(re)installing software [was: Re: Wondering...]

[Scott J. Kramer]

--On Wednesday, April 10, 2002 10:31 +1000 Lachlan Deck <ldeck at mac.com> wrote:

>> From: "Jared ''Danger'' Earle" <jared at 23x.net>

>> I find that so much crap can build up over time that a clean install can
>> be a godsend. I recently reinstalled OSX (on a new hard-drive) and was
>> not disappointed with the results.

I'll likely do a fresh install with 10.2 to leave behind any cruft,
including OS 9 / Classic. :-)

>> 																																				If the world were perfect and all app
>> installers were clean and tidy, this wouldn't be a problem.

Sure, installers may fail for some reason and re-running after tweaking
something or rebooting "fixes" the immediate problem.  I was thinking of
OmniWeb (lest we forget which list this is :-), where it's simply a matter
of creating or replacing its application directory and it that's corrupted
it does make sense to "reinstall".  Other OW-related troubles probably
point to something else.

Maybe I was overreacting to what often appears to be an overzealous use
of "reinstall" as a magic bullet solution.  Isn't that what stressed-out
tech support folks tell customers to do? :-)

> Mac Client users aren't often in the habit of leaving their system running 24/7/monthly and so the Unix admin tasks scheduled to do their thing at between 3-4am or whenever it is doesn't get done enough or at all. There is a little utility that you can use to do these manually - called MacJanitor.

CronniX, a more general cron GUI, is another choice.

> As for reinstalling - the only time you should need to do this is if you need to regress the OS version - 'cause something got broken in the latest update. You might be confusing the difference between all the stuff you download and the system itself.

Yep, it's useful making those clear distinctions.

> If you want to refresh things - all you need to do is back up your stuff and then delete your preferences in ~/Library. But unless they've gotten corrupted you shouldn't have these problems.

Most people on this list probably have a good idea of what/where "their
stuff" is, even when it's not explicitly obvious.  OW is well-behaved
in that it stores that "stuff" under home directories; some apps still
insist on writing (or trying to) in their app hierarchy.  I haven't
used pre-X Mac OS enough to know its conventions and haven't found
"what belongs where" definitively documented for OS X.

> Personally I've found 10.1.3 the best yet.

I've only noticed the benefits.

> ,,, I'm able to keep the system running indefinitely - i.e., I don't turn it off unless I have to.

I restart apps or occasionally when the system has degraded from memory
leaks.

 And I've found it very stable, with no need of a System reinstall - or any other reinstall for that matter. Just smart backups at regular
> intervals.

I'm still pondering the optimal backup scheme for my iBook.  I've made
a few hfstar files and copied them to another system.  Some combination
of backup to cd-r(w) and firewire hd would be fine.

Sorry for the mostly-OT response.  Private followups might be best.

-sjk