One of the most important things to a Linux (Unix) user is control. Control of your system/device is very important (that sentence was redundant, but I had to stress my point!). Lack of control can lead to time-wasting mistakes, use-less backtracking, and frustration. Information is also key. Information such as, what devices are mounted, how fast is my CPU running, is my RAM maxed out (and one I frequently ask) which loser program is trashing my hard drive?! In the Linux world, this information is easy to find out (modern user friendly distributions usually provide a System Monitor program). A popular one is GNOME’s System Monitor. This is equivalent to the Windows – Task Manager. System Monitor will give you all the basic information about your system, such as, # of CPUs, mounted storage and memory usage.
System |
Processes |
Resources |
File Systems |
Now this may be fine for the average (newbie) Linux user, but if you’ve been converted for more than a year (and command line no longer scares you) then this is just not enough information. When I’m on my system, I need to know the date, I want to what program is hogging the CPU, I want to check my mail, see the weather forecast, see what song is currently playing, a when I’m downloading (legal) iso’s and files I like to know how fast and how much bandwidth I’m using. And I would like to be able to do all this with out having to open a single program. That is where Conky comes into play. Conky lets you view the same stats you could view in System Manager plus hundreds more. As a bonus its interface, stat arrangement and theme can be changed to suite your style or desktop.
good site!