System monitor: what does "Load average" exactly cover ???

[David Vincent]

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Vincent Trouilliez wrote:
> In the system monitor, at the top of the "Processes" tab, it says:
>
> " Load averages for the last 1, 5, 15 minutes: 0.09, 0.16, 0.18 "

> So my question is: does anyone know for sure what these tiny "load"
> numbers represent exactly ? How are they calculated ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_(computing)

...might help explain things as might...

http://www.google.ca/search?q=linux+load+average

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