Conky is one of the most powerful and versatile system monitors for Linux desktops. It allows you to monitor and display all the information about your hardware, top processes, network, emails and more. At the moment more than 300 different feature has been built for Conky and searching on the web you always find the perfect feature already developed by someone.

- Installation on Ubuntu:

in Terminal run: sudo apt-get install conky

- Configuration:

In Terminal run: sudo nautilus

Go to File System: /etc/conky/conky.conf

Save a copy of the original conky.conf in another location and open the original file with Gedit Text Editor

First of all change: own_window yes to own_window no

Choose your preferred alignment (some samples below…):
alignment top_right
or
alignment middle_right
or
alignment bottom_right

Play with: update_interval 1.0
and change the interval value till you find the right ratio to obtain the best speed for you (in my case it was 0.80).

Add this line to eliminate any flickering:
double_buffer yes
but, on some computers, all the icon on your desktop will be hidden and you need to use (move) the mouse to discover them if you will not add this parameter: own_window_type normal

Add, as last line (or in other position if you prefer):
${color red} ${cpugraph} to have a clear graph about cpu (obviously you can choose the color you prefer)

For automatic start of Conky at startup, please follow the following instructions:
Run Startup Applications in System –> Preferences
Click on Add and save after updating the following instructions
Name: Conky
Command: /usr/bin/conky

Restart Ubuntu to check your new Conky “applet”

Link to Conky: http://conky.sourceforge.net/

For more info about Conky’s variables: http://conky.sourceforge.net/variables.html

Find online some pre-compiled Conky configuration files, searching, for example, on: http://gnome-look.org