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

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.

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.

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!

 

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

 

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.

 

Be careful what you dump

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
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!

 

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.