Yes; the bit that manages the process accounting and the other bit for writing the log files... Personally I consider two processes and 40MB of ram to be negli

Yes; the bit that manages the process accounting and the other bit for writing the log files... Personally I consider two processes and 40MB of ram to be negligible for the benefits it brings. You can indeed use it as a standalone top without either of these processes too. You're just giving up one of the main benefits (replayable logs) outside of the extra stats. In short; you're moaning about what exactly?