Must have performance/Mac OS X software?

I've had my mac for about 8 months, and its been slowing down recently and the odd time freezing. (I figured out 95% of the freezing issues was using the app 'Transmission')

I want to know what are good programs to help repair registries, defrag, and any other good must have programs for the mac. I think this would make a good sticky as well.

Right now I have:

Xupport - Light weight. Had it since day one, seems to work great at repairing registries and general maintenance also has the network optimizer but not sure how that works.

iStat - Light weight. Very cool montioring program, displays fan speed, memory, and temprature of my macbook (which dropped a lot after getting the little 'cool feet')

Appcleaner - Seems like a great lightweight program for erasing/uninstalling applications 100%.

Other great apps I have are:

Transmit - Great FTP Program, Love it.
Adium - Great chat program, can add MSN, AIM, Yahoo messenger all in one and it actually works great.
StuffIt - Good archiver program.
Cabos - Great p2p program.
Toast Titanium - Awesome program for burning and recording all types of media.

I purchased Drive Genius today haven't opened it, apparently its good for disk check, repair and de-fragging. A friend uses iDefrag which is about 1/10th the size which seems good to me as I like lightweight apps. Any comments on Drive Genius?

Thanks,
Matt

 

Just so you know, OS X does not have a registry like Windows does and if my memory serves me, it does not need to be defragmented either.

If your looking for good programs, the Switchers guide should have everything you need.

 

hurmm so all these programs are just a gimmick to catch ex window's users like my self?

 

Basically. Like I said, the Switchers guide will have more info.

 

OSX is using a Journaled operating system. The Windows Registry originally was designed to be used as a driver based database, and it sort of evolved in to a dumping ground for the Windows Dev team.

OSX uses a Journal that basically decentralizes all the operating system assets, but keeps track of them in some master records. Think of these master records as a long list. When I say "decentralize," don't think of of it as files all over the place. More like getting rid of the handcuffs that "force" items to be put in certain places without an option to move them. Thats why when you drag and drop items from one location to another, they still work. Most applications are wrapped with all of the assets included in the icons. But lets say you have a program that puts a file or two somewhere else (Limewire, World of Warcraft and MS Office all come to mind). If those files get moved, the Journal keeps track and at the next execution launch says "Its over here now." If the file gets deleted, the file just gets recreated.

There is some overhead in maintaining these lists, and programs like drive genius can help maintain those lists. Also, permissions in Unix can be tricky as there are security dependencies that can get broken when things get deleted. These permissions many times need to be fixed.

There is certainly maintenance to be done in OSX. However, the Operating System is far more resilient then a registered OS.

 

Are you sure you know what you are talking about?
Because this is not the correct explanation for journaling filesystem.

 

try Onyx.

 

I think I was going to get Onyx but got Xupport instead. Dont they both practically do the same thing?

Whats the program that comes with applecare, its another 'cleaning' program...?

 

This isn't the correct explanation for a journaling file system because he's not talking about a journaling file system.

For the most part, his explanation will work.

 

it's a stretch. not really that accurate. in either case:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system

 

From your post on Wikipedia:

"A journaling file system is a file system that logs changes to a journal (usually a circular log in a dedicated area of the file system) before committing them to the main file system. Such file systems are less likely to become corrupted in the event of power failure or system crash."

From my post above:

"OSX uses a Journal that basically decentralizes all the operating system assets, but keeps track of them in some master records. If those files get moved, the Journal keeps track and at the next execution launch says "Its over here now."

Sorry guys, Im trying to figure out where Im wrong here. Wikipedia and I both agree.

 

The OSX 'journal' has little to do with the filesystems. Nearly all modern filesystems are journaled including Windows' NTFS. Journaling is a consistency mechanism but at the file level, not the OS level.

I'm an OSX neophyte so your explanation of how OSX maintains internal file journals may be entirely 100% correct but that would all happen in a layer above HFS.

 

It because education is failing US reading comprehension.

They also believe Wikipedia as the Know all-End all source of knowledge. While I do think you oversimplified the explanation much, I do see enough similarities to agree with you.

 

This is the point of contention. You are describing the user moving around program level files (executables or program assets, libraries, etc), and the OS keeping track of where they are so that a program can execute properly regardless.

First off, this may or may not be true depending on the application.

Second, this type of feature (if it even exists, which I am not sure I agree with) is not related to the journaled file system. I know for a fact that there are a variety of files you can move around which will break things, and application files and library files you can move around which will break applications.

Either way, the journaled file system is absolutely a system level feature. It is a method of dealing with file operations in a safe manner by considering the order in which file operations are done, and performing some file operation overhead by writing the file system changes out in a list before they are actually made (you did describe this). This allows the file system to better maintain its state in case of sudden power loss or a system crash, etc.

However, this doesn't protect against the user moving files away from where they need to be for particular programs to execute properly. Again - that feature (if it exists) is not part of the journaled file system.

 

This is absolutely true. The description I used was really to demonstrate the operating systems needs from a external application (disk defrag) perspective. The way OSX is managing the journal is in fact tied to the file system format. And it is also true that NTFS offers a USN Journal. However, the development behind how Windows interacts with USN and how OSX manages HFS are radically different. Using USN does not eliminate the need for the bogus Windows Registry.

I think we agree Mikey

 

it's just that the one big thing you said journaling does in OS X (track file locations to properly link files with their corresponding programs even if the user moves them), it does not do.

that is all.

 

This is from Apples own support database:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2355
"Journaling is a technique that helps protect the integrity of the Mac OS Extended file systems on Mac OS X volumes. It both prevents a disk from getting into an inconsistent state and expedites disk repair if the server fails.

When you enable journaling on a disk, a continuous record of changes to files on the disk is maintained in the journal. If your computer stops because of a power failure or some other issue, the journal is used to restore the disk to a known-good state when the server restarts.

With journaling turned on, the file system logs transactions as they occur. If the server fails in the middle of an operation, the file system can "replay" the information in its log and complete the operation when the server restarts."

There are files in OSX that if deleted will effect the operating systems. Not many, but a few. Most are located in /System/Library/Filesystem

Outside of that directory, there are almost none. And local user/admin rights will be insufficient to delete these files. sudo will need to be used.

 

My point exactly that is why I said there was something wrong with the explanation.
Journaling is a low level filesystem feature not a userland filename thing.

It just records all the harddisk transaction in case of power failure the transactions (Changes to disk) are not lost.

Reminds me of something I did.
In a Apple Section of a store I rm-rf the darwin kernel.
No struggles... didn't even tried to protect the kernel image.
The next day the Macbook wasn't switched on.

Talk about "it just works"

 

It is like saying "Using HFS Jurnaling does not eliminate the need for the plist files".

 

Hi Matt

Little 'cool feet'? What are they? Have I missed some sort of in-joke?