
The Completely Fair Scheduler was merged for the 2.6.23 kernel. One CFS feature which did not get in, though, was
the group scheduling facility. Group scheduling makes the CFS fairness algorithm operate in a hierarchical fashion: processes are divided into groups, and, within each group, processes are scheduled fairly against one another. At the higher level, each group as a whole is given a fair share of the processor. The grouping of processes is done in user space in a highly flexible manner; the control groups (formerly 'process containers') mechanism allows a management daemon to classify processes according to almost any policy.
Member since:
2006-01-16
First, system daemons could/should be niced already if needed.
Next, your user side usecase lacks substance. GUI processes that are minimized or on other desktop are usually sleeping anyways. If they are not, for example a music player or a cd burning application, it could even be fatal to give them bad priority.
It's not as easy as it looks. On earlier Windows versions (don't know the current ones) you could give a hint to the scheduler: Equal rights for every process or priority given to the current "foreground app". I always chose the former...