[superditka]

I just made the leap to the Apple platform with a 12" PB that was delivered earlier today. I'm trying to find out what system utilities are a must have for a new mac user.

I figure I need a virus protection program but what else other than that?

Is something like the Symantec Systemworks software necessary? It has a personal firewall, virus protection, Norton utilities (disk repair, etc.) and something called spring cleaning which allows you to get rid of old files.

I just want to make sure that I'm not buying any redundant software that comes preloaded and/or anything that I don't really need.

Thanks for helping out a newbie... I have seen the light!

[Franz Josef]

Originally Posted by superditka I just made the leap to the Apple platform with a 12" PB that was delivered earlier today. I'm trying to find out what system utilities are a must have for a new mac user. I figure I need a virus protection program but what else other than that? Is something like the Symantec Systemworks software necessary? It has a personal firewall, virus protection, Norton utilities (disk repair, etc.) and something called spring cleaning which allows you to get rid of old files. I just want to make sure that I'm not buying any redundant software that comes preloaded and/or anything that I don't really need. Thanks for helping out a newbie... I have seen the light!

If you don't have . Mac, you should subscribe - $99 per annum - gives you Virex virus protection (though some don't like it) as well as a host of other goodies. Cocktail is worthwhile too - http://www.macosxcocktail.com/.

Built in firewall is in my experience good.

[Luca]

.mac is not a good deal unless you use EVERYTHING they give you. And you don't need virus protection on a Mac because there aren't any OS X viruses. You really don't need to mess with Norton or Symantec anything. There's no need for virus protection, your files are defragmented automatically in the background, and OS X's included Disk Utility can handle most things. If you really need to repair your disk, look into Disk Warrior. But that's about it.

[SonOfSylvanus]

Originally Posted by superditka I figure I need a virus protection program but what else other than that?

Hehe

What Luca said.

As a free "alternative" to Cocktail (though not nearly as feature rich), you may like to try MacJanitor.

MacJanitor allows you to manually startup daily, weekly, and monthly cron maintanence scripts. These scripts are important when keeping MacOS X in "good shape". Usually, these scripts are set to automatically launch at times of the day when little activity occurs. However, if your Mac is turned off during these times, then the maintanence scripts don't have a chance to run.

I used this lil app (MacJanitor) before I moved to Macaroni which does pretty much the same thing, but allows greater control over scheduling.

See this thread in Genius Bar for more useful (and some advanced) hints and tips.

HTH

[Kickaha]

What they all said, plus, the built-in firewall in OS X is very robust, and extremely easy to use. Just check the services you want to be active, and you're done. If you activate a service elsewhere in the system (turn on the web server, etc), it will take care of the appropriate firewall setting for you. You'll rarely have to do anything with it.

Welcome, and enjoy.

[_Ω_]

STAY AWAY FROM NORTON - IT IS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL!!!

[scratt]

Originally Posted by Omega STAY AWAY FROM NORTON - IT IS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL!!!

Ditto!

Built in Firewall is excellent.

And MacJanitor is perfect.

If you want to splash out get TechTool Pro. Really nice piece of software.
I have set up an extra boot partition using it and regularly boot into that run all the tools, then reboot and then back on my main drive again run MacJanitor and Repair Permissions using the built in OS Disk Utility..

Actually the MacJanitor part is pretty redundant now as apparently the OS will run all the Cron Tasks for you even if your machine gets turned off at night... That is all MacJanitor did basically... Run system tasks that were not run if you shut your machine off at night. But I have got used to running MacJanitor as it is part of my regular maintenance work-flow.

[Mac+]

I'm a fan of these three utilities all residing in my menu bar.



weather checking: Meteo free
iCal on my menubar: MenuCalendarClock for iCal free - limited feature set
System data: MenuMeters free

Also, even though they are not really system utilities, I have to say that I really like StickyBrain and Delicious Monster Library - I bought both of these online.

Hope this helps - and welcome to Mac!

