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Hi Charles,
I have a question I was hoping you could help me with. I have recently made the jump to OSX and replaced my desktop with a PB 17'. The experiment is going fine now after plenty of initial confusion; the system is a big step up but first, of course, you have to take a big step sideways as it is really different. Between the new machine and the new OS I feel like I have tamed a nervous racehorse.
Although OS9 now seems quaint and convoluted, I still use it on my beloved Pismo (can't let her go). I have found a number of utilities and small programs that almost reproduce the best features of OS9. I seem to think that you once wrote a column that listed what you thought were the top 10 software programs for making OSX more OS9-like. I searched your old columns but couldn't find such a thing and now am wondering if I was hallucinating. I wonder if any other late-bloomers would be interested or have any ideas.
Thanks a lot,
Tom Condon
Hi Tom;
I still use OS 9 on my WallStreet, so I know where you're coming from, although Panther runs great on my Pismo.
Hmmmmm.I have a vague recollection that I might have written a column of the sort you mention back in my transition period from Classic to X, but I would have to go through the early OS X Odyssey archives to find it. I'm skeptical that I ever found 10 OS 9 feature restore hacks that I liked well enough to use.
These days, I'm very happy in OS X, and the dynamic now is that I miss more OS X features when I'm in OS 9 than I do Classic features when I'm in X.
Unsanity Software makes several different "haxie"apps. that restore OS 9 features to OS X. My hands-down favorite is WindowShade X, which in one I really couldn't get along without. The current version is WindowShade X 3.6, which supports Tiger.
With WindowShade X, when you double-click a window title or try to minimize a window, it will do action which can be different from the default Mac OS X behavior (putting the window in the Dock,which I detest). WindowShade X has 5 alternative minimize styles: WindowShade, Minimize-In-Place, Make Window Transparent, Float on Top, Hide Application, and Do Nothing. http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/wsx/
Other Unsanity OS 9 retro haxies include:
FruitMenu 3.4 , which restores the ability to customize the Apple Menu and contextual menusm and lets you edit the contents of the menus to suit your needs and taste. FruitMenu will also display the contents of the FruitMenu Items folder inside of your Library folder, launch applications and shell scripts from the Apple Menu and contextual menus, to allow easy file navigation and launching. You can also assign hotkeys to particular Apple menu items. http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/fruitmenu/
Xounds 2.3 brings back Appearance Sounds to Mac OS X. Xounds will convert your existing Mac OS 8 or 9 soundsets. http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/xounds/
David Adamson's DragonDrop is intended to reintroduce some of the functionality of OS 9 tabbed windows -- aka pop up folders. Drag any file or folder over DragonDrop's icon in the Finder or in the Dock, and drop it. A window will appear, showing the contents of the folder you dropped, or of the folder containing the file that you dropped. Freeware. http://cs.oberlin.edu/~dadamson/DragonDrop/
Other pop up folder replacements include Drop Drawers X 1.6.6 which provides floating pull-out, snap-shut drawers on the sides of your screen to store text, URLs, aliases, scripts, pictures, sounds, movies and anything else you like. http://www.sigsoftware.com/dropdrawers/
Dock-It's shelf space can be used to streamline drag and drop of files/folders and copy and pasting of text clippings and URLs. http://www.gideonsoftworks.com/dockit.html
However, aside from WindowShade X, I can (and do) get along quite happily without the others. I don't love the Dock,but it makes a tolerable substitute for the old Application Menu.
I would be interested in what OS 9 feature restore solutions others use.
Charles
Widget Watch
Widget Manager
Attack Of The Malicious Widgets
Baseballz Widget 1.0 Baseball Themed Widget
Amazon Search Widget 1.0
Dash Monitors 1.2 Widget That Displays System Resource Usage
MacMusic Widget 1.0 - news, software, articles from MacMusic.org
Widget Manager
Widget Manager is a Preference Pane for OSX 10.4 that allows you to inspect, remove, and disable Dashboard Widgets. To remove a widget without it, you would have to browse your Library/Widgets folder, delete the .wdgt file, and either log out or force-quit the Dock... what a pain!
