Do the OS X need to be reinstalled sometimes?

I am new to macs (antually thinking to buy a mac). I was thinking, do the os X (panther) need to be re-installed once in a while, like windows? I mean, do os X become 'slow' (because registry comes so full of s**t) like windows does?

Petronome said:

I am new to macs (antually thinking to buy a mac). I was thinking, do the os X (panther) need to be re-installed once in a while, like windows? I mean, do os X become 'slow' (because registry comes so full of s**t) like windows does?

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NO! As a general rule you shouldn't ever have to reinstall OS X, short of a major hardware failure.

And to get on my soap box... If a windows machine is properly maintained, you shouldn't ever have to reisntall windows, either.

Jerod

I've been running Jaguar since I bought my PB and I have not once had to reinstall and it still works beautifully!

Actually, no matter how fine windows is installed, it has to be re-installed about once in a year, because it just doesn't work good for long period. Maybe if you do some tweaking for the registry or something, it may work better, but normally it slows down after using some time. This is easy to notice in slower machines, maybe faster onces doesn't show it so well. But it's good to know that OS X doesn't need to be reinstalled.

Windows gets registry and .dll problems due to installing/uninstalling stuff and important systemfiles get corrupted due to constant crashing and cold boots. I've heard that if you know what you are doing Windows can be very stable, fast and long lasting. That is if you keep it simple and static and don't put it under heavy load.

Petronome said:

Actually, no matter how fine windows is installed, it has to be re-installed about once in a year, ...But it's good to know that OS X doesn't need to be reinstalled.

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I agree. Especially Win98. XP is pretty good, but even the two xp laptops I have had have ended up needing to restore and reformat.

Mac on the other hand, has not typically needed to reinstall everything from the ground up like PC...but experience has shown that some how, I tend to mess things up and end up having to start from scratch for one reason or another. My concern for OS10 is that I don't know didly about the underworkings of everything.

It really makes me nervous the uninstall process, etc. Is there a recommended program to get to help with the maintenance of OS10? Is theren't some challenge with a PB that it sleeps at night and it doesn't preform some routine maintenace?

Thanks!
Drew

I guess it depends on the program.. typically you can just drag the application's folder, not to be confused with the "Applications" folder, to the trash can and delete it and bam that application is deleted. Now preferences, etc is a different matter, but you don't have to worry about that unless you are worried about disk space and then we explain how to delete that info later.

And yes for some reason OS X does it's maintenance scripts around 3 or 4 in the morning.. I can't remember which.. it also does maintenance on startup, that's why it takes a little longer than other platforms, but then it makes up for not having the problems other platforms have so in the long run.. you save A LOT of time because of it.

You can download programs like Onyx, which I use, that allows you to execute those maintenance scripts whenever you feel like it. Or you can go in and edit the cron jobs to execute those maintenance scripts at a different hour.

There are quite a lot of things you can do and whenever you have questions you are in the right place... there will be someone that can answer

Cheers!

Hope thet OSX will be stable as OpenStep --> for 8 years only hardware changes without reinstall on Intel hardware.
Same true for WinNT and now for WinXP --> if you dont get caugt by virus or hacked machine, doing only work and leaving pleasure things for home computer, it will last for ages

And classic? Every time I had problems, deleting preferences did the job.

b.