Hacking Ubuntu to Improve Performance

“The default Ubuntu Dapper Drake installation includes some
basic processes that check devices, tune the operating system, and
perform housekeeping. Some of these processes are always running,
while others start up periodically. Occasionally you might see your
hard drive start up or grind away for a few minutes–what’s going
on? On mission critical servers, serious gaming boxes, and other
real-time systems, unexpected processes can cause huge problems;
administrators should know exactly what is running and when. The
last thing a time-sensitive application needs is for a
resource-intensive maintenance system to start at an unexpected
time and cause the system to slow down…”

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