To Quit or not to Quit

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Since I bought my Macbook, i noticed that after you close an app like Firefox on OS X, it doesn't really quit the application. I can tell its "still there" because of the little arrow next to its corresponding icon on the Dock. I always wondered why that was. Now days, i always quit the app by pressing Apple+Q. I was wondering if its better to close apps or actually quit them, every time you're done with them for the moment.
 
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Some apps, but not all, you can close "Red X" but not quit, and they continue to work on whatever task you gave it. I think in the case of Browsers, they simply open back up more quickly from just closed and not quit.

For instance, when I download a torrent of a new linux distro with Transmission, i can close it, but it continues to download and upload. Mail I can close, but it continues to monitor my mail.

I think that's really the only big thing there. You could use the Activity Monitor in your Utilities to see if leaving them closed but not quit is using up all your memory, cpu, or otherwise.

Brian
 
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"X"ing it out doesn't quit the application, it just "hides" it... you can quickly relaunch it from the dock, that's what the arrow means. It's still active, just hidden. Just close it if you're gonna go back to it in a few minutes..
 
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If you're low on ram and need to use other applications, you might want to actually quit the programs you are not using.
 
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I was wondering if its better to close apps or actually quit them, every time you're done with them for the moment.

I am not sure if this is what you want but I just right click (or hold down the single mouse button) on the icon in the dock and go to Quit or I go to the name of the application in the task bar and go to quit.

I think that quits the apps I am running as that little arrow/triangle in the dock disappears.
 

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