HyperTeamsWhat your computer is doing right now
What you will learn This part is for readers without a technical background. From here on the manual uses these words without explaining them. This first chapter is the floor — what is actually happening inside the machine.
Why this part exists
The earlier parts covered what and why. From here it is how, and that is where unexplained words start arriving.
After this part those four lines read plainly. Not so you can write software, but so you can read the rest of the manual without stopping and talk to your IT people in the same words.
Three things to tell apart
| Part | What it does | Analogy |
|---|---|---|
| Storage (disk, SSD) | survives power off | filing cabinet |
| Memory (RAM) | what is open right now | the desk |
| CPU | does the actual work | the person working |
graph TD
A["Storage — survives power off<br/>files, programs"] -->|"opening spreads it out"| B["Memory — cleared on power off<br/>what is open now"]
B -->|"hands over the maths"| C["CPU — does the work"]
C -->|"result back"| B
B -->|"only if you save"| AThe bottom arrow is the point. What sits in memory has to pass through save to survive. Pull the power and the desk is swept; only the cabinet remains.
A program and a process are not the same
They look alike, and mixing them up makes the rest of the manual confusing.
| Program | Process | |
|---|---|---|
| What | what is installed | what is running |
| Where | storage | memory |
| How many | one | possibly several |
Install Chrome once, open three windows: one program, several processes.
When the hyperteams command says it is already running, it means the process.
Why "restart it" genuinely works
It sounds like a brush-off, but there is a reason. A restart wipes memory entirely. Tangled state, half-open connections, files held by mistake — all gone at once.
If two restarts change nothing, memory is not the cause. From the third attempt, look at configuration. That one distinction saves a lot of flailing.
Things that keep running after you close the window
Start a program in a terminal and it usually hangs off that window. Close the window and it dies with it. Programs that need to outlive the window offer a separate way to start.
That is what --background in the command reference means, and
the same structure is why the terminal stays alive after
you close the browser tab.
The computer itself still has to be on. Background detaches from the window, not from the machine. Close a laptop lid and the CPU stops, so scheduled runs stop with it.
Sleep is not shutdown
| State | Memory | Running programs |
|---|---|---|
| On | kept | running |
| Sleep | kept | stopped |
| Shut down | cleared | gone |
Sleep keeps everything in place, so on waking it looks like nothing happened. But nothing ran while it slept. If a machine is meant to work overnight, turn sleep off.
Common misconceptions
"It says memory is full — should I free up disk space?"
Different things. Disk is the cabinet, memory is the desk. Emptying the cabinet does not clear the desk. Close programs, or restart.
"I closed the program but it still shows as running"
Closing a window and ending a process are different. Anything started in the
background survives the window and needs an explicit stop
(hyperteams stop).
Check yourself
1. What is the difference between storage and memory?
Answer
Whether it survives power off. Storage (the cabinet) does; memory (the desk) is cleared. That is why saving matters.
2. What kind of problem does a restart fix?
Answer
State accumulated in memory — tangled state, half-open connections. If two restarts change nothing, look at settings on disk instead.
3. Does a background process keep working when you close the laptop lid?
Answer
No. Background detaches from the terminal window, not the machine. Sleep stops the CPU, so scheduled work stops too.
Next, inside that cabinet → Files, folders, paths