam I can't launch FaceTime. Of course I can do Cmd-Tab to see which applications are running, it's not the end of the world. It's just weird to get rid of a feature that didn't hurt anyone.

You may be right, but none of the information you care about can be derived from the glowing dot. NONE! NONE! NONE!

Skype running doesn't prevent using the camera for FaceTime, only video-phoning with Skype does so. PS running doesn't take any resources, only processing photos does so. Currently, you cannot tell from the dots if the programs use any resources because they might have been put to sleep waiting for user or disk or network input with (almost) all their code and data paged out to disk.

 

[invictus]

What does this really mean? Will apps close/save state instead of minimizing? in that case, must all background apps rely on push notifications from some apple server?

I can still use networked apps without breaking the tcp-connection due to the app saving state and closing down instead of swapping between windows?

Sorry if this has already been answered...

 

[iBug2]

You've obviously missed the point. If Mission Control is just a glorified Expose (albeit we don't know the final design) then it is not an alternative that wasn't already in place. Hence it is not an ADDED alternative, but a preexisting one. Using sophistry like "provided" is just a shell game to take away an option while pretending something new is replacing it.

The GUI in Mac OS X is not intuitive, not innovative, and these new refinements are not even really improvements. Here's why:

In Mac OS X to know what apps are open, you can currently glance at the dock. But one usually has an idea of what apps are open. Still, it is a good first order way of being aware of what's running. However, knowing which apps are open isn't really fine-grained enough. It's still only a general level of awareness. What you really need to know is what specific tasks you are working on e.g. files, windows, tabs, letters, documents, etc. These are found at the windows level of the GUI. People experience, interface with, and work within these specific windows, not apps.

Is there a way to know what specific windows and files are open in Mac OS X? Sure, Cmd tab, Expose, track pad swipes, etc. But all these features require you to DO something, some kind of motion i.e. clicking, swiping, typing, etc. Mission Control doesn't look like it is going to lessen the clicks, you'll still have to click, swipe or type to initiate Mission Control in the first place. What if you could tell what apps and what windows and what files were open without doing anything?

In Windows 7, for example, you can just glance down at the taskbar button and you instantly know what specific apps, windows, and files are open. There is even a truncated descriptor of the window or file name, which gives you more information. You don't have to DO a thing; no clicking, no swiping, no typing. When you want to move to another window, just point and click. If you want a preview, you just hover the mouse, you don't even have to clcik and hold. I spend too much time in Mac OS X toggling the Expose key to see what windows are open. You have to press the Expose keyboard button, then click it again to resume what you were doing. To move to another app or window, you press the Expose button, look for the window you want among the clutter, then click that window to bring it forward. (Or tab through apps, and then tab through windows). More movement and more effort. In short: it's clunky. And I won't even get into how much time I spend resizing windows because they open unpredictably, and trying to finesse the right bottom corner. Or manipulating windows around using Spaces (which has the added step of setting it up in the first place).

Apple, with its app-centric worldview that creates unnecessary clicking, swiping and typing, is behind the times. Microsoft figured out a long time ago that people work in windows, not apps. Which is why in Windows, a window is an instantiation of an app, not a subset of it. Maybe Lion will address some of these things, but I'm not holding my breath. When an OS has been developed over a decade and it still takes two steps to quit an app, then there is a design philosophy that seems stale.

Not hitting a key isn't necessarily "faster". For example if you have 50 apps in dock and let's say 20 of them are open, then looking through all the icons in the dock is slower than hitting cmd+tab and seeing exactly the apps which are open.

So not doing anything to get to some information isn't always faster than doing something for it.

The same way, Expose is a much faster way to see which windows are open than Windows taskbar. When all the active windows+apps are covered in your entires screen, your eyes can identify them faster than reading through their "titles" in the taskbar.

Not to mention hitting a key takes only a couple of milliseconds, considering the latency from screen to our brains, it's nothing. If you have 21 windows open, you will spend more time reading through the title of the first one than hitting a key.

 

[KnightWRX]

Not hitting a key isn't necessarily "faster". For example if you have 50 apps in dock and let's say 20 of them are open, then looking through all the icons in the dock is slower than hitting cmd+tab and seeing exactly the apps which are open.

