Mac maintenance

not the waxing kind thanks.

i have a 2 year old macbook
i used to download all the applications going at first.
have now settled on pretty much what i need.
have never with maintenance (mac's don't get virus's :) yeah, right!
any good programs/applications about?
procedures etc?
and help appreciated as normal.

I've got this, but don't use it much.

I thought if you owned a Mac, Steve Jobs would make monthly visits to suck you off and provide any necessary maintenance tasks? Mac Fail.

onyx is ok, i tend to use System Optimizer, but haven't used it much lately either.

Just repair permissions using Disk Utility, and maybe flush some caches.

Disk Inventory X

http://www.derlien.com/

that should help you figure out what you need and don't need (discovered I got over 5GB of useless iMovie 'template' when I use this!).

disk permissions and onyx every now and again. Disk Warrior once a month.

i use macaroni which is automatic and gets rid of all the language files you don't need and tempory printing files and caches you don't need.
applejack every once in a while if i feel things are slowing down or after a software update.

Macaroni sounds useful - wish I'd known about that before manually deleting all the language files :(

All of this is fairly pointless, sorry, just make sure you have 15% of your HD free of gubbins... deleting language files and printer drivers accounts for ~4.5gb of data and the drivers are very useful if you travel about the place.

There is really no need to optimise OS X, the real world advantages are tiny, it's a waste of time... I would recommend looking into something like Quicksilver if you need a better/faster working environment.

It's just tinkering for the sake of it, pfff.

applejack always seems to sort out a system that starts to get sluggish it's free and seems to do more than just repairing permissions.

Repairing permissions is now a myth, it helps somewhat with older versions of OS X but is now a waste of time, it can be useful when you have badly written apps with multiple users and have tinkered with universal prefs, but it is extremely unlikely that a sluggish system that is under 3 years old needs anything done to permissions.

Applejack is an easier way of repairing permissions on an old version of OS X if you have lost the start-up disk and have corrupted a user, but again, it is extremely unlikely that you will ever need to use it. The process of browsing the internet, installing the app and tinkering with it will is more likely to do damage than it is to help you, you can also repair permissions/caches/disks without the utility (through single-user mode or from clean host machines) which I would suggest as a better alternative.

All of this is fairly pointless, sorry, just make sure you have 15% of your HD free of gubbins... deleting language files and printer drivers accounts for ~4.5gb of data and the drivers are very useful if you travel about the place.

It was those ~4.5gb that helped me get 15% of my HD free of gubbins. Not missed the drivers (or languages) yet.

cheers all.

That's why it's only fairly pointless.... if you're that low on HD space I would look into archiving some stuff or fitting a larger HD.

I doubt you'll miss the languages but plenty of people use the drivers all the time, it's definitely not something to just throw away if you work in a professional environment, etc...

Disk Inventory X

http://www.derlien.com/

Genius. Thanks for this Ed. 4Gb of total crap now gone. And not a driver tortured in the process! :)

Good advice Jono. I have to say since i moved to intel macs/leopard last year i haven't needed to do any maintenance of any kind, everything seems to run just as well as it did when new.

Intel's crap compared to the reliability/workflow I had a few years back on a maxed G5, but meh.

That's why it's only fairly pointless.... if you're that low on HD space I would look into archiving some stuff or fitting a larger HD.

I doubt you'll miss the languages but plenty of people use the drivers all the time, it's definitely not something to just throw away if you work in a professional environment, etc...

Everything's fine, thanks. Now running at about 20% HD freespace, an external drive with archive-worthy stuff, print drivers on disk or online if I ever needed them (my wife does all the printing/works in production), and the machine is fit for purpose.

Intel's crap compared to the reliability/workflow I had a few years back on a maxed G5, but meh.

really? i'd have to disagree, but then i guess we do different types of work.

I doubt you'll miss the languages but plenty of people use the drivers all the time, it's definitely not something to just throw away if you work in a professional environment, etc...

i had to uninstall the gimp print drivers so i could print borderless over firewire with a specific driver for my printer, being a professional photographer it was necessary to do this so i could have a complete colour managed workflow (and print borderless).

my dual core g5 at work takes 20 mins to boot, thanks in part to extensis suitcase 9 loading about 600 fonts. any ideas how to speed that up? it seems stupidly slow. ...

that's a shame. My octo-core Mac Pro boots up in the blink of an eye..:)

Whatever works for the individual... I just think tinkering can be a little pointless at times.

I moved from Suitcase to Linotype Font Explorer (it's free and updated regularly with each OS update, etc.) and haven't looked back, I'd give that a go.

However, a slow boot time can normally be trouble shot, anything over 3 minutes is very out of the ordinary... shout me a PM if you need further help or anything.

really? i'd have to disagree, but then i guess we do different types of work.

Maybe. In general G5s were very/more reliable in their hay-day (from the move to dual cores onwards), my personal experience matched this too. Obviously they'd be inappropriate now, right I'm boring myself with this, riding time...