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by scratt Ditto!

superditka, the reason that people are so down on Norton is that it is the only 'disk repair utility' that has been demonstrably proven to *BREAK* disks on a regular basis, and break them in such a way that it can't fix them. It's somewhere between fraud and a scam, in my opinion.

Disk Warrior, OTOH, has a great track record of recovering files and disks. If you want a disk repair utility that handles more than the built in Disk Utility (which actually handles a *lot* now), get that.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by Mac+ I'm a fan of these three utilities all residing in my menu bar. weather checking: Meteo free iCal on my menubar: MenuCalendarClock for iCal System data: MenuMeters free Also, even though they are not really system utilities, I have to say that I really like StickyBrain and Delicious Monster Library - I bought both of these online. Hope this helps - and welcome to Mac!

Thanks for that one...
The MenuCalendarClock thing is fab!

[Mac+]

Absolutely - it should be a standard part of the OS imo. Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything about it being incorporated in Tiger - but we can live in hope. Presently, it's money well spent, though!

[Franz Josef]

Originally Posted by Omega STAY AWAY FROM NORTON - IT IS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL!!!

I wouldn't say I'm particularly a Norton fan - but why is it so abominable? (I'd rate most of what comes out of Redmond abominable - perhaps my own prejudice - so Norton would have to go some to beat that)

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Franz Josef I wouldn't say I'm particularly a Norton fan - but why is it so abominable?

*points up*

Originally Posted by Kickaha the reason that people are so down on Norton is that it is the only 'disk repair utility' that has been demonstrably proven to *BREAK* disks on a regular basis, and break them in such a way that it can't fix them. It's somewhere between fraud and a scam, in my opinion.

Also, Norton AntiVirus has a bad history of causing kernel panics in certain situations.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by Mac+ I'm a fan of these three utilities all residing in my menu bar. weather checking: Meteo free iCal on my menubar: MenuCalendarClock for iCal System data: MenuMeters free Also, even though they are not really system utilities, I have to say that I really like StickyBrain and Delicious Monster Library - I bought both of these online. Hope this helps - and welcome to Mac!

Wow! That iCal menu item kicks ass! I love it. Thx, Mac+.

[alcimedes]

Plus as of today there was a release that the Mac and Windows versions of Norton AV have a root exploit in them. Not sure there's a Mac update yet.

As for utilities, look into one called SterMachine, MenuMeters and i'd have to throw in my hat for DiskWarrior as well.

One side note though, the only application i've found that can recover deleted files in OSX was a program called "Data Rescue X". everything else only works if you had it installed beforehand.

[_Ω_]

The amount of sob stories that you have pertaining to Norton is incredible. I think it partially relates to a PC's users obsession with disk fragmentation that brings this madness on.

TechToolPro and Diskwarrier are usually offered as solutions when Norton has hosed your hard drive. From readings Diskwarrier seems to have a better reputation. I personally have never had the pleasure of a full blown HD cluster-fsck but I have access to DW if required.

And if we are talking about little apps in the menu bar check out Synergy as a means of controlling iTunes.

ps. Sorry for being a little bombastic about Norton, I just think the point can not be stressed enough.

[Mac+]

Originally Posted by torifile Wow! That iCal menu item kicks ass! I love it. Thx, Mac+.

No probs. Happy to be able to contribute something of worth!

Actually I think I got a referral to it from somebody on these boards in the first place ... maybe Paul? (can't find the original thread though )
And - for the record - there is a free version of it. Probably the main disadvantage being that the free version won't extract birthdays from your Address Book and insert them into a Birthday calenadar in iCal. (Of course that functionality should be inbuilt into OS X, but presently it's not! )

[IonYz]

DiskWarrior saved my rear and is an excellent tool. The bundled Disk Utility couldn't fix it and Tech Tool Pro could only recover 30% of the drive

[Franz Josef]

Just one point on the virus issue. We should not get beside ourselves that there are no OS X viruses - it's a tremendous thing now (and testimony to the great work of the Apple team ) but it will probably change over time. Virex (and other good scanners) scans for viruses from its database (mainly Windows viruses because its database contains mainly Windows viruses) but also performs a heuristic scan which looks for virus-like sequences which are not in its database ie it attempts an intelligent scan. This means you're less likely to get caught by the first OS X virus.

