Monitor CPU performance on Ubuntu

[Rajminder]

I am having a Windows XP laptop. It is working slow. I cannot format it because I am not having any installing CD for the same. Later on to work on it I installed Ubuntu on the same. It is lightweight operating system for old systems. I am bit doubtful about the performance. I am looking for a good cpu monitor application for Ubuntu. I am sure there are application available that can help me to check out the performance. I am new to Ubuntu. Is there a performance optimizer type software available for this.

[Evoldo]

There is a task manager like Windows in Ubuntu. You can find that inside the Start Menu. Called as System Monitor. This application gives you information current system output. You can simply checkout what is the existing status of your system. There are various reason behind slow performance. Like a slow hard drive, or slow cpu. You must a much lighter version of Linux Distro. There are some lightweight solution available called as Puppy Linux. If you are a bit Linux savy you can manage your work.

[CGale]

At the time of installation had you created a Swap space. In Windows you do not need to create a separate partition for Virtual Memory. Windows itself manages Virtual Memory based on a limit. But in Linux distro like Ubuntu you will need to manually provide a Swap space. This is a part of your partition which will not be used for any purpose. It will be only reserved for virtual memory. You can give 2 to 8 GB depending on the space available. In System Monitor you can find out the amount of SWAP space easily. Because if your ram is completely occupier this SWAP space helps your system to work properly.

[Loveyboo]

Get a tiny widget on your screen. They are called as Screenlet. You can find that in Software Manager. Download those screenlet and you can find tiny widgets on your screen which will help you to find out the current system performance. If your system is working slow you have to add more ram I think. It is time to upgrade and add some new hardware to the same. I am using some widgets via screenlet that gives me ample of information about my cpu usage.

[Vitel]

Try to run some new updates. That would help you much to fix the issue. There can be some problem with the OS installation. I too think that SWAP space is the kind of problem you are facing. Just insert a usb drive in your system format it. You can use the same for swap space. For good performance it is necessary that you must use more than 5 GB of space on the hard drive. That would work more better. If still it is working slow get a much older version of Linux Distro.