Slimming down OS X

I'm not so much a "switcher" to Mac, but an "Adder" of a Mac to my small collection! I have, in my home now, 3 XP PC's, 1 Ubuntu desktop, and now a
G4 eMac (10GB HDD, 1G RAM, 800Mhz CPU, DVD burner) that my dear mother in law gave me. I've been dying to try Garageband and the iLife software, so when she gave it to me I bought iLife 05 from a guy on eBay. So far I am not won over, but I think it's because I'm just more familiar with Windows XP and Movie Maker, Picasa, and Media Player.

Anyway, since I only have a 10GB HDD, and no USB 2.0 ports, I am quite limited on my storage space. My question is:

What can I do to streamline/slim down what's on the HDD to get as much space as possible?

I will need iLife, Gargeband, and I think I'll probably use Open Office for Mac. That's it. What can I delete/uninstall without messing up the OS?

Thanks- glad to be aboard the board!

JC

10GB is pretty slim for any modern OS, XP included. I would consider putting a bigger hard drive in there and looking at iLife '06 at a minimum. You're really not getting a good picture of what a modern Mac is like.

Yeah, I've thought of that- replacing the HDD. I did take the thing apart to upgrade the DVD player, but the HDD looks a lot more hidden and difficult to get to. Plus the I have to spend money on a free computer that I don't really need in the first place!!! I spend enough on computer junk as it is, and my wife gives the hairy eyeball each time!

Guess I could blame it on her mom's giving me an obsolete computer...

cwa107 said:

10GB is pretty slim for any modern OS, XP included.

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You know a full install of XP takes less than 2GB, right? In fact one of my big gripes with Vista is that it takes nearly 8x the amount of space.

For the OP, even if you reduce OS X to it's most basic components, and get some magical tiny install, you still would want Garageband, which isn't a tiny app and doesn't have tiny data files. iLife also isn't a tiny suite by any means. There's a reason the install comes on a DVD.

S.SubZero said:

You know a full install of XP takes less than 2GB, right? In fact one of my big gripes with Vista is that it takes nearly 8x the amount of space.

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Yeah, but that's before you start installing patches and service packs. Up to date, it's closer to 6GB - and if your virtual memory is set at less than 1GB, you likely don't have a very stable machine.

For the OP, even if you reduce OS X to it's most basic components, and get some magical tiny install, you still would want Garageband, which isn't a tiny app and doesn't have tiny data files. iLife also isn't a tiny suite by any means. There's a reason the install comes on a DVD.

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Agreed - and you can't judge Macs or the iLife suite by comparing it to a modern PC running the latest versions of comparable apps.

save 3 gigs by deleting the printer drivers

I know there was a prog for tiger called monolingual, but there are others also and also there are things you need to watch that you don't remove. I haven't looked for a bit and last I looked it wasn't upgraded for leopard but basically it's the language files that a lot of progs add that can get bloated. I haven't tried it as I don't have access to backup. But if you have install disks etc, then you can reinstall without excess languages and unneccessary drivers... There is some info in the stickies at the top of this forum or you can do a google search as there are a few who have used it on leopard/intel and they have some recommendations and warnings...

Ooops- I made a mistake. I don't have a 10GB drive. I at least have a 40GB, and possible a 60GB, according to this link
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/emac/stats/emac_800_ati.html

I'll check when I get home and can look at the Mac.

Sorry about the dumb mistake- but I am still interested in getting rid of uneeded apps. As a Mac noob, do I have to "uninstall" things, a la Windows, or do I just trash what I don't want, as long as I know it's just apps I'm deleting?

On the plus side, I just found an external fireware case for $12.50+$9 s&h
($21.50) delivered, and I have a 40GB drive at home I can use in it. That'll add a bit more usability, I s'pose.

Generally you can just trash the app or you can use something like AppCleaner to get the little extra files associated with the app.

Just make sure you know what you are deleting before you delete it. Especially since OS X doesn't come with a whole lot of bloatware. Something like Stickies is probably ok to trash, something like Installer would be a bad thing to delete.

Delocalizer is another one that will remove all the languages you don't want on the system.

Do a clean install of OSX, choosing custom. Leave out all foreign languages you dont need (all of them in my case) and whatever print drivers you dont need (everything but HP in my case). This shaves off nearly 3gb. However, installing Garageband and iLife will take up at least 3gb.

OS X before 10.4 was not so spectacular. Panther (10.3) was good, but before that it felt a little raw. You must use the latest and greatest 10.5 to be blown away.

cwa107 said:

Yeah, but that's before you start installing patches and service packs. Up to date, it's closer to 6GB - and if your virtual memory is set at less than 1GB, you likely don't have a very stable machine.

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Every single patch and service pack released for Windows XP since 2001 does not total up to anything that would make XP take 10GB. In fact, XP SP3 was recently released, and despite having every single patch and fix since 2001, it still installs from a CD. Not a DVD, a CD. I have XP SP3 installed in a virtual machine right now, and the total size of the install is just under 2GB, including the paging file.

As for the OP, looks like he has more disk space. That's good. One place to look for freeing up space is /Library/Printers. Apple is nice enough to install just over 3GB of printer drivers by default (50%+ more than an entire XP install BTW). You can probably nuke most of that except for whatever printer(s) you happen to have.

OK- figured out that I have this Mac:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/emac/stats/emac_700.html

As I said before, I have 1GB RAM, and an upgraded DVD burner I installed myself. So I have 40GB internal HDD, and when my external case comes, I'll have another 40GB firewire drive. That should keep the machine useful for a while, right?

While snooping around for stuff to delete, I found that my mom-in-law had both Apple Works and Microsoft Office. Which is smaller, and which is more useful, which is better to get rid of, and can I get rid of both if I want to use Open Office? I'm not partial to anything in particular, just interested in not being redundant with apps I don't need and won't use.

There's also some Adobe stuff on there- Photoshop and Illustrator, and I don't think I'll use them on this Mac- it's a little underpowered (I think?) and I have the Adobe apps I need for my PC anyway...so I might ditch those, too, though I'm not as concerned now that I know what the Mac has as a hard drive.

Apple Works is ancient, I believe iWork superceded it. Office will either be 2004 or X, if it's Office v.X it is about seven years old and probably won't like current Office file formats.

If you are going to be using Open Office, remove them both.

rman said:

Delocalizer is another one that will remove all the languages you don't want on the system.

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The comments on versiontracker makes me believe that this is the kind of app everyone want to avoid. Word erroring out while printing, whole adobe suite not opening after stripping the localization files are bad signs.

OP - Do some research before installing this app, read the comments on versiontracker.

I have use it up to OS X 10.3.x with no problems. There is another called Monolingual. But yoiu will need to be careful, because it does from some system files.