The power of the graphical interface
In the Linux world, it is traditionally customary to focus on text interfaces: console, htop, top, systemctl – these tools are well known to experienced users. However, modern realities dictate other requirements: many users are switching from Windows to Linux, where the graphical interface is familiar and understandable. This is especially true for the visualization of system processes.
Here Mission Center comes to the rescue – an extremely convenient and visually attractive task manager, which is very reminiscent of the Task Manager from Windows 11. This is a real gift for Raspberry Pi users who want to have not only a functional, but also an aesthetically pleasing tool for monitoring the system.
What is Mission Center?
Mission Center is a modern alternative to traditional task managers, combining stylish design, high performance and rich functionality:
- display of CPU, RAM, disk, network usage;
- list of processes in a convenient window with the ability to terminate;
- convenient real-time performance diagnostics;
- visual style as close as possible to Windows Task Manager;
- support for Wayland and X11.
Why install Mission Center on Raspberry Pi?
Raspberry Pi is used not only as a server or IoT device, but also as a full-fledged desktop computer. If you run a graphical environment on it (for example, Raspberry Pi OS with an interface), a convenient task manager is a must-have. Mission Center makes monitoring processes not only informative, but also pleasing to the eye.
How to install Mission Center on Raspberry Pi
There are several installation features, namely, the Raspberry Pi must be desktop, with a graphical interface, and since Mission Center is distributed via
- AppImage (ARM64),
- Flatpak
- Snap
The easiest choice would be to install Mission Center via Flatpak. After all, the latest version of Snap on Raspberry Pi is 2.57.6, and the installation requires at least Snap version 2.61. Otherwise, the user will receive an error.
Step 1: Update the system
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt upgradeStep 2: Install Flatpak
sudo apt-get install flatpakAfter installing flatpak, you need to restart the system or the current session (for Flatpak to integrate with the GUI)
Step 3: Installing Mission Center
sudo flatpak install flathub io.missioncenter.MissionCenter
Looking for matches…
Required runtime for io.missioncenter.MissionCenter/aarch64/stable (runtime/org.gnome.Platform/aarch64/48) found in remote flathub
Do you want to install it? [Y/n]: y
1. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default
2. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264
3. [✓] org.gnome.Platform.Locale
4. [✓] org.gnome.Platform
5. [✓] io.missioncenter.MissionCenter
Installation complete.Step 4: Launch Mission Center
After installation, the shortcut was not displayed in the menu, so I launched the utility via flatpak:
flatpak run io.missioncenter.MissionCenterOn the Raspberry Pi, the launch didn’t go very smoothly, namely the console had some caveats regarding hardware compatibility.
Comparison with Windows Task Manager
The Mission Center has three sections:
- Performance
- Applications
- Services
The Windows Task Manager has additional sections: Logs, Startup Programs, Users, and Information.
Let’s look at the sections that can be compared
Performance
Visually, almost the same metric:
- Processor (you can switch from general view to logical processors)
- Memory
- Disks
- Network (Wi-Fi and wired)
In this case, I took a comparative screenshot with my desktop on which Windows 11 is installed.
Applications
In Mission Center it is called Apps, in Windows the list of running programs is called Processes, where when sorted by name it is the active programs that are displayed, which can be called applications in a way.
As you can see from the screenshots above, it is possible to sort by processor load or RAM consumption.
Services
Mission Center and Task Manager calls it Services both. In this screen, you can stop or start services, view their status.
Application Limitations
Installing Mission Center on Raspberry Pi was possible, but it came with a number of technical limitations. The package is not available in the standard APT repositories, and installing via Snap was impossible due to the outdated version of snapd, which does not support the new basic Snap packages, in particular core20.
As a result, the only option for quick installation was the version via Flatpak. It really runs and looks modern, but it has its own nuances: due to the limitations of the Flatpak sandbox, some of the functionality is unavailable or does not work correctly. In particular, numerous messages are displayed about errors with access to system files and refusal to connect to internal sockets, and the graphical interface sometimes exceeds the size of the screen.
It is worth noting that on the Raspberry Pi, using the Flatpak version of Mission Center resulted in a significant system load: the CPU was loaded to almost 50% immediately after launching the application without any interaction. This may call into question the feasibility of its long-term use on low-power devices.
Conclusion
The application turned out to be really impressive in terms of design and proximity to the Windows 11 Task Manager, but unfortunately it is not optimized or adapted for weak ARM processors.
