Re: [SLUG] Re: "Talks Policy" [Was: Video Sales to Support SLUG]

["Oscar Plameras" <oscarp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: "Mark A. Bell"

Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2003 6:04 PM



> >> 3. Linux Process Management
>
> Speaking as a non-coder or system-administrator, I'd actually go a step
> further.
>
> I'd love to hear a quick introduction to how managing processes helps
> Linux people to get their work done and use their computers better. Is
> it something that people who run servers are concerned about? What
> about coders, how does it help them? When is it helpful to destop home
> users like me? I never even heard of processes before I started using
> Linux - What's the pay off for having a process paradigm in Linux when
> Windows seems to keep that kind of thing hidden?
>

Linux Process Management is gathering and evaluating info about what
your computer is doing and so when you do have these info,  you are able
to control your computer and make use of it better.

It is something that all Linux users and administrators need to be concerned
about. It is a tool that lets you as a user or administrator  makes use of
your
computer to the best way possible. Computer resources are limited
and knowing what you have and how they are being used are important.

With process management you will be able to get info as to what
processes are running that are related to X-Windows. How large is
each process in terms of memory. So you can answer questions like
which processes can you do with or without in X-Windows. The
purpose being to optimise your system.

As a specific example, with process management you will be able to
understand why your computer takes a long time to load a Web Browser.
Knowing what the reason is for this slow event lets you take action or
no action. Perhaps, you are running out of memory when browser
processes are running. Perhaps, there are other unnecessary processes
that are running but are not required with your Browser or with your
system. Perhaps, the Browser you are running is memory hungry. Perhaps,
the combination of your Linux Distro and your hardware is such that
you have 'memory leak' - a condition whereby processes that are no
longer active do not release memory. How often do we get into this
situation and all we can do is guess or hypothesize.

With Linux Process Management, a user/administrator have tools
available to investigate with confidence why this is so and take the
alternative actions to remedy or live with the situation.

With Linux a process is a task and a task is designated by and identified
by process Id. Tools are available within Linux that lets you investigate
and manipulate these processes together with some other tools to achieve
your goal, to optimise your resources.

To me, this is the reason as to why Linux Process Management is
important.

> Anyone remember the great talk we had about a year ago on how Linux
> lets you run cheap and reliable thin-clients? I'd heard of many people
> accessing the same data on a server, but I'd never heard of a people
> using a program on their desktop that was actually running on a central
> server for them and for other users. I thought the X Window System was
> just there to give me a graphical desktop - I didn't realize it was so
> much more than that. For someone like me, who went from the TRS-80, to
> DOS on the PC, to Windows 3.1, to Win '95, that's a very big paradigm
> shift: from standalone to client/server.
>

Yes, the main difference between TRS-80, DOS, MS Windows and Linux is
that Linux is a TRUE multi-user system. Linux as an  operating system is
designed to manage multiple processes or task better. It is a better manager
of processes whilst minimising resources.  One can even run X-windows
server in one Linux server and run a minimal X-software on your workstations
and still access all the facilities as if these are running on your
workstations.
There are many other configurations and combination of configurations that
we can do with linux. That is one  reason why so many users and businesses
love to have  Linux.