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neoben · Oct 26, 2007, 01:16 PM

What apps are NO LONGER needed with Leopard?
Howdy...

I hate to have things I don't need running in the background slowing things down, but I've had to have a few things running because they were missing in 10.4.

So, what apps am I running now that I can delete once 10.5 is installed?

So far:

1) QuickSilver - Is the new spotlight good enough to dump QS?
2) VirtueDesktop - I assume Spaces means this is no longer needed?
3) SuperDuper - Time Machine will take care of backups now?
4) PathFinder - New finder is good enough to ditch this?

Anyone else know what other 'additions' to OS10.4 can now be retired? What have I missed here?

-Ben
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neo-fight.tv - {The Weekly Technology Podcast}

MrForgetable · Oct 26, 2007, 01:21 PM

Hate to say it because I love Quicksilver, but the new Spotlight is pretty good. I think I'll still keep it for a while though.

peeb · Oct 26, 2007, 01:21 PM

Sherlock can finally go because of the new movie widget!

Art Vandelay · Oct 26, 2007, 01:29 PM

Sherlock isn't included in Leopard. Apple got rid of it for you.

Kar98 · Oct 26, 2007, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by peeb

Sherlock can finally go because of the new movie widget!

Sherlock is gone, but wouldn't you know it, the movie widget doesn't list anything for my ZIP code. Sherlock did. Duh.

peeb · Oct 26, 2007, 01:34 PM

Well, it's a good job it's not needed any more then!

cybergoober · Oct 26, 2007, 01:39 PM

Spotlight replace Quicksilver? LMAO. Wow. Since when does Quicksilver only launch apps? I mean I guess if that's all you use Quicksilver for, then yeah. But it does soooo much more.

peeb · Oct 26, 2007, 01:40 PM

How easy is the making your own widgets from web pages? Is it possible to make a decent movie widget that way?

Cold Warrior · Oct 26, 2007, 01:50 PM

any app that combines PDFs or reorders their pages. Preview 3 handles that now. Unless you need some advanced PDF combine/reorder options.

Chuckit · Oct 26, 2007, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by neoben

1) QuickSilver - Is the new spotlight good enough to dump QS?

Besides the fact that it doesn't have all the cool functionality of Quicksilver, it's also considerably slower as a launcher — definitely usable now, but you still have to wait a second or two for the app to show up, whereas Quicksilver is generally instantaneous.

Originally Posted by neoben

2) VirtueDesktop - I assume Spaces means this is no longer needed?

Yep.

Originally Posted by neoben

3) SuperDuper - Time Machine will take care of backups now?

As long as you don't need your backup to be bootable.

Originally Posted by neoben

4) PathFinder - New finder is good enough to ditch this?

It really depends on what you're using it for. The new Finder is good, but it doesn't have everything Path Finder does.

wobbly · Oct 26, 2007, 02:05 PM

Bootable backups > time machine.

peeb · Oct 26, 2007, 02:11 PM

But time machine is not bootable...

Simon · Oct 26, 2007, 02:14 PM

ASR does bootable backups and it's built right into the OS (yeah, it's also on your install DVD).

SD and CCC are not necessary under Leopard just as they weren't under Tiger.

peeb · Oct 26, 2007, 02:15 PM

Right, but time machine does not replace bootable backups.

Art Vandelay · Oct 26, 2007, 02:23 PM

I think we heard you the first time.

Simon · Oct 26, 2007, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by peeb

Right, but time machine does not replace bootable backups.

Right. So...
ASR = bootable clone to use as an emergency kickstart.
TM = your actual (and recent!) backup with version control.

Good stuff. And it's all built in.

legacyb4 · Oct 26, 2007, 02:27 PM

I would almost say Imagewell is replaced by the new Preview but it does allow for watermarking, etc.

peeb · Oct 26, 2007, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

any app that combines PDFs or reorders their pages. Preview 3 handles that now. Unless you need some advanced PDF combine/reorder options.

At last. Very cool.

Warhaven · Oct 26, 2007, 03:31 PM

And unless Time Machine does network backups, I'm still stuck with rsync.

Simon · Oct 26, 2007, 03:39 PM

TM does network backups. What it doesn't do is backup to AirDisk.

ginoledesma · Oct 26, 2007, 04:12 PM

Originally Posted by Simon

TM does network backups. What it doesn't do is backup to AirDisk.

There's a work-around for that. I'll paste it here in its entirety for convenience (credit goes to A@ron of MacRumors):

Originally Posted by A@ron

Well thank me later I got it working fellas. It was there in front of our faces with the exception of doing a chown and chmod.

