Conky – Overview and Installation

Unlimited system customization is one of the things that most draws users' attention to the world of Linux distributions. When it comes to personalization, Conky is one of the first things that comes to mind for many users, especially those new to this world.

conky-overview-installation

Conky is a system monitor, however, different from usual for several reasons.

Most system monitoring applications, available for Linux distributions, have layout and use well to standard templates. An icon available in the system's / dock / desktop menu, which when accessed opens a window with information such as: services, running applications, how much of your machine resources each of these services are consuming, CPU usage, RAM , disk, etc.

Conky, on the other hand, has a very peculiar way of presenting itself. Instead of a conventional window, the data is displayed in HUD form. Windows, usually borderless, fixed to the desktop, not interactive. Natively, any modification to Conky must be done manually by editing the settings script for each theme.

The app is capable of displaying basically any information on your desktop. From information about your hardware to, weather, time and date, emails, music players, news, and more. This information can be displayed in many different ways. You can switch between font styles, themes, screen position, size, etc.

Conky does not have an interface / settings window by default. If you want to configure it via graphical interface, you have to install a part application, Conky Manager. However, it is only capable of managing a minimal part of all the infinite options and settings that Conky has. If you want to modify all these settings not available in Conky Manager, you have to do it manually by editing the desired theme settings script.

From what has been said so far, we can see that the use of Conky in the Linux world is somewhat ironic.

You may be wondering:

Ironic? As well?

Ok. I explain.

Conky, without a doubt, a very well done program. It is currently being maintained, and new versions are released regularly. However, this is certainly not an application aimed at the novice user, so much so that it natively does not even have a graphical interface for configurations. And even those non-management interface options like Conky Manager are extremely limited. Even so, it is precisely the novice user who is most interested in the application.

I've been using Conky for awhile (And guess when? When I was a beginner.). But nowadays, the application does not miss me at all. In fact, I never found it necessary, I just felt hack to have all that system information showing on my screen. I even like some of Conky's most minimalist themes, but there are other options that are simpler and easier to use, for those who just want to display a desktop clock or something. Therefore, it is unlikely that I will ever use it again.

Finally, it doesn't matter what I or anyone thinks about Conky. In my opinion, this is the real freedom in the software world. You're free to use whatever you want, whenever you want, for whatever reason, and there's nothing wrong with that.

The video below is the first video of a project that started on Instagram and is expanding to YouTube. It's about the project The Creative Penguin, which was the main subject of one of our Friday lives on Diolinux Friday Show. The video shows the walkthrough of installing and configuring basic Conky and Conky Manager on various Linux distributions.

What do you think about Conky? Already tested? Interested in testing? Tell us in the comments.

Do you like Linux and technology? Got a question or problem you can't solve? Come join our community in the Diolinux Plus!

For today all staff! 🙂

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