Summary
- Tux Manager recreates the Windows Task Manager on Linux with a familiar, polished UI.
- It’s built with Qt for speed and low resource use, and the developer intends to keep it that way.
- Tux Manager is available on GitHub with packages for major distros, plus an AUR entry and a Nix flake.
Moving from Windows to Linux can be really freeing, but it’s easy to miss some of Microsoft’s finer features. For example, some people making the jump may find that they miss Windows’ Task Manager. Linux distros usually have a somewhat similar app that lets you do what you want to achieve, but it doesn’t quite have all the bells and whistles of Microsoft’s solution.
If you recently made the move and you want to return to the Task Manager, you’re in luck. Someone has released Tux Manager, a more fleshed-out and in-depth tool designed to replicate it on Linux.
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Tux Manager brings the familiarity of Task Manager to Linux
It looks superb, too
Over on the Linux subreddit, user petr_bena announced the general release of Tux Manager. As you can see from the image above, the main goal of Tux Manager is to replicate the familiar Windows Task Manager in the world of open-source operating systems. And honestly, looking at that screenshot, I think they nailed the look and feel just right. Petr_bena says that the app is coded in Qt, which means it shouldn’t take up too much of your resources and will load really quickly.
Here are petr_bena’s design mantas for Tux Manager moving forward:
- KISS – keep it simple stupid
- Lean and clean codebase, minimal system footprint (low RAM and CPU usage)
- Stability and reliability, easy debugging
- No overengineered or unnecessary extra features
- Simple packaging flow – for each packaging tool, there should be a script or 1 line command
- Minimal dependencies on 3rd party libs besides Qt so that building anywhere should be trivial
- Keep everything well documented
If you’d like to read more about this project, see more screenshots of Tux Manager in action, or download it for yourself, head over to the project’s GitHub page. There’s a package for all the common distros, an AUR entry, and even a Nix flake, so you’re definitely spoiled for choice.
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