MacUpdate Weekend Sale :This weekend MacUpdate has slashed prices on Painter 12 and Painter Lite. Painter 12 retails for $429, but has been reduced by 54% to $199. Painter Lite has seen a 58% price cut from $69 to $29. Hurry, because these deals are only available until May 19th 2013.      
toggle

AAPL Stock: 433.26 ( -1.32 )

http://www.macnn.com/articles/02/09/30/mox.optimize/

MOX Optimize 2 optimizes Mac OS X parameters

updated 09:05 am EDT, Mon September 30, 2002

 
", 0, 0);


MOX Optimize 2, now compatible with Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, is an application that can accelerate Mac OS X by allowing users to "tweak your system settings and configure many hidden system options. Easily use powerful UNIX commands to optimize your system without having to learn them." The utility features automatic startup optimization and a scheduler for regular "cleaning jobs." The utility offers features such as network connection optimization, Finder acceleration, improved application launch times, and cache management. A single-user license is $20, while upgrades from v1 are $10.


by MacNN Staff

Post tools:

TAGS :

 software

Related Articles

Recent Articles

toggle

Comments

  1. MacNN.com Reader

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2001

    0
    09/30, 10:28am | report spam | Reply |

    Any used this?

    Has anyone used this program?

    How reliable is this program & does it compromise OS stability?

  1. MacNN.com Reader

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2001

    0
    09/30, 11:20am | report spam | Reply |

    Works fine

    I just tried the demo version and it seems to work just fine. System start-up was noticably faster as well as application launch times. I have not noticed any instability so far. The interface is a little clunky looking, but there is plenty of options and help features included. So for a OSX novice I think this is a worthwhile app.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2001

    0
    09/30, 11:38am | report spam | Reply |

    Then in 10.2.2

    Something in your next upgrade wont work right and you'll be wondering... "I wonder if it was because I did that...."

  1. MacNN.com Reader

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2001

    0
    09/30, 12:19pm | report spam | Reply |

    Why is this necessary?

    Tell me, if a few files can be tweeked to make start up noticably faster, why wouldn't Apple just tweek the OS themselves and make it faster? I don't see why they would intentionally not optimize the performance unless there are other issues we're not aware of.

  1. Charles A

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2001

    0
    09/30, 12:43pm | report spam | Reply |

    I'd avoid it

    Many reasons this isn't a necessary - or even very desirable - app.
    -In 10.2, you don't need to do the prebinding; the system does it for you when it needs it. (Ever watched the end of a 10.2 install? 0% updated...)
    -Deleting localisation files can seem smart, but there are other utilities to do that (probably sensible to split that function off).
    -Deleting your cache can seem smart, but (1) it's going to fill up again anyway (2) it'll slow down the loading of pages you often visit bcs the images won't be in memory
    -You can already set the Terminal transparency in 10.2 (and 10.1, but that's a command-line hack)
    -show/hide hidden in the Finder is done by TinkerTool, which is MUCH better
    -changing the admin log timings can be done with MacJanitor
    -all in all, it looks initially atttractive (I'm usually a sucker for these things) but when you get down to it, how much do you need to fiddle with these things? Are you completely confident that just because they can program a UI, that they know why they're doing what they're doing to the stuff underneath? I'll admit my knowledge of this sort of thing is secondhand, though I could write an AppleScript Studio thing that would do most of these functions.
    The point is: is their design one from deep understanding of the OS, or just a bunch of hacking about?

  1. MacNN.com Reader

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2001

    0
    09/30, 01:04pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: I'd avoid it

    I agree. There's not much new there. There's 18,000 free utils that can prebind (if you need it), and since prebinding only works on the boot drive, it doesn't help me that much (most of my apps aren't on the boot drive). Tinkertool offers much what this offers, and is free. I've read that window compression was turned on in 10.2, but don't know if its true (and if not, there also may be a good reason for that, like they had to not turn on QE on PCI macs). As for classic speedup, I don't know what Jaguar did, but my Classic starts up like twice as fast as before, as fast as I need it to (as little as I use it). No opinion on the

    And their page talks of deleting "hundreds of megs of cache files". Who's browser is set up to store 100+M of cache? And how do they find all the cache (I have four different browsers on my Mac, and each has their own cache, does it know them all?).

    I also agree with the other poster about the cache will just fill up again. It will. Best way to keep that from happening is to limit it in the first place. Also, if you have a DSL/Cable/T1 connection, some would argue that its quicker to keep the disk cache low and make sure you have a large memory cache. It actually can be quicker to download a bunch of small images from the internet then to search your cache directories for the files.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2001

    0
    09/30, 02:48pm | report spam | Reply |

    Answers from the dev.

    To answer some remarks posted here:
    we are no amateurs. The changes are not "hacks" which compromise the system stability, but use UNIX commands to configure hidden options. Apple didn't do it themselves because they are trying to hide the UNIX underpinnnings of Mac os X for the novice users. We give them the power of UNIX back.
    It is totally true that some of MOX' features can be found in freewares. But there are more than 40 features inside MOX, and if you want them all you need 10 freewares and 5 different sharewares.
    Classic speed up is for execution time, not launching. Also, your cache may fill up again, but the sceduler allows you to delete it daily if you wish.
    Cache deletion works with internet explorer, netscape, mozilla, chimera, omniweb, opera and icab. Even if multiple browsers are installed on the same sytem.
    Thank you for reading all of this.
    If you have further questions, please send us an E-mail to infosoft@mac.com We usually answer questions within a few hours.

  1. MacNN.com Reader

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2001

    0
    09/30, 03:29pm | report spam | Reply |

    I'd stay away

    it seems as if every few months a program like this surfaces that claims to 'optimize' and do various things that really don't need to be done -- in exchange for cool, hard cash. Go ahead and buy paint for your TiBook cases if you want ;-]

  1. MacNN.com Reader

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2001

    0
    09/30, 04:59pm | report spam | Reply |

    It's a very good app

    I tried the first version with much success.

    Its really quite usefull. Aside from the prebinding which the OS does on its own on start-up. Way more usefull than TINKERTOOL, which someone actually said is 'way better'. When in fact they do none of the same things...

    I haven't read a post here yet that had a good reason for bashing it. People on Macfixit and macosxhints swear by this app..

    Seems people on this forum know very little, i'm reminded why i don't come here often...

Login Here

Not a member of the MacNN forums? Register now for free.

 
close
Photo
toggle

Network Headlines

toggle

Most Popular

MacNN Sponsor

Recent Reviews

Brother HL-3170CDW LED Printer

We've mentioned before that we are far from a paperless society. For now, at least, there are tasks that require a piece of paper for ...

HTC One

It is hard to overstate just how critically important the HTC One is to the Taiwanese company’s fortunes. Despite its alarming decline ...

Samsung Galaxy S 4

Samsung's new flagship Android smartphone, the Galaxy S 4, faces even stiffer competition than its popular predecessor. With a five-in ...

toggle

Most Commented

 

Popular News