[Waragainstsleep]

What sorts of things can one remove from an OS X system without crippling it?
I want to make a stripped down version to run on some older hardware, in the hope of speeding it up a little. Even if they just boot a little faster (can I remove the .kext files for hardware I don't need?). It would be nice to make the Finder a bit snappier too though.

If one was using some old machines to crunch numbers (run SETI, DNET etc or run as Xgrid agents), how much of the fancy stuff could be ditched? I guess the entire aqua interface could go, but thats a little too far for now.

[Tenacious Dyl]

Might be a little obvious... but..

remove all drivers to things you dont use (printers, etc, )

dont install, or remove, all other languages (ones you dont use) they take up tons of space... far more than they should.

remove any extra txt or info files... again, stripping down features / drivers / utilitys / apps you don't use.

seems like a faster hd would be better than a slightly less full one tho...

[lenox]

I don't think the .kexts load unless they need to so all they really end up doing is taking up hard drive space.

as for removing the entire aqua interface, do you mean booting into the text console? that could speed things up but os x's console mode is pretty slow/limited. if you mean just retheming the existing graphical interface i am not sure that'd speed things up much because you still have quartz doing all it's pretty stuff...

maybe look into removing daemons that usually always run but you possibly don't need?

[Waragainstsleep]

This system would be for use on pre-quartz machines. I want them to be able to take advantage of OS X's networking, rendezvous etc. Basically want to use them as Xgrid cluster nodes. Since they'll be dedicated nodes for a while, I just figure they don't need much in the way of a UI. Once configured, they could be left largely alone. Though I guess I'd have to configure them in the first place.

There must be some unused .kexts which always load. What about things like wireless cards. I can start my old powerbook without the card in place, pop it in after and it fires right up. So the .kext has loaded, even without the card present. There must be many other devices this applies to. No?

[bowwowman]

There must be some unused .kexts which always load. What about things like wireless cards. I can start my old powerbook without the card in place, pop it in after and it fires right up. So the .kext has loaded, even without the card present. There must be many other devices this applies to. No?

With the exception of what is necessary to boot a machine and display the GUI, 95% of all .kexts load & unload dynamically, especially device drivers...... So if your wireless card is not present at boot time, the kext does not load, whenever you insert your card, the kext loads, when you remove it, the kext unloads ect ect

But beyond device drivers, language files, and some plist/preference files, unless you know EXACTLY which files to remove and which not to, you may end up hosing your OS install anyway.

As for Quartz, it wont run on those older machines anyway, and since you wont be using the GUI after configuration, it wont make any difference in the long run....so dont worry about it

[BLAZE_MkIV]

I've got a 8500 witha 400Mhz G3 in it. Its alittle short on ram so Aqua cralls. But since its a server it runs just fine when noones logged in.