{"slug": "dave-plummer-ships-tmog-a-native-task-manager-for-three-operating-systems", "title": "Dave Plummer ships TMOG, a native Task Manager for three operating systems", "summary": "Dave Plummer, the former Microsoft engineer who created the original Windows Task Manager, shipped TMOG (Task Manager OG) Beta2 version 0.1.1 for macOS, Windows, and Linux, using a 107-page specification and Claude Code to build separate native apps around a shared C++ metrics core. The macOS beta released July 31st, with Windows and Linux following August 23rd, offering a system monitor with CPU, GPU, memory, storage, networking, energy, thermals, and process views.", "body_md": "# Dave Plummer ships TMOG, a native Task Manager for three operating systems\n\n**Plummer says a 107-page specification and Claude Code helped him build separate native apps around a shared C++ metrics core.**\n\nBy [RuntimeWire Staff](/author/runtimewire-staff)\n· Published\n\nPrimary source: [TMOG](https://tmog.org/)\n\n## Why it matters\n\nTMOG is a credible test of agentic coding under expert direction: a veteran systems engineer used a 107-page specification to turn Claude Code into implementation speed across three native applications.\n\n[Dave Plummer (@davepl1968)](https://x.com/davepl1968?ref=runtimewire), the former Microsoft engineer who created the original Windows Task Manager, completed the three-platform rollout of [TMOG](https://tmog.org/?ref=runtimewire) this week, bringing his new system monitor to macOS, Windows and Linux.\n\nPlummer released the macOS beta on July 31st, then announced Windows and Linux availability on August 23rd. TMOG, short for Task Manager OG, is currently labeled Beta2, with version 0.1.1 downloads offered for macOS 13 and later, Windows 11 and Linux desktops running X11 or Wayland.\n\nIt is a return to unusually familiar ground. Plummer wrote the first Windows Task Manager at home while working at Microsoft, then brought the project inside after Windows NT architect Dave Cutler approved its inclusion. It shipped publicly with Windows NT 4.0 in 1996. A later [Microsoft engineering post](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20070725-00/?p=25863&ref=runtimewire) still referred to a Task Manager interface component as \"Dave's frame class,\" a remnant of Plummer's authorship embedded in the utility itself.\n\nPlummer arrived at Microsoft through an internship in the MS-DOS group and graduated from the University of Regina in 1994 with a computer science degree and high honors, according to the university's [computer science alumni program](https://www2.cs.uregina.ca/~hepting/projects/CSAF/?ref=runtimewire). His Microsoft work later included Windows ZIP-folder support and the Windows NT port of Space Cadet Pinball. TMOG gives him another pass at the utility that became his most durable piece of software, this time without the constraints of shipping inside an operating system.\n\n### Three native apps, one systems console\n\nTMOG combines a dashboard for CPU, GPU, memory, storage, networking, energy, thermals and active processes with deeper views for logical processors, NUMA topology, process trees, services and hardware details. Its memory panel separates application, wired, compressed, cached, committed, available and swap figures rather than collapsing them into a single usage number.\n\nPlummer chose separate native interfaces for each operating system: Swift and AppKit on macOS, Win32 controls on Windows, and C++ with Qt 6 on Linux. A shared C++ core aligns metric definitions, actions, models and serialization across the three builds. That structure requires more platform-specific work than wrapping a web interface, while preserving the controls and system integrations users expect on each desktop.\n\nThe distinction matters for a task manager. TMOG needs direct access to operating-system metrics and actions while remaining responsive under the load it is measuring. Plummer advertises meters that update at 60 frames per second, logical-core graphs that expose the shape of a workload, and native process and service controls.\n\nTMOG remains an early beta. The downloads are not digitally signed, so macOS, Windows and Linux users may have to approve the application manually before its first launch. That hurdle is material for a utility asking for access to process and hardware information, even when the operating-system warning is an expected consequence of unsigned distribution.\n\n### The 107-page prompt\n\nThe development story turns TMOG into a sharper example of AI-assisted engineering than the usual one-prompt demo. Plummer began with a detailed specification rather than asking a model to improvise a product.\n\n[Tom's Hardware reported](https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/windows-veterans-vibe-coded-task-manager-now-also-runs-on-mac-and-linux-downloadable-app-is-the-result-of-a-107-page-spec-fed-to-claude-code?ref=runtimewire) that Plummer wrote a 107-page specification and used Anthropic's Claude Code while spending long stretches at the hospital during his son's appendectomy and subsequent treatment. Plummer said the first working versions were generated in roughly four and a half hours, followed by the less photogenic work of testing and refinement.\n\n[Claude Code](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/getting-started?ref=runtimewire) can inspect repositories, edit files and run commands and tests. TMOG shows what those capabilities look like in the hands of a programmer who already knows the product category, the operating-system interfaces and the edge cases. The specification captured decades of domain judgment before the coding agent began producing implementation.\n\nThe result also complicates the loose use of \"vibe coding.\" A 107-page systems specification, three native user interfaces and a shared metrics model describe a tightly directed engineering process. Claude Code supplied speed. Plummer supplied the architecture, requirements and ability to recognize when the generated work was wrong.\n\n### A free category with demanding users\n\nTMOG enters a market where every operating system already includes a free monitor, and power users have mature alternatives. Microsoft's [Process Explorer](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer?ref=runtimewire) provides deep Windows-specific inspection of handles, DLLs and process relationships. The open-source macOS monitor [Stats](https://github.com/exelban/stats?ref=runtimewire) covers CPU, GPU, memory, disks, networking, batteries and sensors.\n\nPlummer's bet is cross-platform consistency without giving up native behavior. TMOG offers the same visual grammar and metric model across three operating systems, while retaining AppKit, Win32 and Qt interfaces underneath. That could appeal to developers and technical operators moving among Macs, Windows workstations and Linux desktops who currently assemble a different monitoring toolkit on each machine.\n\nTMOG's public beta is free. Its [privacy and licensing notice](https://www.tmog.org/privacy.html?ref=runtimewire) already documents local Pro license activation on macOS and Windows, as well as an optional iPhone remote view that sends Mac metrics directly over the local network. The licensing infrastructure gives Plummer a path to sell added functionality while keeping a free edition in distribution.\n\nFor Plummer, TMOG is both a product launch and a controlled test of how much implementation an experienced engineer can hand to a coding agent. He chose the category where his own judgment is hardest to counterfeit. Thirty years after Task Manager first shipped, he is using AI to build it again, with considerably more specification and three times as many operating systems.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/dave-plummer-ships-tmog-a-native-task-manager-for-three-operating-systems", "canonical_source": "https://runtimewire.com/article/dave-plummer-ships-tmog-native-task-manager-three-operating-systems", "published_at": "2026-08-28 21:40:50+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-28 21:47:55.847842+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-tools", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["Dave Plummer", "Microsoft", "TMOG", "Claude Code", "Windows", "macOS", "Linux", "Qt 6"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/dave-plummer-ships-tmog-a-native-task-manager-for-three-operating-systems", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/dave-plummer-ships-tmog-a-native-task-manager-for-three-operating-systems.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/dave-plummer-ships-tmog-a-native-task-manager-for-three-operating-systems.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/dave-plummer-ships-tmog-a-native-task-manager-for-three-operating-systems.jsonld"}}