In recent days I’ve heard from a few friends who have called me with tech-related questions (read: tech-related problems) and have complained about various problems with their Macs. All have been software-related in way or another (combined with a little bit of user-error); one was new to Apple and unaware of configuring and running Software Update; another friend experienced third-party software compatibility issues after upgrading to Snow Leopard. Nothing out of the ordinary – these are all easy to fix – but they caused agida for these nascent Apple users.
It got me thinking about software on the Mac in general. While I love these machines, I probably only use 40 to 50% of my Mac’s capabilities on a regular basis (although for me that is increasing). For the average user that’s probably about right – at least initially. A lot of that extra capability comes from non-Apple software; in fact, Macs are fantastic machines because of their ability to support many open-source and third-party applications, normally without issue. They are easy to both install and uninstall, and generally enhance the user experience significantly.
However, in my view sometimes too much extra software starts to weigh down your machine, and is unnecessary. What to do? Just make sure that you really need that extra software before installing it. Sometimes – despite what you are told or what you read – you may not. It’s important to understand what your Mac can do on its own; in many cases, it is more than you think. Much more.
For example – a few months ago I upgraded my 3+ year old iMac to Snow Leopard. Then I decided it was time for a new home scanner and printer combo (yes, and old-school fax too – I still use one). Instead of installing the bloated software that came with the printer/scanner/fax, I simply launched Image Capture – software that was already on my machine natively from Apple (located in the Applications folder on your hard drive). It immediately recognized the new scanner functionality – and voila! – no need for that 150MB of extra software. Goodbye CD-ROM.
That’s one less software application to support, learn how to use, and worry about. More importantly, it’s one less application that can give my Mac – and me – heartburn.
