[bhdz]

Hello,

I'm looking for a ''maintenance'' application for my Intel Mac. I've been used to run 'Maintenance 3.x' on my PPC Mac before, though I wonder if I should install any of those apps, among others, Onyx, Maintenance 1.x, Tiger Cache Cleaner, Tinkertool, after having read this interesting post:

http://forums.macnn.com/82/applicati...vs-macjanitor/

Supposing I switch off my computer every night, should I only care about running the daily-weekly-maintenance scripts together with repairing permission regularly?

Is it just enough please, or should I also care for system cache cleaning?
If so what is the safest program to run on Intel macs?

Thanks.

Alex.

[CharlesS]

You don't need to do any of that stuff. Just relax.

[bhdz]

Charles,

Thanks for replying. So, there's really nothing to do then ?
I feel relieved....but why so many maintenance programs are being published?
I don't get it..

[voodoo]

There is no particular maintainance required. The system manages itself fine now. Didn't always use to, so that might explain the availablility of maintainance apps.

Once or twice a year it can be worth running Disk Utility and scan the hard drive for bad sectors, if you are looking for something to do.

V

[Sherman Homan]

Spend your time and money on a backup scheme. The reality is that your hard drive will drop dead for electro/mechanical reasons regardless of how diligent you are at flushing caches, deleting languages, trying to defrag a system that is already defragged. Besides, most of those cache files are there for good reasons, they shouldn't be cleared unless you know they are causing problems.

[JKT]

These apps are misnamed - they should call themselves Troubleshooting apps and they should only be used if you are experiencing problems with your system. Much of what they do is pointless on a day-to-day basis.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by bhdz 

Charles,

Thanks for replying. So, there's really nothing to do then ?
I feel relieved....but why so many maintenance programs are being published?
I don't get it..

Because back in the OS 9 days, there were certain things like the Desktop file that actually got messed up often enough that rebuilding them once a month or so actually could help prevent weird problems with icons not showing up right or documents not opening with the right application.

OS X has largely solved that, but a lot of Mac users are still used to doing this sort of voodoo and think that their system will not work as well if they don't perform some ritual on a regular basis. The authors of the "maintenance" apps saw a niche to fill, and so they did. Basically, a large segment of Mac users are the technological equivalent of hypochondriacs.

[bhdz]

Thank you
I'm going to dump those apps right away !

[analogika]

They might be useful to keep around for troubleshooting purposes, though I just use AppleJack instead.

I've only ever needed to use it once, though, on a client's machine.

A while ago.

[JKT]

It's also worth pointing out that 99% of the troubleshooting features that these Maintenance apps include can be done manually, so whatever you do, don't pay for one.

[CharlesS]

Another thing to note is that not only can all those things be done manually, but that it's usually actually better to do so, because some of those "maintenance" apps do very insecure things like passing your admin password to sudo on standard input.

Repair Permissions can be done in Disk Utility.

Deleting the LaunchServices caches can be done by going to /Library/Caches, deleting the files whose names start with com.apple.launchservices, and rebooting.

The periodic scripts automatically run themselves.

[bhdz]

Thanks to all of you. I've just realized, Charles created the very useful Pacifist.
Kudos Charles, you're phenomenal.

[peeb]

The maintenance angle is largely snake oil. You don't need to maintain your mac in normal use. They can fix occasional problems if they occur, but they are not preventive.

[bhdz]

Do scripts run between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. as it was in 10.2, or do they run whenever needed in Tiger ?

Thank You.

[peeb]

IIRC they try to run at 3am, and if they can't they run on boot.

[bhdz]

thank you peeb ! Isn't It Really Cool ?