[stoo]

(Slightly OT, but) Does anyone know how to get rid of the Mac OS X optimise (MOX) daemon?

[Kickaha]

MOX?

No mox running here, nor any binary with that name... do you mean the optimization phase that occurs after updates?

You don't want to get rid of that - it is prebinding your applications to the dynamic libraries they use. Speeds up launches and runtimes nicely. It's a one time hit of a minute, to save you several Dock bounces per application launch.

[trevo]

Okay, i was about to by norton firewall and antivirus, now im a little un easy. What about if your running Virtual PC? My friends have decided it's fun to make RATs and bind them to files which i found norton picks up pretty well (on windows). Although you have mentioned other software solutions here, what are the top of the range home user software to keep my beloved mac safe?


Matt.

[Franz Josef]

Originally Posted by Matt O'Keyes Okay, i was about to by norton firewall and antivirus, now im a little un easy. What about if your running Virtual PC? My friends have decided it's fun to make RATs and bind them to files which i found norton picks up pretty well (on windows). Although you have mentioned other software solutions here, what are the top of the range home user software to keep my beloved mac safe? Matt.

http://forums.applenova.com/showthread.php?t=4230

[LudwigVan]

Originally Posted by Franz Josef http://forums.applenova.com/showthread.php?t=4230

Note especially Brad's response: a salve for the mind, as it were.

[E Double]

Ok, here's just the essentials:

Meteo
Pathfinder(a grown-up Finder)
Launchbar (Very elegant, fast application switcher/super customizable navigation/search tool
Quicksilver(Free tool like Launchbar, but different; You just have to try it)
Virtual Desktop Pro (a multi-desktop app is a must on your PB12" screen)
System Optimizer X
Adium (An incredible free IM chat app)
Omniweb 5
I Pulse (monitors just about every aspect of OSX operation in a skinnable applet)

Cheers,

D

[naashraf]

wish i knew about Norton AV all this before. i purchased and have installed it already

[Luca]

Well, boxed copies of Norton AV tend to go for around $30 on eBay. I don't know how much you spent on it but you can recoup some of it if you want to sell it to some other poor sap. At least they won't waste as much money as you did.

[staph]

To be honest, if you've already installed Norton, I wouldn't get too worried about it if your system is running stably. Bear in mind that what you're seeing here is years worth of angst over a product which used to be good 15 years ago, and has gone downhill ever since.

Don't get me wrong, Norton's is crap. NAV is the least crap of their products, however.

On the other hand, DO NOT use any of their disk optimisation or repair tools.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by staph To be honest, if you've already installed Norton, I wouldn't get too worried about it if your system is running stably. Bear in mind that what you're seeing here is years worth of angst over a product which used to be good 15 years ago, and has gone downhill ever since. Don't get me wrong, Norton's is crap. NAV is the least crap of their products, however. On the other hand, DO NOT use any of their disk optimisation or repair tools.

The Norton Antivirus stuff is pretty stable... Just NEVER EVER HAVE THE AUTOPROTECT OPTION ON!!! Whooo Haaa Haaa Suicide!!

Also, personally, if I had installed it I wouldn't use any of it... So you might as well backup, reformat and start again from scratch!!! Seriously IMHO.

Sorry to disagree staph. It will f&$% you in the a** at some point when you least expect it.

If you don't want to remove it (which is fun in itself) then just don't ever ever use it!

[Brad]

Yeah, remember the stories about NAV causing kernel panics with locked files and the trash can? Or when enabling journaling? Oh man, there's nothing like a baffling kernel panic at boot to upset new switchers. GOOD TIMES!

Yeah, naashraf, I'd suggest wiping that piece of crap off of your computer ASAP.