Must haves

Here at 2 am, i am wondering about my new imac, and what app essentials or programs i must have on my machine to optimize my experience? What are some must have things for the imac... tweaks whatever

A great thread that the8thark created answers all your questions.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...ommended-free-apps-download-your-new-mac.html

optimization:

dont run lots of background apps, dont keep lots of stuff on the desktop, repair permissions regularly.

thanks

I just replied to a similar thread: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...oud-do-make-your-mac-awesome.html#post1216765

dont run lots of background apps

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That reminds me. I recommend disabling the dashboard. It can eat up resources. And hasn't the app store replaced the need for widgets anyway?

I still use widgets (very handy for US<->Metric conversions, currency, temp and calculator, I find) but for those who don't use the dashboard at all, yes you might want to disable it.

i see some pretty dedicated people who claim that it slows down their mac way too much... i mean i have 12gb of RAM, is that not enough firepower to multi-task a few dashboard items or is my machine going to be sweating it out trying to run?

NashvegasMatt said:

i see some pretty dedicated people who claim that it slows down their mac way too much... i mean i have 12gb of RAM, is that not enough firepower to multi-task a few dashboard iteams or is my machine going to be sweating it out trying to run?

Click to expand...

You'll be just fine

NashvegasMatt said:

i see some pretty dedicated people who claim that it slows down their mac way too much... i mean i have 12gb of RAM, is that not enough firepower to multi-task a few dashboard items or is my machine going to be sweating it out trying to run?

Click to expand...

fair enough, but remember RAM isnt the only factor here. if you are running lots of little widgets and background process it is sucking up your CPU aswell. thats why alot of people turn it off, if it is useless to them its wasting CPU power that could be used for something else.

robduckyworth said:

fair enough, but remember RAM isnt the only factor here. if you are running lots of little widgets and background process it is sucking up your CPU aswell. thats why alot of people turn it off, if it is useless to them its wasting CPU power that could be used for something else.

Click to expand...

i see what you are saying

Default Folder X
Flash Frozen
Caffeine
Menubars

Those are some small applications that I use daily to keep everything running in tip top shape.

Caffeine
Resize.It

Not much for me because OS X handles everything pretty well right out of the gate.

As for Dashboard, I use a good many widgets and I can't tell any difference with it enabled or disabled. My little MBP 13" (2010 model) is stupid fast. I am still amazed every time I open Adobe Photoshop Elements and it loads so fast!

I have to point out to the people who say "widgets use up resources" -- which is true -- that the same applies to menubar items. Thus, in my view, six of one half-dozen the other.

I was enamored with widgets when I first got my Mac - but find I didn't use them. They tend to be things that I would go to the web for - like flight tracking, conversion, calculators, etc. I'd remember them as an afterthought - so that is why I turned them off.

I agree - the menubar apps do take resources as well - but they are more front and center so I tend to use those things in the menubar quite a bit i.e. istats menu vs istats nano.

Just to mention soe things that I can't live without, Caffeine, MenuMeters, spaces (built in), Alfred (spotlight alternative that allows for easier file viewing; I use both spaces (for applications) and Alfred (for files and folders) simultaneously and I can find anything and have it open within a few seconds

Get a good external drive and turn on Time Machine especially if you are going to have
a lot of music ,photos and home movies.