GKrellM can also display the current date and time, Internet connection and network speed, file system information, battery display, uptime and email account information besides the already mentioned cpu, computer memory and hard drive usage. Each of the available information can be disabled in case they are not needed to reduce the overall size of the system monitor.

There are several settings which can be changed for every system component that is monitored. This ranges from layout changes for the time and date to different charts but also options that can be configured. Options are for example alerts if the system load or computer memory usage reaches a limit or to select a different animation for incoming emails.

A reduction of modules that are displayed in the computer system monitor reduces the memory and cpu usage of the program as well which many will find beneficial. The program with all options and modules enabled uses roughly 20 Megabytes of computer memory. The software program is available for both the Windows and Linux operating system (Linux system monitor review by Jack)

Related posts

• Monitor Your Linux Desktop with Gkrellm (12)
• Monitor System Changes With Tiny Watcher (2)
• ZoneScreen Finally Gets 64-bit Update (7)
• ZC DVD Creator Platinum [Free Full Version] (19)
• Youtube Videos Downloader TubeQueue (17)

So where do you take control of runaway process and/or frozen applications? Does Linux have a system monitor the Windows system monitor? Yes. There are a number of ways. Since this is a “Get to know Linux” article, I will show the easiest (read: GUI) method of achieving this goal. Later I will focus another article on a command line method.

GNOME

Gnome System Monitor

When using the GNOME desktop the GNOME System Monitor is the tool you use to control processes and applications. You will find that in the System Tools entry of the Application menu. GNOME system Monitor will be labeled “System Monitor”.

As you can see, in the image to the left, there are four tabs within this application. The most important tab you will use is the Processes tab. When you click on that tab you will see every process running on your system. Some of these processes the standard user can not kill (they require root privileges.)

To kill an application (or process) scroll through the list, select the target application, and click the End Process button. You will get a confirmation window asking if you are sure you want to end the process. Confirm this and the process will end.

Instead of having to scroll through a long list of processes, if you know the application is sucking up a lot of your CPU you can click on the %CPU column until the arrow is pointing up (at which point the most CPU intensive application will be listed on top.)

KDE

KDE System Monitor

The KDE desktop has a very similar application for ending processes. This utility works in the same way that the GNOME System Monitor works. Locate the application or process, select the listing, and click the Kill Process button.

Like the GNOME version you can click the CPU % column to bring the CPU-intensive applications to the top.

The KDE version of this tool also allows you to filter the processes by All, System, User, Own, and Programs only. This helps you to locate your problem child quicker. You can also do a search for a process or application with this tool. Simply enter the name of your application in the text area and the entries will update automatically.

Final Thoughts

Controlling rogue applications or processes is just as easy in Linux as it is in Windows. With outstanding graphical utilities, you can ensure your system doesn’t have applications eating up your memory or your CPU cycles.

Related posts

• Quick Archiving in GNOME (1)
• Leave No Trace in KDE with Sweeper (6)
• Get To Know Linux: The Pager (4)
• Get To Know Linux: Desktop Environment vs. Window Manager (6)
• Choosing the right distribution will ease your migration (19)

That is where applications like Gkrellm comes in. Gkrellm is a small stack of system monitors that is configurable and themeable. Using this application can solve a lot of your problems when using a lightweight desktop.

Included Monitors

• Gkrellm includes the following monitors:
• Hostname/Systemname display
• Clock/Calendar
• CPU Monitor
• Temp/Fan/Voltage
• Process Monitor
• Disk Monitor
• Net Monitor
• Memory/Swap Space Usage
• File System Monitor
• Mailbox Monitor
• Battery Meter
• Uptime

Getting and Installing

Installing Gkrellm is simple. You can either do a search in your Add/Remove Software utility, do a search for “gkrellm”, select the correct results, and apply the changes. From the command line you can run a command like sudo apt-get install gkrellm or yum install gkrellm. To start Gkrellm you can issue the command gkrellm to start up the monitoring system.