Someone else please confirm I will post steps.
1) disconnect airport disk and plug into computer as a USB drive directly.
2) Set up time machine to use this volume.
3) In terminal cd to volume "cd /Volume/HDD"
4) In terminal "touch .com.apple.timemachine.supported" this will create an invisible file.
5) In terminal "sudo chown root:admin .com.apple.timemachine.supported"
6) In terminal "sudo chmod 1775 .com.apple.timemachine.supported"
7) In terminal "ls -l -a" the .com.apple.timemachine.supported file should be -rwxrwxr-t
8) eject disk, unplug from mac, plug into Airport.
9) mount at mac using connect to server in finder (command k) and afp://airportname.local./HDname
10) see if time machine now sees the drive and tries to use it.

Judge_Fire · Oct 27, 2007, 03:55 AM

Quicksilver presents an app icon as a drag target ('Open with...'), Spotlight doesn't.

MartiNZ · Oct 27, 2007, 06:45 AM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

any app that combines PDFs or reorders their pages. Preview 3 handles that now. Unless you need some advanced PDF combine/reorder options.

I found Automator handled combining pretty well in Tiger, with only the oddest feature of putting the resulting file into /tmp ... took me several tries before I worked that out. Preview 4 makes it really easy though, and offers to add pictures to iPhoto or Aperture ... even though neither are installed on this machine - bonus!

Mastrap · Oct 27, 2007, 07:02 AM

Originally Posted by ginoledesma

There's a work-around for that. I'll paste it here in its entirety for convenience (credit goes to A@ron of MacRumors):

Beauty. Thank you, thank you.

Kevin · Oct 27, 2007, 07:31 AM

Originally Posted by cybergoober

Spotlight replace Quicksilver? LMAO. Wow. Since when does Quicksilver only launch apps? I mean I guess if that's all you use Quicksilver for, then yeah. But it does soooo much more.

Please lets not start the QS fanboying in here. *sigh*

We've already went over this in the other thread.

For people making comments like he is, that is ALL they are using it for. And if that is all they are using it for, then yeah it's no longer needed.

OreoCookie · Oct 27, 2007, 07:43 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

As long as you don't need your backup to be bootable.

That's not true: you can restore from a Time Machine backup and then boot up your machine. So yes, Time Mache can do that

Kevin · Oct 27, 2007, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

That's not true: you can restore from a Time Machine backup and then boot up your machine. So yes, Time Mache can do that

Yeah I am getting 10.5 for work JUST BECAUSE of Time Machine

Mastrap · Oct 27, 2007, 07:59 AM

I've got to say, Time Machine is pretty damn sweet. Now I've got hourly backups on an external drive and daily backups with mozy.com in case the house burns down. Very cool.

Horsepoo!!! · Oct 27, 2007, 08:41 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Besides the fact that it doesn't have all the cool functionality of Quicksilver, it's also considerably slower as a launcher — definitely usable now, but you still have to wait a second or two for the app to show up, whereas Quicksilver is generally instantaneous.

Are you talking about Leopard's Spotlight? My app results are returned instantaneously in Leopard. It couldn't get any faster. If it did, it would be predicting what I'm about to type.

cybergoober · Oct 27, 2007, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by Kevin

Please lets not start the QS fanboying in here. *sigh*

We've already went over this in the other thread.

For people making comments like he is, that is ALL they are using it for. And if that is all they are using it for, then yeah it's no longer needed.

ugh, here comes the name calling again. Never mind, I'm out.

jokell82 · Oct 27, 2007, 10:01 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Besides the fact that it doesn't have all the cool functionality of Quicksilver, it's also considerably slower as a launcher — definitely usable now, but you still have to wait a second or two for the app to show up, whereas Quicksilver is generally instantaneous.

They changed Spotlight in Leopard. Now app results are instantaneous, while the other results still filter in like before. Since I only used Quicksilver as an app launcher and it's not working correctly for me in Leopard (the icon stays in the dock, even in the latest beta), I've switched to just using Spotlight.

OreoCookie · Oct 27, 2007, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by Kevin

Yeah I am getting 10.5 for work JUST BECAUSE of Time Machine

It's probably the single-best feature for me, too. I'll have to see about the rest, I guess the improved Finder will be quite good, too.

darkscout · Oct 27, 2007, 11:20 AM

90% of what I use Xee for has been replaced by coverflow.

I do want a Quick shortcut to delete so I don't have to click "yes" every time I want to delete a picture.

AND it needs the ability to rotate.. but most of what I used Xee for Coverflow freaking rocks.

Kevin · Oct 27, 2007, 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!

Are you talking about Leopard's Spotlight? My app results are returned instantaneously in Leopard. It couldn't get any faster. If it did, it would be predicting what I'm about to type.

Same here, and I am not on a fast machine.

Chuckit · Oct 27, 2007, 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!

Are you talking about Leopard's Spotlight? My app results are returned instantaneously in Leopard. It couldn't get any faster. If it did, it would be predicting what I'm about to type.

I am talking about Leopard's Spotlight. As a test, on my 1.5 GHz PowerBook, it took about two seconds after I started typing "xb" for XBench to come up — which is a vast improvement over the six seconds or so it probably would have taken in Tiger, but still much slower than Quicksilver, which literally has the right app before I even raise my finger from the second key.