I have about 10 apps in my dock. And when I specifically know which ones I want to look at (in my case of Skype/MSN/Transmission that need to be stopped when I'm at work or on tethering), I don't have to go through all of them, just a quick glance at the 3 icons and I know if I need to quit them before plugging in.

People trying to find dozens of "workarounds" and "alternatives" just proves my point even more : Why even remove it in the first place ? All the proposed "workarounds" and "alternatives" don't replace the lights, they are things we already have.

I personally will just wait and see what Apple has in store. It's not a showstopper at all, it's a nice convenience. If it's not there, oh well, just goes to show how Apple is forcing through the iOS look n' feel transition at the cost of functionality.

 

[Jon the Heretic]

Fallen

Yes, that's what I said, it shows all recently used apps which, of course, includes all apps that are running. But you can't tell from an app being in the multitasking bar that it's using any resources because it looks just the same as any other recently used app, true?
And (as I said, can't check for sure because I'm on 3.2) doesn't the bar show the Cancel badge also on apps that aren't using any resources? I.e. the only thing you'd do is delete them from the multitasking bar?

No, you said iOS4 displays no state for apps that were running. My point was that it did, and therefore this whole discussion is a load of nonsense.

The multitasking bar shows shows all of the apps that are multitasking---if it isn't there, it ain't multitasking. Apple did broaden the bar to show some apps which are not yet multitasking aware, which is something you take solace in. Fact is that if an app is running, it is in that list; if it is not running, it is not in that list. AND you can cancel it to release that's apps lock on memory and resources (actually that app's lock on iOS4's multitasking services---NO apps are truly multitasking in iOS4). If it important to know what apps are running in iOS4 which is only multitasking a handful of services, it is all that much more important to know if an entire end user application process is consuming resources on MacOS X.

It is true that Apple has conflated showing running app awareness with recent app launching, but the fact remains, if you want to free up resources in iOS4, you know where to go and how to cancel that app. The MacOS X Dock also conflates launching and running state as well; the iOS4 tray conflates things a little bit more but you can rest assured that if it isn't in the bar/tray, it isn't running. And the more apps that support iOS4 multitasking, they have to be rewritten for it you know, the more that show up there are in fact 'running' and are not just 'recent'.

 

[Thunderbird]

Not hitting a key isn't necessarily "faster". For example if you have 50 apps in dock and let's say 20 of them are open, then looking through all the icons in the dock is slower than hitting cmd+tab and seeing exactly the apps which are open.

No it isn't, because you still have to visually scan all the open apps.

In same way, Expose is a much faster way to see which windows are open than Windows taskbar. When all the active windows+apps are covered in your entires screen, your eyes can identify them faster than reading through their "titles" in the taskbar.

Then you must have special Apple eyes. In the extra milliseconds it takes you to take the extra step to open Expose, I've already scanned through half my apps on the taskbar.

Not to mention hitting a key takes only a couple of milliseconds, considering the latency from screen to our brains, it's nothing. If you have 21 windows open, you will spend more time reading through the title of the first one than hitting a key.

Just absurd. Looking through the Exposed windows takes no less time than looking through taskbar buttons, especially given that Expose splays windows out all over the screen creating more 'eye sweep', whereas the taskbar buttons are lined up in a horizontal row along the bottom.

 

[KnightWRX]

No it isn't, because you still have to visually scan all the open apps.

Then you must have special Apple eyes. In the extra milliseconds it takes you to take the extra step to open Expose, I've already scanned through half my apps on the taskbar.

Just absurd. Looking through the Exposed windows takes no less time than looking through taskbar buttons, especially given that Expose splays windows out all over the screen creating more 'eye sweep', whereas the taskbar buttons are lined up in a horizontal row along the bottom.

WARNING : The logic you are using in the context of this rumor paints Apple in a negative light. As such, the poster you are responding to won't be able to justify to Apple's action without resorting to the reality distortion field.

WARNING : Prolonged use of the reality distortion field has many side effects. It is not recommended.

WARNING : Discontinue any activities that apply logic in a way to try to explain why Apple would be wrong to prevent any unnecessary use of the reality distortion field.

