How do you custimize your OS X?

shizumashizuma
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I am not sure if this is the best place to post this topic, but. . .



I am going to switch to OS X (from os 8 and hopefully by a "new" G4?) when Jaguar comes out. my question to all of you is, What made your transition to OS X more enjoyable? Do any of you use Drop Drawers or Drag Thing in os X. Any programs to replace the finder. I know when Jaguar comes out things might be dramatically (or not) different.



Basically how have you custimized your OS?



I am sure you have covered this kind of topic before but I am pretty new here.



Thanks for the info. :cool:

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    If you stick with the dock, you might be interested in <a href="http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=11295&db=mac"; target="_blank">TransparentDock</a>, which makes the dock's background transparent.



    Or you might want to change the Trash Can's icon, like I did: You can find instructions elsewhere, or someone else can explain it.



    You can change the Finder's Computer toolbar icon with <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/ryantann/.Public/system_reporter_ai"; target="_blank">this script.</a>



    You can use <a href="http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=13130&db=mac"; target="_blank">Duality</a> to theme OSX.



    I know there are more but I can't think of them now.
  • Reply 2 of 11
    mikey offendermikey offender Posts: 412member
    I've customized my computer by using pirated builds of prerelease software.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />



    Baaaad Shanny...
  • Reply 4 of 11
    junkyard dawgjunkyard dawg Posts: 2,801member
    OS X is so awesome, that IMO little customization is needed. Most of the customization is done by those who miss OS 9 and want their OS X to act as much like OS 9 as possible. They try to recreate the Platinum GUI in the Aqua environment via a shoddy patchwork of freeware and shareware apps.



    Most of these people are misguided IMO. For example, some people freak out that the Apple menu is not customizable. What they do not understand, is that folders can be placed in the dock, and fully customized, for functionality EXACTLY like the old Apple Menu! Even better, you can have as many of these new "Apple Menus" as you like.



    Hint: Fill a folder full of aliases to all of your apps. Paste the application folder icon onto the folder. Drop the folder into the dock. Right click, and you have hierarchical access to every app on you HD, one click away! Except unlike the old Apple Menu, the new way keeps it free of system clutter.



    Drop your Home directory folder into the dock to access every document on you computer with one click.



    IMO, the dock is a work of art. Simplicity at its finest. At first I complained because I thought it wasn't complex enough, I wanted more docks, more customization options, on and on and on. But after using the dock for a while, I've come to appreciate it very much. It's simple and yet extremely powerful in the right hands.



    Jaguar will enhance the dock even further...one of the coolest additions is that all minimized windows will have a badge denoting which App they belong to. Very cool.



    What else? You might go to versiontracker.com and get an app called carbon copy cloner. It helps you create backups of your OS X directories, and you can even use it to move your Home directory to a different HD. This is helpful if you ever need to reformat and reinstall OS X without disrupting your documents and preferences. Cool thing about OS X, for each user, all of their docs and app preferences are in their Home directory, so each user can have different preferences! Cool!





    There are some other utilities that are very nice to have, and they include:



    MacJanitor

    Swap Cop

    USB Overdrive X (IF you like to use a real mouse, with two buttons and a scroll wheel/3rd button).

    Xoptimize



    That's just a few, there may be some others I'm forgetting, but these should keep you humming along no problem.



    You may also want to check out AdultMediaFinder...it's indispensible to any serious Porn Hound.



    <a href="http://www.dekorte.com/Software/OSX/AdultMediaFinder/"; target="_blank">http://www.dekorte.com/Software/OSX/AdultMediaFinder/</a>;



  • Reply 5 of 11
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    I agree with JYD (although I haven't yet tried AMF)



    The main customization I use is "TinkerTool" and "System Manager". (Google them)



    TinkerTool lets you enable double scroll buttons at each end, transparency in the terminal, and so much more tweaks. I was using most of the stuff before tinkertool, but it provides a system preference pane for it all.



