Not really -- on Linux, I can (and I do) disable the daemons. Moreover, most apps are sane, and work well without background daemons (KDE/Gnome being the exception, but they offer no unique functionality not available anywhere else)
This is not the case on Android. Looks like every app wants to run in the background and drain my battery. Even seemingly foreground-only things like maps apps install background services.
Ideally, I'd prefer to have an explicit list of apps which are allowed in background.. but missing that, I guess I will have to settle on automatic guarding.
The reason you don't have a way to disable a background app on Android is because you don't have means to do so. Google could have made controls easily, but they give you automatic guarding instead, which you can't refuse.
What are Google's motives? Do they really care about their users, or do they simply want more control over user devices?
The battery usage reports on Samsung phones are pretty well done, with graphs and all.
Users will also be prompted to kill an app if it's detected running in the background a lot. That's perfect because there are many cases where only the user knows whether the app updating in the background is important to them or not.
This is not the case on Android. Looks like every app wants to run in the background and drain my battery. Even seemingly foreground-only things like maps apps install background services.
Ideally, I'd prefer to have an explicit list of apps which are allowed in background.. but missing that, I guess I will have to settle on automatic guarding.