Hey, is there a way to see the times that programs have been running until? For instance, a way to see that Firefox was open until 8:57 PM, then it was closed.
SLR (Service Level Reporting) is a field of monitoring software that addresses many
such questions on resource and program usage. It is for the Big Boys on massive infrastructures
and VERY expensive.
The concept is to monitor systems availability with probe software which operates as
a client to a client/server model where the data is collected and analyzed.
The hard part is collecting enough information to 'find Program X running' soon enough
and then continue to monitor it until 'Program X is not running'.
If you sample too infrequently, Program X can be started and run to completion before
your next sample -- oops we missed it. Sample too frequently and the tool becomes a
resource bottleneck -- oops, mea culpa