6 ms·

I miss taskmgr so much on Linux/macOS. Everything in taskmgr feels so logical and manageable without extra steps.

by est 5y ago

marcellus23 5y ago
What do you like about task manager compared to e.g. Activity Monitor? Activity Monitor has always seemed powerful and well-designed to me.
- perryizgr8 5y ago
  Lack of right click in activity monitor really frustrates me, especially since I'm more likely to be irritated already when I have to open it.
  - marcellus23 5y ago
    Activity Monitor (the macOS one) definitely has right-click.
    - snazz 5y ago
      Right clicking on a process in the list does not bring up a context menu in Activity Monitor on my Mac.
      - jjoonathan 5y ago
        Doubleclick brings up a window. It even has a "sample" option so you can peek at the stack!
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - marcellus23 5y ago
        You’re right, I’m sorry.
- est 5y ago
  - No global shortcut key to launch Activity Monitor. Often when the system freezes you can't quickly launch Activity Monitor either. - Can't display both CPU and memory in one view, by default It can be tweaked, but I don't like the extra steps.
Waterluvian 5y ago
I feel the complete opposite, interestingly enough. Apple process viewer and htop are what I want.
- tinus_hn 5y ago
  For some insane reason though, Apples Activity Monitor can’t sort processes by the current amount of disk activity, only some nebulous ‘energy usage’ value or lifetime disk activity.
- ramoz 5y ago
  I have to jump around quite a bit. Largely ML workloads where I default to Windows for training / developing around, and deploying out to Linux. Mac is an option, but doesn’t make since to do those tasks there. What op said is true for me, I just pop open task manager and I get all the insight I need. No issues there. I don’t ever need to run htop locally, but is key factor in deployments where there are many more cores, accelerator config, etc I use Mac for some UI projects or systems dev. I’m usually in a bad mood when I have to open activity monitor.
- jjoonathan 5y ago
  The "sample" option in Activity Monitor is golden. I can figure out why a process is hung without having to download and install extra apps.
tommek4077 5y ago
Yeah, because linux is so locked down you cant access, manipulate or kill processes in any way else...
- newsclues 5y ago
  Windows, when it’s good, is actually great, and task manager is an example of good UI and functional backend. Linux just hasn’t built the same easy interface but of course it can do the same things, but no one has built the UI
  - aflag 5y ago
    I think it's a matter of getting used to. The task manager drives me mad. I never feel like I'm full control or know what's going on. Whereas with kill, ps, top and friends I feel like I can diagnose things a lot better. The task manager doesn't even seem to have a search bar, whereas I can just use "grep" in linux. Just right now I was trying to see if indeed it didn't have a search bar and task manager crashed when I tried to exit it. I'm more used to have several small tools I can compose and do what I need instead of having a single app where I have to hope the developers thought about the specific thing I need it to do.
    - cute_boi 5y ago
      I also used to be linux nerd but as I grow old I find such thing uninteresting. I wish for simple interface where I can kill process, view cpu use etc. In htop its like 3-4 steps to send kill signal which I don't like. And task manager is easy to access to like right click on task bar and click on task manager or Ctrl + Alt + Del. Also searching is generally not hard in task manager, you can just type process name and it should select it. Yes, it can be tricky sometime but most of time I use it to see process which consumes high cpu or internet bandwidth. I do agree with GP, windows task manager is simple. If we need advance feature we can use process hacker etc. I do agree with you too. So its just a matter of taste. But most user aren't nerd and they want something simple like task manager. My mom would simply refuse to use linux because she simply doesn't like cli interface.
ibnishak 5y ago
XFCE has taskmanager. goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-taskmanager
- anon_123g987 5y ago
  I like the MATE System Monitor even more. On Xubuntu it's simply: sudo apt install mate-system-monitor https://wiki.mate-desktop.org/mate-desktop/applications/mate-system-monitor/ https://wiki.mate-desktop.org/mate-desktop/applications/mate...
Anonymous4272 5y ago
Is ksysguard not similar to task manager? The only advantage task manager has over it is that it can show the rw speed for externally plugged in devices like that, whereas ksysgaurd you have to add it manually?
ajuc 5y ago
That's funny. I miss xkill on windows so much.
- piaste 5y ago
  SuperF4 has that ability on windows! IIRC it even uses a crosshair cursor
newman8r 5y ago
I like to leave htop, lnav and s-tui on one of my i3 wokspaces - works well for me. I do remember appreciating the task manager back in my windows days in the 90s though.
smoldesu 5y ago
Task manager still launches through Wine, but it only let's you control Windows processes running on your machine.
qsdf38100 5y ago
Sysinternal process explorer is the ultimate taskmgr for Windows, for example you can see the threads for each process, and even their call stacks! When a file can’t be deleted because it’s open in a process but you can’t find which one, you can even search into memory for all processes and find the culprit in 3 seconds. Or see what files / reg keys a process has currently open and even force-close them… give it a try and you’ll never come back.
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  >Sysinternal process explorer is the ultimate taskmgr for Windows The whole Sysinternals Process Utilities[1] is a goldmine worth bookmarking for any windows power user, and the quality of the tools is great. The only thing I don't understand is why they aren't shipped by default with every windows installation. They're so useful and no bloat, it boggles my mind why they're not there by default. [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-utilities https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/proc...
  - qsdf38100 5y ago
    Yes, a lot of great tools, 2nd on my list is process monitor. It lets you know what sys calls were performed by any process, same as ptrace I believe. Super useful to debug a 3rd party app, for instance one that doesn't even start, looking for a file or reg key at different places, failing and exiting early. It allows one to fix it even if there are no errors or logs at all.
  - schmorptron 5y ago
    Maybe it's something to do with not having to provide support or warranty for additional, free downloads?
  - jborean93 5y ago
    > The only thing I don't understand is why they aren't shipped by default with every windows installation At a guess it would mean they would have to support the suite at that version for the lifespan of the OS. Having it separate allows them to update independently and not get tied down 10 years down the line with still having to support and old code base. This is one of the biggest reasons why pwsh (PowerShell 6+) still hasn't been included in box. There is no .NET version that is supported for the time that is required by Windows and thus cannot be included in box.
ppod 5y ago
There was a great little tool that I think used to be in Ubuntu, but possibly another distro, where you could press a keyboard combo, and it would turn the cursor into a little crosshairs, and then if would kill the app running whatever window you clicked on. I don't remember what it was called, anyone know?
- RhysU 5y ago
  xkill?
  - ppod 5y ago
    Yes I think that was it, thanks.
- kleff 5y ago
  It was definitely xkill, I remember using it a lot during the early Ubuntu releases. I think the shortcut was ctrl-alt-esc, but its so long ago it was removed I no longer know for sure.
sundarurfriend 5y ago
Have you used the KDE System Monitor (on Linux)? It feels pretty similar.

