[mcgarry101]

Hi, wondering if anyone can answer this simple question for me. Being new to OS X this is probably pretty silly question!

Basically i am wondering if Opera comes installed with OS X? The reason I ask is that in finder/services, there is a option for the Opera web browser. I am basically intrigued as to whether this was already installed on my new macbook, I if perhaps it has installed without my knowledge (perhaps as part of another application - I recently installed Adobe Design CS3). LIke I said, nothing major just wondering how it got there.

Also, if I which to uninstall a prog is there a preferred way of doing this in OS X? I could drag a package icon to the trash, but I presume this wouldnt get rid of folders that the prog might have created elsewhere, for example in the library/application support dir.

Which brings me to my final questions (thank god i hear you cry!) :-

-Is there a equivilant of the windows defragment function in OS X? Should I need to worry about such housekeeping?
-What is the difference between clearing the trash, and secure clearing trash? I understand that the second option makes items unretrievable, however to save HD space i am better to just secure trash everytime?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, however coming from a windows machine I am used to keeping my system in order, and i'm just trying to learn how to do the same with my shiny new macbook!

David

[peeb]

Welcome!
Opera does not come pre-installed. I don't know how it got on your machine.
To uninstall a program, drag it to the trash. Sometimes poorly behaved programs might leave junk lying around, don't worry about it too much.
There is no need to defragment OS X. It takes care of itself, and needs no active maintenance. Just make sure you have at least 10-15% free space on your primary drive.
You do not need to secure empty the trash to save disc space. Emptying it frees up the disk space, securely emptying it writes over it with zeros so it cannot be recovered.

[Peter]

Adobe uses Opera for its help files, I believe.

No need to defrag OS X

[jasong]

Opera was installed with CS3. It uses it for web views in the various programs. I wouldn't delete it as it will affect CS3 functionality, but in general all you need to do to delete an application on a Mac is throw the app in the trash. Yes, this leaves any folders or preferences files behind, but these are small and don't affect the system. If it bothers you (and it does bother some people), do a spotlight search with the name of the app and toss the related folders/files. If you want to go the expensive route, you can buy a program like app zapper which keeps track of all files installed by an application and can delete them when you remove the app. Personally I wouldn't bother, but then I'm a slob ;-)

As for defragging, Mac OS X does basic defragmentation on the fly when you access a file. In general this is all you need. You can purchase additional defragmentation software, but I personally am of the belief that that is both a waste of money and time.

Secure delete simply makes the files you delete unrecoverable. You gain the same space back either way.

Good luck with your new MacBook, and feel free to ask away.

[JKT]

Just to clarify the difference between a normal Empty Trash and a Secure Empty Trash.

The normal empty trash doesn't physically remove the file(s), it just alters the flags in the file(s) that makes it visible to the file system (and, therefore, the OS itself). The contents of the file remain on the hard drive until they are overwritten by other files that have e.g. been saved or created temporarily by the system. With the right software and access to the hardware, it is possible to recover any files that have not yet been fully overwritten, which is a potential security or privacy issue if they originally contained, e.g. sensitive financial information.

Secure empty trash physically overwrites the contents of the deleted file(s) with 7 passes of data (IIRC... it could actually be 35 passes) which essentially makes the file completely unrecoverable to anyone without access to an Atomic Force Microscope and the ken to use it. To be used if you really do not want anyone to gain access to your deleted files.

FWIW, because of the overwriting, Secure Empty Trash takes longer.

Note, if you ever find yourself in the situation where you need to defrag your hard drive, you will need a separate backup first, and if you are making a backup, you might as well wipe the drive and install from scratch which achieves the exact same effect as a defrag, only multiple times faster. OS X automatically defragments files below 20MB in size, fwiw.

[OreoCookie]

OS X will defrag automatically when idle. The rest has been answered already.

[WJMoore]

Originally Posted by Peter 

Adobe uses Opera for its help files, I believe.

No need to defrag OS X

Well bugger me you're right. I got PS Elements the other day and I have the Open in Opera service as well. Selecting a URL and choosing the service does indeed fire up Opera. I did Reveal in Finder and it lives in the MacOS folder right alongside the PS Elements executable. Interestingly when run this way it still said it was the free ad supported version. I would have thought Adobe would have had some customisation made to inhibit that.

[PER3]

Sorry for going back off track, but when you defragment files by restoring from backup, do the system files get copied to the faster, outside tracks of the drive, or does it go alphabetically, from Applications to usr (which is what Silverkeeper seems to do)?

If alphabetically, is there a way to get the system files higher in the queue to the outside tracks, or doesn't it matter as they will automatically go to RAM on startup?

[peeb]

What machine do you have? I highly doubt you will see any real world benefit from this. In the 1980s, when hard-drives were small and slow, these kinds of things had real benefit. Rarely today does it matter with modern OSs.

[PER3]

Originally Posted by peeb 

What machine do you have? I highly doubt you will see any real world benefit from this. In the 1980s, when hard-drives were small and slow, these kinds of things had real benefit. Rarely today does it matter with modern OSs.

That makes sense. I've got a new MBP, so I guess we're talking about fractions of a second, even on booting up.

Thanks for reminding me about the real world.

[Catfish_Man]

Originally Posted by PER3 

If alphabetically, is there a way to get the system files higher in the queue to the outside tracks, or doesn't it matter as they will automatically go to RAM on startup?

OSX will actually move small frequently used files to the fastest part of the disk as you use it.

[Atheist]

If I may ask a slightly related question.... how does one pronounce Opera? I always thought it was pronounced in the normal sense of the word... as in "A night at the opera"... but I've heard several people pronounce it oh-PAIR-uh. Sounds silly to me... you think it's just some people's way of always having to be different?

[peeb]

I can't see any reason to believe it would not be pronounced normally, nothing on the website about abnormal pronunciation.

[cgc]

Why would Adobe feel the need to insall a third-party web browser? Did Opera make a deal with Adobe? Kooky.

[peeb]

Sounds odd. Esp when Apple has a helpfile application too.

[Catfish_Man]

Last I heard Opera makes most of its money through embedding (for example its use in the Nintendo Wii); I wouldn't be surprised if it really is the best choice for an embedable cross-platform browser engine at the moment.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by Catfish_Man 

OSX will actually move small frequently used files to the fastest part of the disk as you use it.

It is really hard these days to manually manage file allocation as effectively as OS X can automatically, and certainly not worth the time to do it vs time saved.