Sysprof is a sampling CPU profiler that uses a ptrace in Linux kernel to profile the entire system, not just a single application. Sysprof handles shared libraries and applications do not need to be recompiled. In fact they don't even have to be restarted.

It has the following features:

• profiles all running processes, not just a single application
• has a simple graphical interface
• shows the time spent in each branch of the call tree
• profiles can be loaded and saved