I miss taskmgr so much on Linux/macOS. Everything in taskmgr feels so logical and manageable without extra steps.

by est 5y ago

I miss taskmgr so much on Linux/macOS. Everything in taskmgr feels so logical and manageable without extra steps.

What do you like about task manager compared to e.g. Activity Monitor? Activity Monitor has always seemed powerful and well-designed to me.

perryizgr8 5y ago
Lack of right click in activity monitor really frustrates me, especially since I'm more likely to be irritated already when I have to open it.
- marcellus23 5y ago
  Activity Monitor (the macOS one) definitely has right-click.
  - snazz 5y ago
    Right clicking on a process in the list does not bring up a context menu in Activity Monitor on my Mac.
    - jjoonathan 5y ago
      Doubleclick brings up a window. It even has a "sample" option so you can peek at the stack!
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - marcellus23 5y ago
      You’re right, I’m sorry.
est 5y ago
- No global shortcut key to launch Activity Monitor. Often when the system freezes you can't quickly launch Activity Monitor either. - Can't display both CPU and memory in one view, by default It can be tweaked, but I don't like the extra steps.

Waterluvian 5y ago

I feel the complete opposite, interestingly enough. Apple process viewer and htop are what I want.

tinus_hn 5y ago
For some insane reason though, Apples Activity Monitor can’t sort processes by the current amount of disk activity, only some nebulous ‘energy usage’ value or lifetime disk activity.
ramoz 5y ago
I have to jump around quite a bit. Largely ML workloads where I default to Windows for training / developing around, and deploying out to Linux. Mac is an option, but doesn’t make since to do those tasks there. What op said is true for me, I just pop open task manager and I get all the insight I need. No issues there. I don’t ever need to run htop locally, but is key factor in deployments where there are many more cores, accelerator config, etc I use Mac for some UI projects or systems dev. I’m usually in a bad mood when I have to open activity monitor.
jjoonathan 5y ago
The "sample" option in Activity Monitor is golden. I can figure out why a process is hung without having to download and install extra apps.

tommek4077 5y ago

Yeah, because linux is so locked down you cant access, manipulate or kill processes in any way else...

