Rants,
Raves and Revelations
Doc’s Leopard-Ready Shareware
Fav’s and Other Systems Upgrade Issues
By Harry
{doc} Babad © 2007
Over
the last year or so, I’ve shared my non-mainstream products, freeware or
shareware with you. Well, it’s almost Leopard time in doc’s home and I decided
to check on what works and what I’ll either have to replace or perhaps wait on.
There are in my mind three kinds of items I need to at least checkout, for
compatibility, if not worry about.
- My mainstream
productivity software – the stuff I use to get my work done and to
communicate with the outside world.
- Other less well
know applications that I’ve harnessed to support my writing and volunteer
efforts, products that sore much information that I’d rather not loose.
- Finally there are
all the gems that I share with you in my reviews, at those that are keepers,
that make my computing efforts easier by avoiding extra keyboarding or provide
shortcuts to navigate my hard drive or save a mouse click or three when writing.
As
was noted in, Joe Kissell’s eBook, Take Control of Upgrading to Leopard that I review
later in this issue, as part of the upgrade process you need to cleanup your
Mac by either deleting unused software or updating all third party software.
Hey, no one said if you’re a software junkie as I am, that it would be easy.
But being careful and thorough beats the @#$#&*# out of crashing your newly
installed operating system.
Joe
notes “Every major upgrade to Mac OS X results in software compatibility problems,
where some applications work poorly or don’t launch at all. Even in the best
cases, most of us will have to update a few applications to get them to work
correctly under Leopard.
If history is any indication, some incompatible
applications won’t be updated right away, and a few might never be. But many
developers work hard to ensure that their software is ready for each new
version of Mac OS X, and “Leopard-compatible” software updates have already
been appearing for months.” Remember you checking must include “preference
panes, menu extras, plug-ins, Dashboard widgets, and other system
enhancements.” Also to be safe, and leave no clutter, deinstall unneeded items
with a uninstaller utility such as AppZapper or CleanApp, both of which we’ve reviewed.
So much to do - So Little Time.
Details
– Details – Details
When
dealing with a utility designed to save me computing effort, or my universal
spelling checker and auto text expander, my menu based easy web access tool, or
even the wonderful haxies from Unsanity, I have ways to work around the absence
of a Leopard compatible product. Although I use these tools every day, I can,
with clenched teeth, work around them.
However,
were my 21 MB and growing snippets database broken, I’d be destitute or Leopard-less.
I use DEVONthink Pro to collect info for my articles and other obscure but
important information. Other software in this category include the drivers for
my Dymo Label Writer drivers and label databases, PandoCalendar, HP ScanJet
scanner software, ReadIris OCR Software, and my graphics software. The I’d be
desperate category also includes my mainstream powerhouse applications (e.g.,
MS Word, FileMaker Pro, Acrobat Pro, Eudora (my email client) and Roxio’s
Toast.)
Checking for Leopard Compatibility —
|
If
it’s not on any easy to access list, Joe Kissell suggests, for each product you have
installed, you check for updates. This can be done from within many software
items or by checking the download sites such as Version Tracker of MacUpdate.
If all else fails you can check the developer’s website, some thin g alas that
was mostly singularly unproductive. But that still leaves you with unanswered
questions. For what’s left, the ball is in your court. Write the developer who
may or may not respond. Temporarily delete the software you are uncertain
about, or take you chances. These guidelines are true no mater which method you
use to install Leopard on your existing hard drive, since an installation of
Leopard on you system that contains only Apple software is pretty sterile and
limiting.
What
Have I Checked and Learned
The table that follows only contains information about the
products I love, use and have perhaps convinces some of you to use. If you
adopted other products I’ve reviewed, or others found on the shareware-software
update sites, you’re on your own… use the methods described above for checking
or play Russian roulette.
If
a software tool you prefer is not on either those item listed on the links
previously provided or my table, do your homework. Alternatively after you
migrate to Leopard, and everything else is stable, backup your drive, making
sure it is a bootable volume. Then install and test that product you lust for.
Unless
otherwise stated, I am using the latest version of a product, downloaded from a
vendor site or from MacUpdate.
