The only thing I use it for, 99% of the time, is firefox. Why are there so many processes running on it all the time?
The scroll bar on the right indicates there are at least 2.5 more pages worth of additional processes. Everyone here knows linux, alone, requires only a handful of processes…
Have you ever looked at the Windows Taskmanager just booting up?
It’s background management for a lot of stuff, each process does its own thing. What’s the big deal about it? Better then one monolithic process that crashed the whole system when something goes wrong, this way only a certain service crashes.
yeah… everyone knows that…
Except Linux apparently:
^and this is without user processes.
PS: I don’t see how this is a guide?
That’s a lot more processes than I’m use to seeing in Linux, by default…
Windows does have a lot of processes, that’s certainly true. But I’ve got double the number of default processes as Windows 8.1, by comparison.
This number seems very silly. I’m not using any Mac OSx features, software, etc, because I don’t really need them. Yet, so many processes…
Obviously means what you define as “default” and what Distro you’re using. If you’re booting up a Gentoo Live Image you won’t see a lot of processes for sure. If you’re running an actual usable System there’s a lot going on in the background.
A lot of the System Monitors just disable showing system processes by default and show only user processes.
Those are not software (except for that Norton thing), those are background system processes that your desktop and your programs rely on to even run in the first place.
Allow me to explain my background with respect to this…
I started using Linux back in 2009. Back then, Ubuntu was virtually flim flam free, and you could install modules into the OS which met the standard of perfection and lack of vulnerability which so many other folks using it prior to that time came to love about it.
As a result, when I installed and ran that OS, there were very few processes running by default; you could add (and most importantly) remove surplus services that were not needed by the user on an individual basis.
After performing an installation of Ubuntu (for example) and removing unused installation items, one could observe that there was no background CPU utilization at all, the memory footprint of the OS was less than 512MB, and the internet through Firefox was incredibly responsive.
So, we know that what is required at the OS level, under Linux, to run an excellent internet browsing experience is very VERY low. We also know that it makes no sense to run services 100% of the time for programs that are never used. Even in Windows, which is a mess compared to Linux, one has the option to install or not install additional services required for non OS related software through the control panel-> Add Remove programs UI.
So, given this additional background and given that Mac OSx is a Linux like OS, why does it run so many default services by default that are not needed?
But it is not 2009 anymore. Development has evolved. A lot of the processes that were once united into a single one are now split up for one reason or another. Could be security, could be stability, or any other reason.
Just because they are “there” doesn’t mean they “run”. Processes can be suspended at the kernels will and that is happening to most of the background processes. Look at the screenshot I posted. All those processes (and there’s 3 pages more) don’t even use memory because they are registered, but not running, and not taking up resources.
That panel is a shit show and doesn’t even show half the stuff you manually install on the system, much less system processes. Even in the service menu you can’t disable everything willy nilly because you will run into random crashes because you disable stuff you don’t even know what it’s needed for.
Well, that is your first assumption that is completely off. Mac OS stems from Unix/BSD/Darwin, not Linux.
Linux is not derived from Unix?
Perhaps switch to Linux and use something you enjoy?
Your screenshot is fine, it’s great, but the question is about Mac OSx… All the processes in my initial screenshot are using memory.
On the topic of Windows, I will just add that I have disabled all the unneeded services in Windows 8.1, running on my parents machine, and after 8 month of use we are not seeing any crashes or stability issues as a result. I understand, this is my experience and may not be yours.
I think you’re making my point for me, but we aren’t’ necessarily reaching any conclusions. You are showing that many of your native services are registered but not running. My screenshot is showing that all these services are, indeed, running and I can post another screenshot showing the quantities of memory each is using.
I am just asking the question, and perhaps looking to elicit any info anyone might have as to what can be disabled via command line for folks that have already been curious about this.
It’s not my machine, it’s a loaner, so I may be able to disable some stuff but I can’t make major changes to it.
That’s fair. It’s probably because an older machine or from someone who doesn’t really know what services they’re running. But your premise is that there is something unspecifically wrong with the machine having “too many” processes running, and you’re unsure of what you can turn off because it’s not your machine and naturally you can’t just switch things off.
Doesn’t that sort of answer the question by itself?
I’m not supposing to know whether there’s something wrong with it or not. I’m saying there’s a lot of processes running on it. That may be a consequence of how Mac OSx designs things (likely) or there being problems somewhere (when is there not a problem somewhere, lol).
I can see a list of services and processes running on it all the time, by default, which are things that no one uses, myself or the machine owner, and they use lots of memory in aggregate.
Turning things off is much different than replacing the OS. I hope that’s clear enough…
If you don’t know the answer, it’s OK not to respond… I’m asking the question because I don’t know the answer 
.
ok. Best of luck.
I don’t think you know the question, to be honest.
Not the desktop
Or even the server. This is a server running bind and nothing else
top - 17:45:10 up 8:51, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 104 total, 2 running, 102 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 0.2 us, 0.2 sy, 0.0 ni, 99.5 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.2 si, 0.0 st
MiB Mem : 1829.4 total, 1239.8 free, 287.4 used, 302.2 buff/cache
MiB Swap: 2116.0 total, 2116.0 free, 0.0 used. 1391.4 avail Mem
Don’t know where you got your info, but it’s wrong. Modern computing is expensive. If you want a “handful of processes” run OpenBSD or FreeBSD without X.org
With all my normal stuff open, I’m running 418 processes in macOS. I have 3 browsers open, Photoshop, Messages, Atom, streaming music, other miscellany.
I am 96-98% idle which is a better indication of bloat in my opinion. Not saying macOS is God’s gift to end-users, but the number of processes isn’t too concerning to me on a graphical workstation.
What’s so modern about it that so many processes and so much memory bloat is needed? I can’t tell you I’ve derived any additional utility from the internet that didn’t already exist in the 2009/2010 time-frame. We’re not using cell-phone integration, or tablet integration, or cloud services outside the browser, Blutooth, WIFI, etc.
This is partly my point. People say the word “modern” as if that has some intrinsic meaning, what does that mean?
If I’m not using photo’s, for example, why is photo’s service running. There are a hundred examples of this… Am I not being clear? Disabling unused services is a very common practice for those of us that want to recover system performance. I’m strongly getting the impression the responses I’m getting are fake ignorance about what I’m describing, just for the sake of argument.
Privilege separation. MacOS sandboxes everything.
Thank you freqlabs . So there’s a reason related to that separation that they have to run all the time even when you’ve never used them?