Seriously, just accept it. None of the Apple apologists will admit that Expose/CMD+TAB/whatever requires more action than the dock lights. They will say Mission Control will solve all, you just have to hit... etc. It's fine. We know the truth. It's not a showstopper truth, just one more annoyance added on top of the pile.

 

[Jon the Heretic]

Nonsense discussion

As I have said before, this is a nonsense discussion based on faulty assumptions. iOS4 DOES tell you which apps are multitasking; no app is multitasking if it is not in that switching tray/multitasking bar. Apple even discusses the tray in their propaganda on multitasking in iOS4. This tray DID NOT exist before multitasking services were introduced in iOS4! The reason it exists is it is important to know what resources are being consumed by running apps. If you want to Cancel a process, if it is not in that list, there is no need to cancel it! It isn't using resources anyway.

On to MacOS X...Apple may try to introduce auto saving of state and data like the iOS. There are apps for which this makes sense. And there are apps (like Photoshop or Photoshop) for which this makes NO sense.

If Apple wants to erase the distinction between running and not running by removing info in the Dock, it doesn't matter. Like the Shuffle with returning buttons, you will see this feature back in the very next release. It is a bad idea---Apple isn't immune to bad ideas but they typically eliminate them after a single experiment. No more round mice! No more circular/dial Quicktime controls!

On MacOS X, entire applications run as processes and consume a lot more resources. Apple may introduce the multitasking services to MacOS X to save on battery and resources just like they did with iOS4, but they can't/won't eliminate the ability to run an application as a full blown process like you can today. Even today there are some apps on MacOS that could get by running just a few background services, freeing up CPU and memory for running Final Cut and Photoshop and video games (all of which need to run as normal preemptive processes).

I can see Apple attempting to mix the running state with Recent apps like they did with iOS4. It is a clever way of hiding the fact that apps have multiple states, even though they still do have those states and those states matter enough to give people the ability to Cancel apps even though those apps are only consuming services and are not fully multitasking. We have Recent apps/recent documents in MacOS X today (I turn mine off) and while mildly useful, aren't exactly killer concepts. Change the Dock so that Recent apps and Running apps are all in a special place, you hide State of the App behind another simpler concept (recent app)---but you can still find the full list of running user apps in that same list, and quit things that are wasting resources. But unless BSD UNIX evolves by leaps and bounds into something that requires no resource management by the user, this will be skin deep only.

 

[KnightWRX]

No, you said iOS4 no state for apps that were running. My point was that it did, and therefore this whole discussion is a load of nonsense.

The multitasking bar shows shows all of the apps that are multitasking---if it isn't there, it ain't multitasking.

He's right, you're wrong. The "task manager" on iOS 4 doesn't show apps that are multi-tasking or even apps that are running or even apps that have any kind of special feature. There's only 1 criteria to get on there :

- The app must have been opened since the last time you cleaned out the task manager.

Seriously, as it stands, the task manager on iOS is useless. It's just a list of all the apps you opened since the last time you decided to clean it up, which can be from the last reboot of your phone if you don't know how to clean it up (just touch and hold one of them until they giggle, then touch the - in the corner for each app you want to clear. This will also have the side effect of stopping any multi-tasking app however and there is no indication in there if an app is even running or not).

 

[Jon the Heretic]

Repetition doesn't equal correctness

He's right, you're wrong. The "task manager" on iOS 4 doesn't show apps that are multi-tasking or even apps that are running or even apps that have any kind of special feature. There's only 1 criteria to get on there :

- The app must have been opened since the last time you cleaned out the task manager.

Just because you repeat it doesn't make it correct.

This is a task manager. My iOS 4.1 2nd gen iPod Touch doesn't get the tray because it doesn't support multitasking. There is nothing about the older models that would preclude a supposed "Recent apps" list from being utilized. It isn't there because that model doesn't support multitasking.

Apple has conflated Recency with running, but if it is running it is in that list. And if you don't have multitasking support, you don't get the feature though Recent apps would be useful even without multitasking if that is what it truly is for.

 

[KnightWRX]

Repetition doesn't equal correctness

Just because you repeat it doesn't make it correct.

It is correct not because I repeat it but because that's how it works.

The task manager is just a list of any app you have opened and not removed from the task manager. Every app gets on there, whether it is currently running, stopped, swapped out, picking its nose, whatever. Apps only get removed through manual intervention from the user or a phone reboot.