    System Manager is indispensible. It has 4 floating, transparent windows. A system load, CPU load, memory use and network in/out. Right-click on the dock icon and you get uptime, a process list, a GUI to kill/renice processes, a listing of system preference panes and your current IP address.



    Barto
  • Reply 6 of 11
    junkyard dawgjunkyard dawg Posts: 2,801member
    Oh, one last one:



    <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/rominar/net.html"; target="_blank">http://homepage.mac.com/rominar/net.html</a>;



    It's Netmonitor, it gives a real-time graph of network activity, and you can put it in the dock, as a floating window, or my favorite, in the menu bar. Very cool and useful.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    hotboxdhotboxd Posts: 125member
    The ones I use:



    Tinkertool - already got mentioned, provides access to lot's of neat GUI options.

    Transparent Dock - changes Dock to transparent, opaque, and custom images. Also can change the border.

    WindowshadeX - allows you to reprogram the functions of the windowbar - i used it to set the yellow minus button to hide the entire application, but there's plenty of other options, including customization of the drop shadows.

    Fruitmenu - Allows you to customize whats in the Apple menu, and provides an OS9-like drop-down-menu for the System Prefs.



    Check <a href="http://www.aquafiles.com"; target="_blank">www.aquafiles.com</a> for all of these. Fruitmenu and Windowshade are made by a company called Unsanity at <a href="http://www.unsanity.com."; target="_blank">www.unsanity.com.</a>
  • Reply 8 of 11
    whyatt thrashwhyatt thrash Posts: 421member
    Lemme see, I'm on an OS 9-box at home, so I'm not the most reliable source right now, but I use a few apps like:
    • silk (enables quartz font-antialiasing in carbon apps)

    • tinkertool (a must, for creating transparent terminal windows, changing scrollbar behaviour, enabling the "suck"-dockeffect etc)

    • changedesktop (changes desktop image at a defined interval, now included in Jaquar, yay! =)

    • spy (shows processor load and network activity in the menubar)

    • mousezoom (faster mouse tracking)

    • dock detox (disables jumping dock icons)

    • Logitech control center (for my multi-button mouse)

    I'm sure there's more, but these are the ones I recall offhand.



    One of the features I sorely miss is the option to disable menuitem-blinking. Another I think should be added is the ability to set both mousespeed and acceleration, like windows-users have been able to do for years. Setting the mousespeed higher temporarily fixes the problem, until you try to play a 3D-game that requires the use of a mouse, then you have to jerk the mouse around fast as hell for the guy to move at all, and you lose all precision.



    *Ehem*



    Happy customizing! ^_^



    [ 07-14-2002: Message edited by: Whyatt Thrash ]</p>
  • Reply 9 of 11
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    Since I use both (9 at work, X at home), here's both:



    9:

    - DragThing

    - LiteSwitch

    - FinderPop

    - Click, and there it is!



    X:

    - LiteSwitch X (indispensible, on any platform!)

    - Yapasu

    - Transparent Dock

    - menu extras: ClassicSpy, Weather Pop



    Also have Duality, but prefer Aqua to any of the other themes I've tried.



    [ 07-15-2002: Message edited by: Hobbes ]</p>
  • Reply 10 of 11
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    [quote]Originally posted by Shanny:

    <strong>I've customized my computer by using pirated builds of prerelease software.</strong><hr></blockquote>

    Hahaha, I don't know any Mac user that does that...
  • Reply 11 of 11
    sc_marktsc_markt Posts: 1,402member
    [quote]Originally posted by Junkyard Dawg:

    <strong>

    It's Netmonitor, it gives a real-time graph of network activity, and you can put it in the dock, as a floating window, or my favorite, in the menu bar. Very cool and useful.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I've noticed that there are quite a few status indicators and such that are available for the OS X menubar. For the people who like these things, here is a link with many menubar items.



    <a href="http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=46&t=005535&p=1"; target="_blank">http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=46&t=005535&p=1</a>;
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