Oh, and yes, Spotlight has finally finished indexing, so that's not it.

Kar98 · Oct 27, 2007, 12:34 PM

Sorry, Chuckit. Instantaneous here.

jokell82 · Oct 27, 2007, 12:42 PM

Instantaneous here, too. So far you're the ONLY person saying it isn't.

CharlesS · Oct 27, 2007, 12:55 PM

Well, it could just be because I'm still on 9A559 and haven't gotten around to installing the GM yet, but it's not instantaneous for me either. I think it has something to do with how many files you have on your drive - I have a lot of junk I should probably clear out. If I do a search that turns up a lot of files, the search query text will noticeably lag behind what I'm typing. Unfortunately, since Spotlight starts searching as you type, the first few letters I type always turn up a lot of results, which causes me to have to wait.

Occasionally, if Spotlight gets overwhelmed, it beachballs, at which point I can navigate to whatever file I was trying to find manually in the Finder by the time Spotlight is usable again (could be a 9A559 bug, of course).

cybergoober · Oct 27, 2007, 01:17 PM

Originally Posted by jokell82

They changed Spotlight in Leopard. Now app results are instantaneous, while the other results still filter in like before. Since I only used Quicksilver as an app launcher and it's not working correctly for me in Leopard (the icon stays in the dock, even in the latest beta), I've switched to just using Spotlight.

The latest beta (3813 - check softpedia.com for mirror, blacktree site seems to be down) does not display the icon in the Dock. That was actually resolved with 3812 if I'm not mistaken.

Chuckit · Oct 27, 2007, 01:40 PM

It might just be that my drive has a lot of stuff on it. I've got about 75 out of 80 GB filled, mostly with small music files and other relatively little things (i.e., not a lot of easily-indexed 3 GB monstrosities lying around).

MartiNZ · Oct 27, 2007, 05:43 PM

Spotlight does seem a little slower than in Tiger, overall, but app launching with it is better - it's just when you get past entering one or two letters that it slows right down. It seems pretty temperamental even with that in mind though. This is on a PB G4 1.5GHz, and reduced to returning only apps, docs, pdfs, presentations and images - having webpages in the mix seemed to slow it down far more.

Todd Madson · Oct 27, 2007, 11:45 PM

Maybe I had my head in the sand but there were one or two classic applications I still used
infrequently. Not only is classic no longer on my Leopard boot drive, but it's also gone from
my backup boot drive that didn't even have Leopard installed on it - it's an old Tiger install.

WTF? I realize that it's obsolete but crimeny....annoying.

analogika · Oct 28, 2007, 12:10 AM

The screen sharing function is great and makes Apple Remote Desktop or other VNC solutions unnecessary for smaller or not-so-specialized networks.

CharlesS · Oct 28, 2007, 12:30 AM

Originally Posted by Todd Madson

Not only is classic no longer on my Leopard boot drive, but it's also gone from my backup boot drive that didn't even have Leopard installed on it - it's an old Tiger install.

WTF? I realize that it's obsolete but crimeny....annoying.

What? You're saying it actually deleted the OS 9 System Folder from every attached hard drive? I haven't seen that one yet, at least...

Chuckit · Oct 28, 2007, 01:44 AM

Originally Posted by Todd Madson

Maybe I had my head in the sand but there were one or two classic applications I still used
infrequently. Not only is classic no longer on my Leopard boot drive, but it's also gone from
my backup boot drive that didn't even have Leopard installed on it - it's an old Tiger install.

WTF? I realize that it's obsolete but crimeny....annoying.

I think that must have been something else, because Leopard just leaves out Classic — it doesn't delete OS 9.

rickey939 · Oct 28, 2007, 11:57 AM

Is "Chax" for iChat still needed?

Taylor C · Oct 28, 2007, 12:24 PM

I don't need Chax, QuickSilver, or FireFox(!). I like Safari 3 a lot better, and it syncs a lot more elegantly with .Mac and my other machines/iPhone.

jokell82 · Oct 28, 2007, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by rickey939

Is "Chax" for iChat still needed?

Nope. The only thing I think iChat needs is a consolidated buddy list. I don't like having my Jabber list separate from my AIM list.

sogbrightlight · Nov 3, 2007, 01:52 PM

Actually I really don't know if Sherlock is gone because I read about that before I installed and when I tried to move it into my apps folder from my external it asked me if I wanted to overwrite. But I've been unable to figure out what it is trying to overwrite.

rubaiyat · Nov 3, 2007, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

any app that combines PDFs or reorders their pages. Preview 3 handles that now. Unless you need some advanced PDF combine/reorder options.

Does Preview 3 let you take a selection of images and save them as a QuickTime slideshow or multipage PDF? because I have been waiting on both for some time.

It seemed a perfectly obvious and useful function.