Mac Question

samy · 10-02-2008, 01:48 AM

I was wondering since I am fairly new to Mac and always used Windows in the past if there is a place to empty your cookies, temporary internet files like on Windows. Also on Windows you can defragment to create more space. Does Mac have something like that? Forgive me if these are dumb questions but I have been looking around my macbook and trying to keep it up to date without a lot of excess junk.
Thanks in advance.

dturner · 10-02-2008, 03:28 PM

Go to safari-reset safari and check the items you want.
No need to defragment on a mac.
Welcome to the mac world. Once you get the hang of it you will never go back to windows again.

fury · 10-06-2008, 12:02 PM

Defragmenting doesn't create more space. It rearranges the files so each one can be read without jumping around which takes noticeable milliseconds each time it has to change where it's reading from.

On Windows, when a file is written or changed on your computer, the bits of data get placed wherever the nearest free space on the hard drive happens to be, physically, so that it writes faster and returns back to whatever you were doing. After a lot of writing and changing and installing programs and deleting old files and putting on new ones, there are a lot of files scattered across the drive so that it takes longer for the hard drive to read the whole thing. It has to run from one end of the drive to the other, for instance. Defragmenting puts everything in order so that the drive only has to "seek" (switch its head to another cylinder of the drive) once to read any particular file.

Modern file systems like the one used in Mac OS X prevent fragmentation by trying to ensure the file gets written sequentially in the first place, but if not, defragmenting it automatically (transparently) on demand.

danipoak · 10-06-2008, 07:16 PM

Off the topic of defraging but still a mac question, does anybody here use anti-virus software? I've had my macbook almost a year and never bothered to get any, I came over from the Linux world where I didn't have to use to any either. My University suggests using it, seems unneeded to me, what do all of you do?

dturner · 10-06-2008, 07:40 PM

Originally Posted by danipoak

Off the topic of defraging but still a mac question, does anybody here use anti-virus software? I've had my macbook almost a year and never bothered to get any, I came over from the Linux world where I didn't have to use to any either. My University suggests using it, seems unneeded to me, what do all of you do?

Never felt the need for one on a mac.

FlwrPwer · 10-06-2008, 08:21 PM

I'm on my third mac and never used anti-virus software either. Neither has my dad or my sister.

Eragon · 10-06-2008, 09:55 PM

For the most part, viruses affect Windows systems. There are malicious programs out there, but they are few and far between.

If you run a Windows partition, anti virus software will protect that portion of your drive at risk. If like me you share filed between the OSs, anti virus software is an additional layer of protection.

danipoak · 10-07-2008, 06:13 PM

Originally Posted by dturner

Never felt the need for one on a mac.

That's the same way I've always felt, just wondered if I was alone in that. I feel like I am using a feature rich version of Linux, not that Linux isn't feature rich, you just have to do it all yourself :P

Lincoln · 10-08-2008, 06:59 PM

Anti-virus software is, as of now, completely unnecessary. Will it be in the future? Maybe, as the Mac's market share increases. but right now, there are zero viruses for the Mac.

If you feel the need to defragment, use iDefrag. There's an argument over whether or not users need to defrag OS X; one side says the OS automatically defrags files under 20 MB, and because 99% of the files on your system are under this size, it's pointless. The other side says apps like iDefrag not only defrag but also optimize the layout of files on the drive. It has been discovered that while using defragmenting programs on your Mac may make apps open faster, your boot time may be greatly increased.

ChuckleBrother · 10-10-2008, 02:51 PM

If you believe that you deserve what you get for running without anti-virus.

Just a while back there was talk about the DNS redirect issues, so there ARE viruses out there. Its like trying to cross a 4 lane highway at rushhour versus crossing a quiet towns main street.

http://www.intego.com/news/ism0705.asp