New Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Chicago, IL
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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! |
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Passing by
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: London, Europe
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Built in firewall is in my experience good. |
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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.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.
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Fro Productions(tm)
Join Date: May 2004
Location: London Town
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What Luca said. As a free "alternative" to Cocktail (though not nearly as feature rich), you may like to try MacJanitor. Quote:
See this thread in Genius Bar for more useful (and some advanced) hints and tips. HTH bouncy bouncy Last edited by SonOfSylvanus : 2005-02-09 at 15:57. Reason: clarity |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
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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. |
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STAY AWAY FROM NORTON - IT IS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL!!!
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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. 'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take' Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt |
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9" monochrome
Join Date: May 2004
Location: 🇦🇺
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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! Last edited by Mac+ : 2005-02-11 at 05:39. Reason: pricing for MenuCalendarClock for iCal |
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
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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. |
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The MenuCalendarClock thing is fab! |
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9" monochrome
Join Date: May 2004
Location: 🇦🇺
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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!
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Passing by
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: London, Europe
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Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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Less than Stellar Member
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I shot the sherrif.
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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. Google is your frenemy. Caveat Emptor - Latin for tough titty I tend to interpret things in the way that's most hilarious to me |
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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. Angels bleed from the tainted touch of my caress |
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9" monochrome
Join Date: May 2004
Location: 🇦🇺
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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! ) |
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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
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Passing by
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: London, Europe
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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.
Last edited by Franz Josef : 2005-02-12 at 08:13. |
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Member
Join Date: May 2004
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(Slightly OT, but) Does anyone know how to get rid of the Mac OS X optimise (MOX) daemon?
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
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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. |
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Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
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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. |
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Passing by
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: London, Europe
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Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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New Member
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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 |
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wish i knew about Norton AV all this before. i purchased and have installed it already
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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Well, boxed copies of Norton AV tend to go for around $30 on eBay. I don't know how much you spent on it but you can recoup some of it if you want to sell it to some other poor sap. At least they won't waste as much money as you did.
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Microbial member
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To be honest, if you've already installed Norton, I wouldn't get too worried about it if your system is running stably. Bear in mind that what you're seeing here is years worth of angst over a product which used to be good 15 years ago, and has gone downhill ever since.
Don't get me wrong, Norton's is crap. NAV is the least crap of their products, however. On the other hand, DO NOT use any of their disk optimisation or repair tools. |
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Also, personally, if I had installed it I wouldn't use any of it... So you might as well backup, reformat and start again from scratch!!! Seriously IMHO. Sorry to disagree staph. It will f&$% 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! 'Remember, measure life by the moments that take your breath away, not by how many breaths you take' Extreme Sports Cafe | ESC's blog | scratt's blog | @thescratt |
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Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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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. The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting. |
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