Too many processes question.

[Steve Siegfried]

Les wrote:
> 
> Ladies and gentlemen...
>    I have 104 processes listed when I run the monitor.  My system is
> slowing to a crawl, dropping internet connections and jerking like it
> has epilepsy.  Would someone please tell me how many process should be
> running in a simple workstation setup (not a server).
> 
> 	Or better yet post a list.
> 
> Thanks,
> Les H
> 

It's actually more complicated than that.  Response times & zippyness
pretty much rely on:
	- how much spare capacity the cpu has,
	- how much memory is available,
	- amount of I/O (including networks) taking place

A quick place to start looking for what's using all your horsepower
is top(1) (it's in the procps package).  Pids that clock lots of time
are your first suspects.

See also: nice(1).

Hope this helps,

-S