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Developer Hakan Dündar informs 9to5Linux.com about his new open-source and free app that lets you monitor the performance and usage of your Linux desktop, System Monitoring Center.
Written in GTK and Python, System Monitoring Center is a powerful system performance and usage monitoring software that comes with a lot of unique and interesting features if you’re looking for a more complex system monitoring utility for your GNU/Linux desktop.
The app comes with a more than generous graphical user interface that displays all sorts of details about your computer’s hardware and software, including but not limited to CPU, GPU, RAM, disk, network, processes, services, startup, system sensors, general system information, and users.
System Monitoring Center’s interface uses tabs to provide you with monitoring and management functionality of said hardware and software. The Performance tab gives you detailed info about your computer’s CPU, RAM, disk, network, GPU, and sensors like temperature, fans, and voltage (if available).
The Processes tab lets you manage all of your running processes or the processes or other users if you have root (system administration) access. From the Startup and Services tabs, which are similar in functionality with the Processes tab, you can manage user-specific or system-wide startup applications, as well as loaded or non-loaded systemd services.
The Users tab lets you manage logged-in, as well as logged-out users, and from the System tab, you can view detailed information about your GNU/Linux operating system.
Each tab, with the exception of the Performance tab’s CPU, RAM, disk, network, and GPU sub-tabs and the System tab, includes a search functionality to make it easier to find the items you want to interact with (e.g. terminating a process, stopping or reloading a service, etc.).
In addition, all the tabs, with the exception of the System and Startup tabs, include a plethora of customization and view options for tinkerers, and, from the general settings, you can set the update interval in seconds, chart data history, enable or disable the ability to remember the last opened tab, last selected hardware and window size, and set a default tab and sub-tab to view when opening the app.
Other interesting features include an always-on-top and semi-transparent floating summary window for 24/7 performance monitoring (while the application is opened and running in the background). Think of it like a Conky widget on your desktop, and you can customize what details you want to see from the general settings.
Moreover, the app features a performance summary on the title bar, can adapt to the system theme, such as Light or Dark, and supports ARM devices. Language support is currently available in English and Turkish, but translators are always welcome.
If you want to give System Monitoring Center a try, you’ll find a DEB package for Debian/Ubuntu-based distributions, as well as the source tarball on the project’s GitHub page. The source tarball can be used to generate packages for RPM-based distros and for Arch Linux and derivatives.
Last updated 2 years ago
