maintaining os x

[Steven1621]

as a recent mac convert, i was very much accustomed to spending considerable time maintain my old pc to keep it running as fast as possible. what, if any, measures should i be taking on my mac to keep it in top shape? is there any good software that would be good for me to use that cleans up the computer and such?

[abhishekit]

nah, not much. except make sure that the cron jobs (which the system does itself) keep running periodically. By dafault they run only if your comp is on at 3-6 in the morning. to change this time, either download macjanitor.com, or you can manually edit the crontab file in /private/etc. In that file the first column is minutes, second column is the hour (in 24 hour format). as you can see, i have changed mine to 9 , 10 and 11 in the night..

[PlaceofDis]

look around on www.versiontracker.com for some cool apps that you can use on your mac. if you turn your mac off at night some scripts wont be run so you would want a program like macjanitor or OnyX to run those for you, i personally prefer OnyX because it has a lot of other features

[Westside guy]

nah, not much. except make sure that the cron jobs (which the system does itself) keep running periodically. By dafault they run only if your comp is on at 3-6 in the morning. to change this time, either download macjanitor.com, or you can manually edit the crontab file in /private/etc. In that file the first column is minutes, second column is the hour (in 24 hour format). as you can see, i have changed mine to 9 , 10 and 11 in the night..

The problem with this approach is you still have to be sure your computer is on at the times you specify. :D

A much better solution is to install the free anacron tool (http://www.alastairs-place.net/anacron.html). Anacron was developed by the open source community to address these exact shortcomings with the traditional Vixie cron (Paul Vixie is the creator of cron). Rather than setting specific times for these cron jobs, it checks whether or not these tasks have been run within a specified interval (in this case - within the past day, week, or month respectively). If the jobs haven't been run, anacron runs them regardless of the time of day.

All you have to do is install the anacron package - the maintenance cron jobs will be automatically migrated to anacron.

[bhertz]

some things to look at:

free:
macjanitor: http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill/macjanitor.html
onyx: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11582
tinkertool: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/5721

not free:
cocktail: http://www.macosxcocktail.com/

The macjanitor page has a good explanation on why you need to do these things. It is also a good idea to repair permissions.

[grapes911]

Get anacron. It will run the mac's daily, weekly, and monthly jobs when your computer has time. Much better than macjanitor and others like that.
http://www.alastairs-place.net/anacron.html

[dragula53]

onyx is my favorite maintenance tool
it does em all, and looks good doing it.
and seems to be bug free over the past couple years of using it
and I have tried em all.

[JOD8FY]

Also just make sure that you "Repair Permissions" on a regular basis. Not everyday, maybe once a week or so. To do this, go to Applications>Utilities and then open Disk Utility. Select "Macintosh HD" in the left column and then hit the button that says "Repair Permissions".

Also, seeing that you are a switcher, go into the Finder help and search for "Glossary" (without quotes). This will give you a glossary of Windows terms and what they are on Mac.

Lastly, make sure that you calibrate your Powerbook's battery when you first get it. To do this: charge it up fully, unplug it, turn it on, and completely drain the battery until it is forced into sleep (not shutdown) mode. Then plug it back in and charge it up. It keeps your battery more accurate in its calculations of how much juice it has left, and gives you some improved battery life! Do this about once a month.

Congratulations on the switch,
JOD8FY

[Cooknn]

I'm a recent switcher too. Thanks for the great info. Just linked to Anacron so I can pick it up tonight.

It's funny how my new G5 (home) has made me hate working on a PC/Windows box (work). I never thought it would happen. Every time a Windows program crashes I think of how OS X is so rock solid. Why don't more people get it? For me it was a misconception regarding compatibility. Once I realized that I could run everything on my Mac that I run on my PC it was just a matter of budgeting for the purchase. I can't believe it took this long, although I don't think it would have been as cool before OS X. Having UNIX under the hood totally ROCKS.

- Dave Cook