New iBook (first Mac!)... some questions

[mrgreen4242]

Hi, my iBook came today, and I am loving it so far. The keyboard feels great, the screen looks very nice, everything is very snappy w/ OSX, and it plays UT2k3 (demo) without a hitch (gonna try WC3 and maybe pick up a new game tomorrow, also want to try UT2k4 is the demo is patched to fix sound bug yet?).

Anyways, I have some questions about OSX/Mac usage in general...

1) Is there an 'easy' way to remove some of the "bloat" in OSX/standard applications installed from the factory? It looks like about 15gb were used up from the get go, and I know that all of that can't be required stuff...

2) How do I properly delete a program in OSX? Do I just delete it's folder? I'm specifically looking at the Office demo, but in general is good to know.

3) How can I tell what optional packages are already installed on my machine? IE, Xcode, X11 server, etc.

Thanks in advance,
Rob

[whocares]

Originally Posted by mrgreen4242

1) Is there an 'easy' way to remove some of the "bloat" in OSX/standard applications installed from the factory? It looks like about 15gb were used up from the get go, and I know that all of that can't be required stuff...

Probably. Lots of space is taken up by things like printer drivers you may not need, multiple languages you may not need and various other stuff. There's probably a way to delete them but I don't know where they are. If you haven't transfered anything to the iBook yet, it may be a good time to initialize and do a custom install of what you want (ie w/o useless printer drivers, languages, etc). Others will most likely have better advice on this.

Originally Posted by mrgreen4242

2) How do I properly delete a program in OSX? Do I just delete it's folder? I'm specifically looking at the Office demo, but in general is good to know.

Absolutely! Drag app folder to Trash; empty Trash.
If you're picky, you can also go looking for its preference files in your Library folder.

Originally Posted by mrgreen4242

3) How can I tell what optional packages are already installed on my machine? IE, Xcode, X11 server, etc.

All applications should be in the purposely named "Applications" folder.
Cool trick: drag your Applications folder into the right side of your Dock. A long click (or a right click, or Ctrl-click) will let you browse through the Application folder and subfolders to launch applications. This works for any folder.
Developper tools will also have a "Developper" folder at the root of your system volume. You can also look at the pertinent folders (like /bin, /usr/bin, ...) to see what binaries you have for use in Terminal.

Enjoy your new purchase. It's a fine computer!

[Krizoitz]

Originally Posted by whocares

Probably. Lots of space is taken up by things like printer drivers you may not need, multiple languages you may not need and various other stuff. There's probably a way to delete them but I don't know where they are. If you haven't transfered anything to the iBook yet, it may be a good time to initialize and do a custom install of what you want (ie w/o useless printer drivers, languages, etc). Others will most likely have better advice on this.

This is an absolutely fanTASTic plan. You should definitely think about doing a custom install, this streamlines things very nicely.

[spookykids]

download Monolingual from www.macupdate.com. its a little spiffy application that deletes all other languages you dont have use for. by running Monolingual i got rid of 700 MB.

[MacRAND]

Originally Posted by mrgreen4242

Hi, my iBook came today, and I am loving it so far. The keyboard feels great, the screen looks very nice, everything is very snappy w/ OSX, ...
Anyways, I have some questions about OSX/Mac usage in general...
1) Is there an 'easy' way to remove some of the "bloat" in OSX/standard applications installed from the factory?
It looks like about 15gb were used up ... I know that all of that can't be required stuff...
2) How do I properly delete a program in OSX? Do I just delete it's folder? I'm specifically looking at the Office demo, but in general is good to know.
3) How can I tell what optional packages are already installed on my machine? IE, Xcode, X11 server, etc.
Rob

Rob, congratulations on you new iBook.
Is it G4 or G3?,
12 or 14"?
How big is your Hard Drive?

Getting rid of the local languages with Monolingual (as suggested above) or using DeLocalizer at:
http://www.bombich.com/software/local.htmll http://www.bombich.com/software/images/lthead.gif
is an excellent idea.
Run Software Update from System Preferences, and then Repair Permissions from Disk Utility in the Utilities (Applications) folder.

Just be careful what you dump.
MS Internet Explorer is separate from MS Office, so it is safe if you dump Office.
I'm wondering if you can salvage Entourage from MS Office, it's a program I use and really like. But if you use Apple Mail & Apple's Address Book, you should be well covered. iCal is an awesome program for calendar, Download free:
http://www.mac.com/1/ical.html
plus you can subscribe to stateside sports event calendars at
http://www.iCalShare.com

Good luck, and God's speed on your deployment.
Come home safe. You will be in our daily prayers.

They've got communal internet connections overseas, so be sure to carry your cables.
Do you have an iPod so you can download all you CDs into iTunes before you ship?
If you have a Combo drive**, be sure to pack a spindle of 25 CDs or so.
A small digital camera would be awesome and that way you could take pics to email home.
**If your iBook can't burn CDs, consider packing a LaCie d2 DVD/CD±R/RW ($249, which includes a FREE full version of Roxio's Toast 6 [$99 retail]) that will let you burn both CDs and DVD discs. Make sure it is the new 8x DVD burning model, and not just the old 4x. The LaCie d2 model is built solid as an Army tank. Make sure you have the right FireWire cable for it before you leave CONUS.
Sempre Fi!

[mrgreen4242]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I'm trying to decide wether I should do a custom install now. I have a few things copied onto my system so far, but I have everything backed up for the transfer anyways, so it isn't a real big deal.

I do have a 15gb iPod, and the olny thing I need to decide is if I want to bother keeping my MP3's on my computer as well. I have about 8gbs of music right now, and I am sure that it will grow as I am gone. I have about 7gbs of audio books that I will be storing on my laptop (or maybe just a couple DVD-Rs...). $10 for iPodRip isn't, and then I can just plug the iPod up for charging, and make playlists, listen to music, etc. through iTunes.

The new system is a 14" 933mhz G4 with 640MB of RAM, 60GB HD, a Combo Drive, and the BT module (not using it right now, but when that Apple mouse looking 2 button/scroll wheel comes out in BT in June I plan to get one).

Guess I am off to do a clean OSX install... don't know why I didn't think of that before, as I would never use a pre-configured WinXP machine!

-Rob

[TDT]

Custom install sounds good, I get my powerbook on Monday, I think that will be my first order of business is for a custom install. Some international languages I need, but some I don't. A custom install would be good for me I think, glad this post came up before I got the laptop.