Although I've happily switched over from the dark side since June, I'm still somewhat of an OS X n00b, so please excuse me if these questions have been asked before. On windows, if you want to know how much space an application takes up on your HDD, you can just right click on the app's folder and hit properties, or go into add/remove programs and the space will pop up right there. I'm a little confused about how to calculate the same number in OS X. For example, iDVD takes up 81.4MB in the application folder. However, the real number is a lot higher, since it has a bunch of templates and stuff in Library > Application Support. 1.69GB worth of templates, to be exact. That's a lot of space on my 160GB MBP HDD. Is there an easy way to find out exactly how much space an app uses in OS X? Also, if I delete iDVD by moving its icon in Applications to the trash and emptying it, will it also delete its associated Application Support files?
The same issue is true in Windows. Fortunately not many apps keep their supplementary files in separate areas though. An app like WhatSize might help you find out where space is being used up on your drive, if that is an issue. Run it in an administrator account to check all folders. Dragging iDVD to the Trash and deleting it will only remove the app, and not the extra themes.
You could use a program like AppDelete or Cleanapp to delete a program. This programs search the HD for the files used by a program. Cleanapp shows you first how much space a program uses before you delete it. Also Cleanapp can install a background program wich tracks evrey file created by a program. This is especially handy if you try often programs http://www.synium.de/products/cleanapp/index.html ($10) http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/appdelete.html (Free)