It is that lame. No matter how much you don't want it to be that lame, it is. No matter how much you repeat apps that are on there are multi-tasked or running doesn't make it true.

 

[KintoVW]

Already Disappearing Scrollbars??????

Set your Stacks "View Content As" to Grid and you'll notice that the scroll bar almost disappears when not in use. It's only when actually scrolling that it slightly lightens in color and visibility. This is with 10.6.4 (not sure of previous versions). Possibly slowly integrating the scrollbar-less feature from iOS and presumably Lion?

 

[Jon the Heretic]

It is for multitasking

It is correct not because I repeat it but because that's how it works.

The task manager is just a list of any app you have opened and not removed from the task manager. Every app gets on there, whether it is currently running, stopped, swapped out, picking its nose, whatever. Apps only get removed through manual intervention from the user or a phone reboot.

It is that lame. No matter how much you don't want it to be that lame, it is. No matter how much you repeat apps that are on there are multi-tasked or running doesn't make it true.

Apple added it to support multitasking. That is why iOS4.x devices that don't support multitasking don't have it. It is that simple.

Yes, it conflates recent apps with multitasking apps, but its value comes from letting you manage running apps. That is why Apple doesn't include it on iOS devices that don't support multitasking----showing only recent apps is pointless.

 

[tigress666]

You know what, I'll put in my .02 cents. I like the dots. They do something that command tab doesn't do.

They tell me when my computer has acknowledged me telling it to open a program (command tab only shows it once it's opened up, not when it's opening). Or when maybe it didn't acknowledge or randomly quit after trying to open. Yes, I've had issues like that (particularly with Word or Firefox that takes a while to start up).

So... for all those bitching we can just command apple or that we don't need to know what programs are open, what is your solution for me then?

 

[KnightWRX]

Apple added it to support multitasking. That is why iOS4.x devices that don't support multitasking don't have it. It is that simple.

I never argued that it didn't. I know it did. It showed up on my 3GS with iOS 4.x. It was a point in the keynote about iOS 4.x. Why you keep coming back with that is baffling, this was never at issue.

Yes, it conflates recent apps with multitasking apps, but its value comes from letting you manage running apps. That is why Apple doesn't include it on iOS devices that don't support multitasking----showing only recent apps is pointless.

But again, it doesn't provide value from letting you manage running apps because you have no clue about which is running and which is just there because you opened it sometime since the last time you cleaned out the Task Manager.

You cannot use it to manage running apps. There is no way anyone can with how it is implemented. I told you, it is lame. It basically is just a big "2nd homescreen containing only the apps you launched since the last time you clean up or rebooted your phone".

To present it as anything else is completely not understanding how that thing works.

 

[Jon the Heretic]

Wrong again

You cannot use it to manage running apps. There is no way anyone can with how it is implemented. I told you, it is lame. It basically is just a big "2nd homescreen containing only the apps you launched since the last time you clean up or rebooted your phone".

Wrong again. You can Cancel apps from it and switch to apps that are running. This is task management.

Why is this important? Maybe you haven't been following the thread very closely but I pointed out that Apple does show you a list of running apps on iOS devices today (conflated with some recent apps, but that IS the full freaking list of running apps; if it isn't there, it isn't running) and you can Cancel running apps with it to free up resources. Try it. It is useful for people with multitasking iOS devices but not for those of us who might only use it for Recent apps.

This is important because of the baseless assertions that iOS doesn't give you any indication of which apps are running and that Apple will carry this beneficent philosophy to MacOS X. Funny thing is that it isn't even true of iOS so why would it be of MacOS X in the future?

 

[KnightWRX]

Wrong again. You can Cancel apps from it and switch to apps that are running. This is task management.

Again, I never said this wasn't so, I said there is no way to know which apps are running from it. It's just a big bunch of apps, some that might be running. How can you effectively manage tasks without knowing the state of these tasks ? (is the app running ? Is it paused ? Is it just a "recent app" ?).

This task manager is completely useless for actually managing apps.

