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Reinstalling Tiger after purchase

W

Wally

macrumors member
Original poster
Hey guys

Do any of you clean your disk and reinstall the OS after u recieve ur new Mac? i always did it with my pc just to get rid of unnessacary stuff.... i have heard u can do the same with tiger... something with languages...


any thoughts?

alex
 
Wally said:
Hey guys

Do any of you clean your disk and reinstall the OS after u recieve ur new Mac? i always did it with my pc just to get rid of unnessacary stuff.... i have heard u can do the same with tiger... something with languages...


any thoughts?

alex
Click to expand...
How do you know that you don't need what you have never tried? Set up your system. Get to know it. Do you realize that many people never learn that certain very useful functions a just a mouse-click away? If after you learn the ins and outs of your system, then consider removing the stuff that you don't need. Not before.
 
i like reinstalling

my habit has always been to do a clean reinstall after purchase. not because i want to not install certain things (i like having all the languages, for instance), but just because for me it's part of that new computer feeling. if anything, i will install certain elements that are not on the default install (like X11, iirc). i'm a geek, though, and this sort of runs counter to Apple's design philosophy, which basically holds that you should be able to take your computer out of the box and be immediately productive with it.

anyway, by reinstalling you won't hurt anything and it's probably a waste of time. but if you feel better about doing a clean install on your new mac then go ahead and do it.
 
MisterMe said:
How do you know that you don't need what you have never tried? Set up your system. Get to know it. Do you realize that many people never learn that certain very useful functions a just a mouse-click away? If after you learn the ins and outs of your system, then consider removing the stuff that you don't need. Not before.
Click to expand...

What a preposterous post. Sure, things like X11 are perhaps worth leaving on if you don't know what they are at first glance, but if you only intend to use your Mac in English, then only install the English language. There is no point having Japanese on your Mac if you don't understand even the slightest thing about the Japanese language.

Similarly with the printer drivers - if you have a Canon printer, only install the Canon drivers. If you buy a new printer of a different make later on, then guess what? It comes with a CD which contains the OS X drivers. Just install those. Not all the ones for all the other brands you don't have.
 
thequicksilver said:
What a preposterous post.
Click to expand...
No, it wasn't a preposterous post. As pointed out, there are less invasive ways to remove extra languages, etc. Unless you're way low on disk space, which I frankly don't see happening just after buying a new system, I don't see why you'd bother to reinstall the OS. You save a few gig, maybe, at most, but you fragment the hell out of the drive, at least temporarily, unless you completely wipe it, in which case you need to jump through hoops to reinstall iLife, etc..
 
as mentioned... you can remove the languages with simple applications. so if that's all you're going to remove, just use that app to do it.

OS X doesn't come with a buttload of applications to remove. My powerbook came with what... some version of quickbooks, i chucked that, graphicconverter, i kept that, iLife (sadly lost that upon switching to tiger, and pacifist doesn't find the packages on my restore cd), and a few other applications. There's simply no reason to reinstall, if you don't want the apps, drag them onto the trash and for the most part they're gone.

reinstalling is wasting your time, time better spent having fun with your new computer. so don't waste your time, enjoy your new computer.
 
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