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