newsclues 5y ago
Windows, when it’s good, is actually great, and task manager is an example of good UI and functional backend. Linux just hasn’t built the same easy interface but of course it can do the same things, but no one has built the UI
- aflag 5y ago
  I think it's a matter of getting used to. The task manager drives me mad. I never feel like I'm full control or know what's going on. Whereas with kill, ps, top and friends I feel like I can diagnose things a lot better. The task manager doesn't even seem to have a search bar, whereas I can just use "grep" in linux. Just right now I was trying to see if indeed it didn't have a search bar and task manager crashed when I tried to exit it. I'm more used to have several small tools I can compose and do what I need instead of having a single app where I have to hope the developers thought about the specific thing I need it to do.
  - cute_boi 5y ago
    I also used to be linux nerd but as I grow old I find such thing uninteresting. I wish for simple interface where I can kill process, view cpu use etc. In htop its like 3-4 steps to send kill signal which I don't like. And task manager is easy to access to like right click on task bar and click on task manager or Ctrl + Alt + Del. Also searching is generally not hard in task manager, you can just type process name and it should select it. Yes, it can be tricky sometime but most of time I use it to see process which consumes high cpu or internet bandwidth. I do agree with GP, windows task manager is simple. If we need advance feature we can use process hacker etc. I do agree with you too. So its just a matter of taste. But most user aren't nerd and they want something simple like task manager. My mom would simply refuse to use linux because she simply doesn't like cli interface.

ibnishak 5y ago

XFCE has taskmanager. goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-taskmanager

anon_123g987 5y ago
I like the MATE System Monitor even more. On Xubuntu it's simply: sudo apt install mate-system-monitor https://wiki.mate-desktop.org/mate-desktop/applications/mate-system-monitor/ https://wiki.mate-desktop.org/mate-desktop/applications/mate...

Anonymous4272 5y ago

Is ksysguard not similar to task manager? The only advantage task manager has over it is that it can show the rw speed for externally plugged in devices like that, whereas ksysgaurd you have to add it manually?

ajuc 5y ago

That's funny. I miss xkill on windows so much.

piaste 5y ago
SuperF4 has that ability on windows! IIRC it even uses a crosshair cursor

newman8r 5y ago

I like to leave htop, lnav and s-tui on one of my i3 wokspaces - works well for me. I do remember appreciating the task manager back in my windows days in the 90s though.

smoldesu 5y ago

Task manager still launches through Wine, but it only let's you control Windows processes running on your machine.

qsdf38100 5y ago

Sysinternal process explorer is the ultimate taskmgr for Windows, for example you can see the threads for each process, and even their call stacks! When a file can’t be deleted because it’s open in a process but you can’t find which one, you can even search into memory for all processes and find the culprit in 3 seconds. Or see what files / reg keys a process has currently open and even force-close them… give it a try and you’ll never come back.

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
>Sysinternal process explorer is the ultimate taskmgr for Windows The whole Sysinternals Process Utilities[1] is a goldmine worth bookmarking for any windows power user, and the quality of the tools is great. The only thing I don't understand is why they aren't shipped by default with every windows installation. They're so useful and no bloat, it boggles my mind why they're not there by default. [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-utilities https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/proc...
- qsdf38100 5y ago
  Yes, a lot of great tools, 2nd on my list is process monitor. It lets you know what sys calls were performed by any process, same as ptrace I believe. Super useful to debug a 3rd party app, for instance one that doesn't even start, looking for a file or reg key at different places, failing and exiting early. It allows one to fix it even if there are no errors or logs at all.
- schmorptron 5y ago
  Maybe it's something to do with not having to provide support or warranty for additional, free downloads?
- jborean93 5y ago
  > The only thing I don't understand is why they aren't shipped by default with every windows installation At a guess it would mean they would have to support the suite at that version for the lifespan of the OS. Having it separate allows them to update independently and not get tied down 10 years down the line with still having to support and old code base. This is one of the biggest reasons why pwsh (PowerShell 6+) still hasn't been included in box. There is no .NET version that is supported for the time that is required by Windows and thus cannot be included in box.

ppod 5y ago

There was a great little tool that I think used to be in Ubuntu, but possibly another distro, where you could press a keyboard combo, and it would turn the cursor into a little crosshairs, and then if would kill the app running whatever window you clicked on. I don't remember what it was called, anyone know?

RhysU 5y ago
xkill?
- ppod 5y ago
  Yes I think that was it, thanks.
kleff 5y ago
It was definitely xkill, I remember using it a lot during the early Ubuntu releases. I think the shortcut was ctrl-alt-esc, but its so long ago it was removed I no longer know for sure.

sundarurfriend 5y ago

Have you used the KDE System Monitor (on Linux)? It feels pretty similar.