Why is this important? Maybe you haven't been following the thread very closely but I pointed out that Apple does show you a list of running apps on iOS devices today (conflated with some recent apps, but that IS the full freaking list of running apps; if it isn't there, it isn't running)

But it might not be running even if it is there. Again, since you seem to not be grasping the concept : It is not a list of running apps. It doesn't show you running apps ONLY. There is no way from looking at it to know which apps are running.

Clearer now ?

Are you really having a hard time grasping the concept that the iOS task manager is completely lame and does not show running apps EXCLUSIVELY. It shows a bunch of apps, some of which might be running. As such, it is completely useless as a tool to manage running apps.

Feels like I'm arguing with a brick wall here. You're getting awfully close to the ignore list.

 

[tigress666]

But it might not be running even if it is there. Again, since you seem to not be grasping the concept : It is not a list of running apps. It doesn't show you running apps ONLY. There is no way from looking at it to know which apps are running.

Exactly. The task manager on iOS only shows what apps you have opened since the last restart in the order of last opened (I mean everything you've opened since last restart that you have not manually closed. Doesn't mean they are running, just that you opened them in the past and you haven't deleted them from the list). It doesn't show you if it is actually running or not. It would be nice if it at least had a dot or something saying this one is actually running in the background.

 

[whooleytoo]

This is fine for document editors and the like - it doesn't really matter much if it loads (quickly) from the hard disk or from RAM.

It is an issue for any kind of server app, or anything which is listening for local or remote notifications. You really do NEED to know if these are running, and having to hit some keystroke to display which apps are running is a bit of a big step backwards.

There are options though. If, for example, you had to mouse-over the dock to see which were running, it wouldn't be too much of an inconvenience; but still you'd have to question why they're doing this at all in the first place.

 

[blackNBUK]

Are you really having a hard time grasping the concept that the iOS task manager is completely lame and does not show running apps EXCLUSIVELY. It shows a bunch of apps, some of which might be running. As such, it is completely useless as a tool to manage running apps.

Unfortunately I don't yet have any practical experience with iOS4 multitasking, however I don't see why the multitasking bar is lame in theory. If iOS is managing tasks automatically for me I don't see why I should care what is in memory or not. What I really care about is what services are currently working in the background. Some of that looks obvious (eg. if I don't want music playing then I should stop the music, big VOIP bar) and some looks less so (eg. tiny location services icon, task completion)

In practice I think the iOS approach rides or falls on how good iOS is at automatically managing tasks. Can iOS4 be used while never manually removing anything from the multitasking tray?

 

[Jon the Heretic]

I understand fine

Again, I never said this wasn't so, I said there is no way to know which apps are running from it. It's just a big bunch of apps, some that might be running. How can you effectively manage tasks without knowing the state of these tasks ? (is the app running ? Is it paused ? Is it just a "recent app" ?).

This task manager is completely useless for actually managing apps.



But it might not be running even if it is there. Again, since you seem to not be grasping the concept : It is not a list of running apps. It doesn't show you running apps ONLY. There is no way from looking at it to know which apps are running.

Clearer now ?

Are you really having a hard time grasping the concept that the iOS task manager is completely lame and does not show running apps EXCLUSIVELY. It shows a bunch of apps, some of which might be running. As such, it is completely useless as a tool to manage running apps.

Feels like I'm arguing with a brick wall here. You're getting awfully close to the ignore list.

I understand just fine. I just violently disagree with you on every count.

Just because Apple chose to mix in some truly 'recent' -- not running apps -- in that list doesn't mean fundamentally it is not essentially a task list. It just makes it, arguably, a bad one. But if an application is running, it is in that list. Period. They mixed some other crap in. There is no harm in cancelling an app that isn't running, but this is where you go to cancel apps that are running.

It is an EXHAUSTIVE list of all running apps, the ONLY such list on the device even though you may have hundreds of apps installed that are capable of multitasking.

And that, Virgina, is why Apple chose not to include this so-called list of recent apps on iOS 4.x devices that don't support multitasking---because its primary use is for managing running apps. If its only use was for recent apps, Apple would have it put it on more devices, but they didn't. For 'recent app' functionality alone, it wasn't useful enough to put on non-multitasking iOS4.x devices, which got oodles of other iOS 4.x features. Multitasking was cut because of performance. I doubt showing the last several apps you ran falls into the bad performance category.

