Istat menu 3 of Mac equivalent?

Looks like this question was asked when Unity was brand new and not many people were using it. None of the answers listed make use of the Unity menu bar, which imo is the only worthwhile place to have a system monitor.

Apparently the things in the menu bar are called "Application Indicators" and so far the closest thing I've found to iStat Menus is indicator-multiload, explained here. In that thread there are also other examples of resource monitors, including one for hardware sensors.

You can get what you want with gkrellm -- it works out of the box, but you will probably want to tinker a bit to get the look and the info you're after.

You can install the basic application from the Software Center or via the command line, with apt-get install gkrellm , but there are numerous plugins and themes available.

You can see the easily installed plugins with apt-cache search gkrellm . Here's an extract:

gkrellm-bfm - system load plugin for gkrellm with a duck
gkrellm-hdplop - A hard drive activity monitor GKrellM plugin
gkrellm-ibam - Advanced battery monitor for laptops - gkrellm plugin
gkrellm-leds - Keyboard LED monitor for GKrellM
gkrellm-mailwatch - GKrellM plugin to watch mailboxes in multiple panels
gkrellm-mldonkey - mldonkey plugin for gkrellm2
gkrellm-radio - FM radio tuner for GKrellM

And here's a themes directory (the last time I installed it, this is the site I used to find a theme I liked): muhri.net/gkrellm

Another option is conky

It is also installable from the Software center or via apt-get. It is extremely configurable, and if you search, you'll find many screenshots of customized conky installations. (Here's one from conky pitstop .)

It's not a direct equivalent, but you can add the System Monitor panel applet, which will show you real-time graphs of CPU, Memory, Network, etc. Right click on the panel Add To Panel and add the System Monitor applet. Then, right-click on the applet in the panel and in its preferences you can choose which resources to monitor. It doesn't have a drop-down menu like istat does, but it opens up the full system monitor when you click on it.

You should try InfoPanel (an screenlet).

To install this add the ppa ppa:screenlets/ppa and install screenlets and infopanel-screenlet from the software center .

You can also use conky-faenza

To install first install conky from software center then download this and extract the archive into your home folder and ALT + F2 and run conky or add it to startup applications.

There's also indicator-sysmonitor

You can easily customize it.