This tool is my new favorite way to monitor and manage apps on the Linux desktop

I’ve been using the Linux operating system for a very long time. I’ve watched so many apps come and go, all the while making promises to help ease the confusion of controlling apps and viewing system resources. Whenever a new app pops up with claims that it’s all you need for those tasks, I generally brush it aside. 

But every now and then, an app appears and instantly grabs my attention — and that was the case with Mission Center. The aim of this app is to simplify the process of monitoring your CPU, memory, disk, network, and GPU usage. The app also gives you the opportunity, via a well-designed GUI, to view every app and process running on the system, and even stop any wayward application that might be causing problems.

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Of course, many Linux desktops have this kind of app-monitoring application built in, so why would you need another? To be honest, some of those tools aren’t quite as user-friendly, or they offer way too many admin features that could lead to trouble.

With Mission Center, you get plenty of information, without the added confusion. In this app, you’ll find:

• Real-time CPU, memory, disk, and network usage monitor
• Information on real-time app and process resource usage
• Ability to stop or force stop a running application
• Configurable update speed (from very slow to fast)
• Process state merging
• Remember sorting

Mission Center is fairly minimal in features, but what it does offer is simple to use and is presented with a clean, well-defined UI.

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The one caveat to Mission Center is that it’s only available for installation via Flatpak. That’s fine because the Flatpak package manager can be installed on most popular Linux distributions.

Let me show you how to install and use Mission Center.

Installing Mission Center

What you’ll need: To install Mission Center, you’ll need a Linux distribution that supports Flatpak and a user with sudo privileges. I’ll demonstrate with my default desktop distribution, Ubuntu Budgie. If you’re using a distribution that isn’t based on either Debian or Ubuntu, you’ll need to alter the Flatpak install process to fit your operating system.

sudo apt-get install flatpak -y

sudo flatpak install ~/Downloads/io.missioncenter.MissionCenter.flatpakref

Using Mission Center

When Mission Center opens, you’ll find it defaults to the Performance tab, where you’ll get real-time updates on the performance of your CPU, memory, disks, and both wired and wireless networks. 

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Each listing will also give you plenty of information about the particular system resource, and even information about the hardware.

You can also click on the App tab, where you’ll see a listing of every running app and process. The only bit of confusion you’ll run into is that some apps are listed as processes. For example, my Opera browser is listed under processes, whereas Thunderbird is listed under Apps. So, if you don’t find the app in question listed under apps, scroll down into Processes and you’ll find it.

When you find the app in question, if you need to force stop it, right-click the entry and select Stop Application. If that doesn’t work, right-click it again and select Force Stop Application. One way or another, you should be able to stop any rogue application that is causing your desktop problems.

And that’s the gist of using Mission Center. This is a great tool to have on your desktop for monitoring system resources and keeping control of your apps.