Think outside the box: Apple has hidden a task list by swizzling in some recent apps and calling it something else, but it doesn't change fundamentally what it is. Actually it is clever way of hiding conceptual complexity, but that fact it is only useful when you have multitasking tells you Apple is under no illusions about what this really is (showing just Recent apps would be 'useful' regardless of whether you had multitasking). So why are you?

Ignore away; it'd make my day!

 

[Philotech]

Mission control requires keystroke to see which apps are running. It's not an alternative to the dock lights.

Mission Control lets you switch between open windows. Blue dots do nothing similar to that. I am sure that MC won't show any apps that have no documents open, ie Pages without a document, Photoshop without a photo, and so on. They will be considered "closed" / "not running". Maybe MC will show (further to the active apps) the say 5 most recently used apps. But if you have closed the last Pages documents a week ago but not actually "quit" Pages, Pages will definitely not show in MC.

 

[Philotech]

Consistency in design philosophy. Either Apple doesn't want us to know whether an app is open or not, or they do.

In Lion, we can still see which apps are "open" by looking at mission control, but not by looking at dock.

That's inconsistent.

NO!
MC will show open documents, but not running apps that have no data to work with. The dock right now also shows such apps ONLY because technically they still have an idle thread in Activity Monitor that does exactly nothing. That's no information the user should need to care about.

 

[KnightWRX]

Mission Control lets you switch between open windows. Blue dots do nothing similar to that.

Good, glad we finally agree that Mission control is not an alternative to the blue lights then.

The blue lights, again, are simply a visual cue as to which app is running. Removing them makes no sense if you're not going to offer an alternative. No, the existing CMD+TAB, Expose, Spaces (now mission control), Activity monitor, etc.. aren't alternatives. That's why we have the blue lights in the first place.

NO!
MC will show open documents, but not running apps that have no data to work with. The dock right now also shows such apps ONLY because technically they still have an idle thread in Activity Monitor that does exactly nothing. That's no information the user should need to care about.

What about non Document centric apps ? Not all apps deal with documents (think instant messenger, torrent clients.. oh wait, exactly my examples when saying the blue lights are practical!)

 

[blackNBUK]

I understand just fine. I just violently disagree with you on every count.

Just because Apple chose to mix in some truly 'recent' -- not running apps -- in that list doesn't mean fundamentally it is not essentially a task list. It just makes it, arguably, a bad one. But if an application is running, it is in that list. Period. They mixed some other crap in. There is no harm in cancelling an app that isn't running, but this is where you go to cancel apps that are running.

It is an EXHAUSTIVE list of all running apps, the ONLY such list on the device even though you may have hundreds of apps installed that are capable of multitasking.

And that, Virgina, is why Apple chose not to include this so-called list of recent apps on iOS 4.x devices that don't support multitasking---because its primary use is for managing running apps. If its only use was for recent apps, Apple would have it put it on more devices, but they didn't. For 'recent app' functionality alone, it wasn't useful enough to put on non-multitasking iOS4.x devices, which got oodles of other iOS 4.x features. Multitasking was cut because of performance. I doubt showing the last several apps you ran falls into the bad performance category.

Think outside the box: Apple has hidden a task list by swizzling in some recent apps and calling it something else, but it doesn't change fundamentally what it is. Actually it is clever way of hiding conceptual complexity, but that fact it is only useful when you have multitasking tells you Apple is under no illusions about what this really is (showing just Recent apps would be 'useful' regardless of whether you had multitasking). So why are you?

Ignore away; it'd make my day!

I think that the absence of the multitasking/"Recently Used" bar on older devices is more down to managing user expectations than any comment on it's basic usefulness. Apple have identified the bar with multitasking; if you could get to the bar on older devices then a lot of users will assume that they have multitasking. By not showing the bar Apple removes that source of confusion and encourages people to upgrade their devices.

In reality I would say that multitasking and the "Recently Used" bar are mostly unrelated features. You can get the benefits of quick App resuming and having stuff running in the background without touching the "Recently Used" bar. Conversely a list of "Recently Used" Apps would be useful without multitasking if only to make switching back quicker (e.g. I've opened a link in an email, how do I quickly get back from Safari to Mail?)