The best way to take care of your powerbook

I'm new to mac, but i love it- however, with all my other computers i tended to fill them up with stuff and they would start working slow and having problems, and its already starting to happen a little- Could someone please give me advice on things to do to keep it running smooth and prolong its life (Do i put it to sleep or just close it? Ever shut it down? Things to avoid or remember?) Thanks a lot for the help

powerbook maint

I only turn mine off when I am taking it somewhere, other then that it stays on, (my wifes iMac is only off if the power fails otherwise 24/7 it's on). Closing the lid will automatically put it to sleep or in system prefs you can set how long it has to be inactive before it goes to sleep

try to keep the hardrive no more than 80% full after that it will slow down, though that is sometimes hard to do....

I use MacJanitor or OnyX which will fix permissions and all the other house cleaning that is required. Both are free and can be found at www.versiontracker.com.

Once a month or so run it on battery power until it goes to sleep, ignore the low power warning. There is a faq about this on Apples tech support section that explains why etc....