Ubuntu: Up and Running

System Processes

All operating systems comprise a main kernel and several different programs that all work together. Most of them wait patiently until you need the system to do a task for you, such as send documents to your printer or sound to your speakers. They handle the graphical desktop environment, keep track of the time, communicate with the network, and…well, handle everything that your computer needs to do.

These programs are referred to as processes (or tasks) and can be viewed by entering the following (with ps standing for process status):

ps -ax

Figure 7-12, shown earlier, shows typical output from this command. In it you can see that each process is assigned a unique number, and using these you can interact with processes by stopping or restarting them, and so on. As a beginner to Ubuntu, it is very unlikely you will have to manage your processes. However, there may be times when you at least need to take a look at them, if only to provide information for obtaining help on the Ubuntu bulletin boards.

So, this section is mainly intended to give you an overview and provide a couple of helpful pointers. For example, sometimes Ubuntu may not seem to perform as well as it should. When this happens, it’s usually after you have accepted an update to one of its packages, or perhaps installed a new driver or other program. Problems you may encounter could be unusual slowdowns, or maybe the computer fan is making a loud noise because the processor is working harder than normal and ...