A great post. Thanks Bruce. Mykel
On Sep 10, 11:46 am, Bruce Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sep 10, 2008, at 9:04 AM, R. A. Cantrell wrote: > > > Listers, > > There's a thread right now about p-lists, which brings to > > mind the > > general state of Mac Os and maintenance > > I think that the p-list problems are handled by Onyx and MacJanitor > > No they're not. Onyx and MacJanitor maiinly manage the regular cron > jobs and deal with other things like caches. > > > and are > > analogous to Windows registry problems that are handled by Abexo and > > so > > forth. > > Sort of. > > .plist files are directly analogous to the old Mac Prefs files. > > > Zapping p-ram on Macs handles a lot of irritating minor problems, > > particularly with networking. > > No that shouldn't have anything to do with networking. > > > (what is analogous to zapping P-ram in > > Windows?) > > I've read lately that with the advent of Leopard that you no > > longer need to repair permissions. Is that correct? I've also read > > that disk > > defragmenters like Disk Warrior have been rendered unnecessary by > > Leopard. > > Disk Warrior is not a defragmenter, it rebuilds directory trees. > > > > > Is that true. Would some up-to-date lister please post a "State of > > the OS" > > regarding disk and system (including anti-ware) maintenance? > > Disk Maintenance: > > Maintain a current backup. > Shut down properly when at all possible. > Use a good quality UPS on your system. This is not so much for surge > protection or as wtom would have us believe lightning protection, but > because a good regulated piwer source will prolong the life of any > electronic device. > > OS X has ALWAYS, not just since Leopard, done a considerable degree of > defragmentation as a built-in part of the OS. The ONLY time an actual > defragmentation program would do you any good is when you're working > with volumes that have large files that turn over a lot, that is > mostly full all the time, such as volumes with big video or audio > projects on them, or lots of RAW photo processing. > > If you do this, it's more cost effective to use a separate drive for > your media and work files, back 'em up regularly, then erase and > restore the data. > > This does TWO very important things: > > Defragments your work volume, and tests your backups. > > That's it. Contrary to popular belief, the file system in OS X is > quite robust, and does not need 'routine maintenance'. > > Disk Warrior is a emergency tool, not a preventative one. > > System Maintenance: > > Let the system run overnight on a regular basis, or use Onyx, > MacJanitor & the like to do the routine Unix administrivia tasks OS X > has built in. > > That's it. Contrary to popular belief OS X is a robust operating > system quite capable of running for weeks or months without issues. My > current uptime is 27 days, on a system that's banged on pretty heavily. > > If you're having problems, especially in 109.4 or 10.5 try rebooting > in safe mode...this gets rid of a lot of often problematic cache files. > > Anti-ware: > > I'm anti. > > Contrary to popular opinion, OS X is NOT subject to viruses or > spyware, and it is virtually impossible to 'accidentally infect' some > poor friend running Windows. It would require a deliberate act. > > To those folks who insist "Just wait, your time is coming!!!" I say, > one, if OSX was infected according to it's market share there should > be thousands of viruses out there for it, and two, it is the > fundamental design of OS X that helps prevent malware from spreading. > > In Windows (until Vista, that is) if you're an Administrator, any > process you own can do anything it wants to the system. > > In OS X, if your an Administrator, any process you own can ASK for > permission to do something to your system. > > While it's entirely possible to construct malware that'll run quite > happily on OS X, the crucial part...getting it to run without asking > you for permission...has so far proven impossible to achieve. > > OSX IS vulnerable to cross-platform malware...I myself got caught by > that damned flash crap that took over the clipboard that was going > round last month. <http://tinyurl.com/5jdc88> > > That said, no antivirus WE tested caught it, nor did any anti-spyware > software catch it. > > Unlike Windows, however, that was the end of what can be done, again, > because unlike Windows, a process must ask permission to do anything > involving system issues. > > If you absolutely positively have to install antivirus on your Mac > (99.999% of the time it's due to Windoid System Admins who insist that > 'every computer must have antivirus' because they boughtinto the hype) > don't give your hard earned money to any huckster selling Mac AV > software, use ClamXAV <http://www.clamxav.com/>. > > If you run WIndows on your Mac, via Bootcamp, a VM solution like > Fusion, VMBox or Parallels, you definitely want to get AV and > antispyware software for them. Again, don't give any huckster your > hard earned dollars, use ClamAV and Spybot Search&Destroy. (I actually > do recommend you give the Spybot folks some of your hard-earned > dollars, they have earned it...) > > -- > Bruce Johnson > University of Arizona > College of Pharmacy > Information Technology Group > > Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
