10.3 on 256MB RAM - Anything I'm Forgetting to Strip Out?

[Makosuke]

This is a rather stupid question, and I know it's been asked and answered in one form or another hundreds of times (including in limited form in the Wiki here), but Google and the Search feature just aren't being my friends today.

I've got a couple of old iMacs (revision D, and a first-gen slot-loader) that only have 256MB of RAM in them. My workplace is cheap, and they're being foisted on interns anyway, so even the paltry $40 to bump the RAM isn't going to happen. Still, I want to be nice to the poor saps stuck using them, and I wanted to know if there's anything I'm forgetting to turn off or remove to reduce the RAM (or background process) useage.

Already turned off everything in the Sharing pane, no dock effects, flat-color background image (not sure this makes any difference, but just in case), no extras in the menu bar, FUS off... is there anything else I'm forgetting?

And by the way, what does that iTunes helper dodad that launches at startup do, anyway?

 

[CanadaRAM]

They have sprung for $100+ for the OSX for each machine, and won't go for 256 Mb more RAM??

 

[yellow]

They have sprung for $100+ for the OSX for each machine

Yeah, right.

And by the way, what does that iTunes helper dodad that launches at startup do, anyway?

Not sure what it does.. I always assumed it was to help link web URLs to iTunes.app. Apparently (according to Apple, and speecific to the iTunes Helper.exe for Windows iTunes), it ""Listens" for commands to help iTunes communicate with devices (such as iPod)."

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302488

I don't see any reason it should be much different for the Mac version.

 

[Makosuke]

Not sure what it does.. I always assumed it was to help link web URLs to iTunes.app. Apparently (according to Apple, and speecific to the iTunes Helper.exe for Windows iTunes), it ""Listens" for commands to help iTunes communicate with devices (such as iPod)."

Figured as much--thanks for the link.

And being a sort of sub-department at a University, software licences in some cases "come from above" so to speak--not an expense we bear directly. We've got an unlocked XP Pro installation, for example, that somebody pays for, but not us, so we can "afford" to run it even on the crustiest of old machines. The University network guys actually prefer it that way, since it improves security hassles for them.

Those iMacs also have a full, completely legit version of Office 2004 on them (again at no direct expense to us), which is easily worth more than the computer.

It is funny to be running (between XP Pro, Symantec AV, and some scientific control software) probably upwards of $500 of software (over $1000 non-academic price) on a Pentium II HP box that you'd have trouble giving away. Also rather sad, but such is the curse of research organizations at state universities.