GNOME using many KDE processes

[linux]

top - 21:23:44 up 2 days,  6:21,  3 users,  load average: 0.29, 0.33, 0.34
Tasks: 136 total,   1 running, 135 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  5.3%us,  1.7%sy,  0.0%ni, 92.7%id,  0.0%wa,  0.3%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1545856k total,  1311596k used,   234260k free,   172172k buffers
Swap:  3229024k total,    38256k used,  3190768k free,   556592k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
 7241 alex      20   0  128m  44m  27m S    3  3.0   3:05.88 amarokapp          
 5402 root      20   0  434m  78m  10m S    3  5.2  86:52.57 Xorg               
 5795 alex      20   0 24700  17m 6712 S    2  1.2  10:54.86 compiz.real        
 5695 alex      20   0 87108  30m  16m S    1  2.0   2:24.92 gnome-panel        
10925 alex      20   0 83064  19m  10m S    1  1.3   0:00.40 gnome-terminal     
10948 alex      20   0  2388 1156  860 R    1  0.1   0:00.04 top                
10821 alex      20   0  206m  62m  23m S    0  4.1   0:20.92 firefox-bin        
    1 root      20   0  1804  820  596 S    0  0.1   0:01.44 init               
    2 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 <strong>kthreadd</strong>           
    3 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.64 migration/0        
    4 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:03.32 <strong>ksoftirqd</strong>/0        
    5 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0         
    6 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.18 migration/1        
    7 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.38 <strong>ksoftirqd</strong>/1        
    8 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/1         
    9 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:01.56 events/0           
   10 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.90 events/1

top - 21:30:29 up 2 days,  6:28,  3 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.10, 0.22
Tasks: 129 total,   1 running, 128 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  4.8%us,  0.6%sy,  0.0%ni, 94.3%id,  0.2%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   1545856k total,  1297280k used,   248576k free,   172448k buffers
Swap:  3229024k total,    38256k used,  3190768k free,   559120k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND            
11332 alex      20   0  2384 1060  776 R    4  0.1   0:00.02 top                
10378 alex      20   0  119m  32m  19m S    2  2.2   0:15.48 pidgin             
    1 root      20   0  1804  820  596 S    0  0.1   0:01.44 init               
    2 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 <strong>kthreadd</strong>           
    3 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.64 migration/0        
    4 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:03.34 <strong>ksoftirqd</strong>/0        
    5 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/0         
    6 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.18 migration/1        
    7 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.38 <strong>ksoftirqd</strong>/1        
    8 root      RT  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 watchdog/1         
    9 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:01.58 events/0           
   10 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.90 events/1           
   11 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 <strong>khelper</strong>            
   48 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.52 <strong>kblockd</strong>/0          
   49 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.06 <strong>kblockd</strong>/1          
   52 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:00.46 <strong>kacpid</strong>             
   53 root      15  -5     0    0    0 S    0  0.0   0:01.52 <strong>kacpi_notify</strong>

I've noticed that top shows many different KDE processes running in a GNOME environment. Is this bad? Can I get GNOME to use mainly GNOME processes for these tasks?

[John A]

The 'k' prefix actually doesn't refer to 'KDE', it refers to 'kernel'. Those are various kernel daemons meant for handling threads, ACPI, APIC, IRQ, etc. and cannot be killed.

[jbennet]

and just for reference, gnome runs some KDE stuff to make KDE apps run nicely.

[linux]

Thank you, John A and jbennet!