Gkrellm Main Window

The Gkrellm interface is very easy to read. As you can see (in the image to the left) the monitors are very clear and well designed. In the image you see I have running Systemname, Calendar/Time, CPU, Disk, Wireless, Memory, Swap, Battery, and Uptime. You can also see the Memory and Swap monitors are showing no information. Some of the monitors are “interactive”. By that you can click that particular monitor to stop monitoring. Click again and the monitoring stops. NOTE: Not all monitors are interactive (but all are configurable.)

Speaking of configuring, there are two ways to configure Gkrellm. You can right-click the window to open up a menu that offers the Configuration entry. Or you can click F1 when your mouse is in the Gkrellm window.

The configuration is very simple and straight-forward. From here you can configure which monitors to include, the theme to use, general options (which apply to the Gkrelm window itself), and any plugins you might have installed.

Configuration Window

The configuration of all aspects of Gkrellm is simple. But most important is how to include a monitor. As you can see (in the image to the right) there is a listing for each built in monitor. Click on the monitor you want to add or remove and you will see, near the top of the options in the right pane, a check box to include the monitor. If you want to remove that monitor simply uncheck the box. The changes happen in real-time so there is no need to click OK (unless you want to dismiss the options window.)

Themes

Who wants to have a monitoring window on their desktop that doesn’t match their desktop theme? And for that Gkrellm has a number of built-in themes. Click on the Theme entry from the configuration options and scroll through the various themes. You can also install themes. Find some themes from such a site as Freshmeat and untar the files in ~/.gkrellm/themes/. Restart Gkrellm and the themes will appear in the Themes section of the configuration window.

Final Thoughts

Gkrellm allows me to use my favorite Linux desktop and not miss out on simple necessities such as time, system stats, etc. If you’re looking for an easy to use system monitor, Gkrellm is what you need.

Related posts

• Get To Know Linux: Process Management (1)
• Computer System Monitor GKrellM (6)
• Yoggie PICO Personal Mobile Security Computer (3)
• With Ubuntu 9.10 Arrives Wubi 9.10 (2)
• Widgets for Linux: SuperKaramba (6)

Monitoring system changes should therefor concentrate on the core parts of the Windows operating system, say the Windows Registry and the system32 folder in the Windows directory. You find several applications that can monitor selected folders in real time, Winpatrol is one of them.

Tiny Watcher monitors system changes in a different way. It scans the important folders and Registry locations during initial setup and reports on the changes only when it is started again. This has the advantage that no application is monitoring the system in real time which consumes system resources. The disadvantage is that the user will be notified about changes after they happened.

Tiny Watcher is therefor not a real time system protection application, more of a tool that allows a forensic analysis of system changes. It still offers functions to deal with the changes that have been made to the system.

It provides access to a web search to gather information about a change but also to confirm, disable or remove it. Those actions can be problematic, it is generally not advised to delete items unless it is known that deleting them causes no harm. It is normally not a problem to delete a startup entry but it could be highly problematic to delete a file in a Windows folder.

Tiny Watcher works best when executed during system start or closely after. Each action is written in a log file which is – again – excellent for tracing a file or system change.

Tiny Watcher is hosted at Donation Coders. It runs on pretty much every Windows operating system, yes even Windows 95, including Windows XP and Windows Vista. It surely does not look pretty but I’d say functionality > looks all the time.

Related posts

• Windows Vista Drive Icons (2)
• Windows Software To Create Multiple Folders At Once (13)
• top 100 free software for windows xp (1)
• Start Program after Idle Time (4)
• Snap Windows together (1)

Since this looks like an overkill every user can configure the display by removing and adding new activities. The user can choose from five different categories which are Processor, Memory, Objects, System and WMI Objects. Each category holds lots of activities that can be monitored.

Glint is probably not an application for a novice user but someone with a lot of experience can find this really useful. The design of the application might seem confusing at first glance as well, you see 25 blinking colored lights and I would highly suggest to change the layout to graphs and reduce the number of activities that are shown.

Glint does not need to be installed at all which makes it ideal as a quick tool to analyze system activity.

Read More:

Glint

Related posts

• PC Activity Monitor (3)
• Monitor Your Linux Desktop with Gkrellm (12)
• Monitor System Changes With Tiny Watcher (2)
• Get To Know Linux: Process Management (1)
• Computer System Monitor GKrellM (6)