An excerpt fom the book “Nifty Utilities to Hack Mac OS X Tiger” has an overview of OS X apps like TinkerTool, Carbon Copy Cloner, BatChmod, Memory stick, and others, that help you tweak apps like Safari, adjust and monitor memory status, bring the world of Unix file ownership and permissions over to the Mac, and more.
Will they run on my OSX/Dell system? *ducks*
another question, do you plan on PAYING for OS X????? Those of us who care about the advancement of OS X would appreciate the contribution of other paying customers – regardless of what they run it on.
So long as they don’t have some wacky EULA which requires me to use their hardware to use their software I’d be happy to pay for it.
I understand that cracking to OS itself to make it work under other hardware is in violation of the EULA because it’s “reverse engineering” the software, but if there’s some sort of wrapper or something I can use to run a copy of OSx86 off of a store shelf (when it comes out) I would definitely pay for it.
As for buying a new desktop to run OSx, it wouldn’t be a Mac, it’d be custom built or *maybe* dell. I wouldn’t buy Mac hardware unless it’s a laptop (I’m not sure I’d buy a laptop from anyone else). Just preference really. I like choice.
“So long as they don’t have some wacky EULA which requires me to use their hardware to use their software I’d be happy to pay for it.”
If you’re going to use it, whether or not you adhere to any “wacky EULA”, then pay for it.
By the way, “OSx86” is the cracker’s name for OS X 10.4.1 for Intel – don’t expect to see that on any store shelf…
Actually I meant I wouldn’t have it period, not just not buy it but not download it. I try not to use any illegal software at all.
And I call it OSx86 in order to distingush easily between the production OX X and the in development 10.5 that will be on Intel based Macs.
Dude I’m dumping Windows for MacOS
definitely one of the best pieces of software for the mac right now. this has been a must have on every version of OSX to date for me.
Really? I prefer OnyX ( http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html ). There’s a lot of overlap between the two, but OnyX has a lot of features TinkerTool Free does not.
actually i was using onyx for a while on 10.3 but went back to tinkertool for tiger because onyx took forever to come out with a compatible version.
OnyX and even CCC had a problem with 10.4.1 which delayed newer versions of their software from being released.
The fault was entirely Apple’s and was fixed in 10.4.2
Apple also screwed up and released a security update after 10.4.2 which broke all 64 bit based applications, it was pulled and a new update released a few days later.
So make sure you clone your drive before pressing “Software Update”
They forgot to include 64-bit versions of the libraries in the update. By the end of the day they had the new version up for download. Give them a break.
It’s not necessarily a hacking tool, but I really like Tiger Cache Cleaner as a way to make some of OSX’s behind the scenes behavior more accessible.
I must highly recommend Carbon Copy Cloner, it’s donationware, it works great, doesn’t phone home or trap you with registration, and best of all it’s just a GUI front end for “ditto” which copies everything, including those pesky drm files. Unlike a “other” software companies product which will remain nameless. :roll eyes:
So if you dont’ feel like CLI-ing, pull your old friend CCC up and rock and roll.
Make sure you follow some extra tips, like Zeroing your new drive and repairing permissions on the original first, enable “make bootable” in CCC prefs for a boot drive.
Boot from the clone and update the prebinding, repair permissions using a program such as OnyX just to make sure.
*insert anti-mac comment here*
*insert rebuttle to mac comment here*
*insert whining about spelling here*
*insert “i’ve used xxx for xxx and it xxx” comment here*
While they’re not exactly hacks to the system, both Panic (http://www.panic.com) and IconFactory (http://www.iconfactory.com) make some nice utilities and apps (I want Windows versions of Unison and Transmit) that make using OS X a little nicer. Unsanity’s (http:///www.unsanity.com) Fruit Menu is nearly indispensable to me on my G5 at work and I recently discovered an app called Synergy (http://wincent.com/a/products/synergy-classic/) which displays a little control utility in the menu bar near the clock. Good stuff. Now if only Apple would swallow their pride and implement a file grouping feature like Windows XP has as well as the ability to set finder window views globally, I’d be a happy camper.
holy cow! synergy is the best thing ever for mac. I have despised how there was no such thing or a single key shortcut. I know have the arrow keys doing the job. Heaven. If apple had only made dashboard work right maybe this wouldn’t have been and issue. But this is a great find.
Thanks
“as well as the ability to set finder window views globally”
I thought you could already do that???
Click onto the view options dialogue and select “all windows” instead of “this window” at the top…
They could have picked better apps.
Onyx, Carbon Copy Cloner, Menu Meters, Delocalizer, Sudo, Snard, any of the launchbars. Just to name a few.. They spent too much time on TT when Onyx does more.
I prefer psyncX to perform my weekly (yeah, right) backup. It features incremental backups and it’s very easy to use and pretty quick once you’ve made the initial image of your stuff. Perfect for maintaining a mirror image of your drive.
Also, OS X comes with it’s own utility to clone volumes, Apple Software Restore. Type man asr in a terminal window for info.
“bring the world of Unix file ownership and permissions over to the Mac”
Why would one need to “bring” Unix file ownership and permissions to a Unix-based platform? Isn’t it already there? I certainly seem to be able to use the same chmod/chown commands I used in GNU/Linux.