Widget Manager also shows you the version numbers of widgets installed on your system, so you know when it's time to look for updates. It can also disable Widgets you don't want cluttering up the Widget bar, but don't necessarily want to delete, either.
Widget Manager also shows you the version numbers of widgets installed on your system, so you know when it's time to look for updates. It can also disable Widgets you don't want cluttering up the Widget bar, but don't necessarily want to delete, either.
New in this version:
• Widget Manager will now show Widgets in the system Widget library folder.
• Widgets are now sent to the Trash, rather than deleted immediately.
• Widgets which cannot be deleted will be shown as read-only.
• Minor bugfixes and improvements.
System requirements:
Widget Manager requires Mac OSX 10.4.
For more information, visit:
http://www.downtownsoftwarehouse.com/WidgetManager/
Attack Of The Malicious Widgets
oreillynet.com's Giles Turnbull says
"Stephan "stephan.com" Nosurname has opened a can of worms with his post detailing the potential security hazards of automatically-installed Dashboard widgets.
"When the first announcements were made about widgets some months ago, warning bells should have gone off in our collective heads. Applications made like web pages? Aren't web pages sometimes a bit ... dodgy? How come we didn't see this coming a long way off?"
You can check it out at:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7039
Baseballz Widget 1.0 Baseball Themed Widget
A companion to Baseballz Screensaver, the Baseballz Widget puts a baseball on your dashboard. Choose from other baseball themed art to show when the dashboard is active, including a random option.
The smell of fresh cut grass, and the taste of hot dogs and peanuts, means it's baseball season once again! Little league, minor league, or the big leagues, we love every minute of it.
America's oldest pastime began professionally in the 1870's, but it's roots go back to 1839, when Abner Doubleday devised the game of baseball in Cooperstown, N.Y. Through the years baseball has spawned countless memories, characters, and legends.
System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
Baseballz Widget is freeware
For more information, visit:
http://www.skyrocketsoftware.com/Baseballz/index.html
Amazon Search Widget 1.0
With this little widget you have a quick search to all Amazon Products.
System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.4
Tiger compatible
Amazon Search Widget is freeware
For more information, visit:
http://www.finalcutprofi.de/phpboard/
Dash Monitors 1.2 Widget That Displays System Resource Usage
Dash Monitors is a Widget that runs under Mac OS X Tiger's new Dashboard functionality. Dash Monitors displays a graphic summary of your system resource usage including:
• CPU usage. (Dual Processor Compatible)
• Memory usage including Wired, Active, Inactive, and Free memory.
• Network bandwidth being used.
• Disk read and write speed.
Currently, Dash Monitors is the only fully featured system resource monitor that runs in the Dashboard, and is great for users who would like to run a system monitor but do not want to sacrifice any screen real-estate while working.
There are 3 modes for each of the monitors: text, simple, and graphical. The text view mode shows a very simple text view of the resources being used and is beneficial because it takes very few system resources to generate the statistics. The simple view mode is the original view from Dash Monitors 1.0, and includes simple bar charts to show statistics in a graphical way without th eye candy. The graphical view mode, while taking more CPU resources to draw all the monitors, displays a fully imaged graphical interface to what is happening on the system. Text summaries are provided with the monitors in simple and graphical mode to provide the exact data along with the graphical approximations.
New in this version:
Some key updates to Dash Monitors 1.2 include:
â—ŠSeveral interface improvements to the widget, including an updated background and layout.
â—ŠMultiple speed enhancements to the CPU and Network monitors in graphical view mode.
â—ŠResolved a number of bugs and compatibility issues with the final release of Tiger.
System requirements:
Mac OS X Tiger or later.
Dash Monitors is $9.95 shareware
For more information, visit:
http://www.gauchosoft.com/Software/Dash%20Monitors/
MacMusic Widget 1.0 - news, software, articles from MacMusic.org
MacMusic Widget is freeware
This widget for MacOS 10.4.x (Tiger) prints the latest news, software updates and articles publisehd on MacMusic.org.
System requirements:
Mac OSX 10.4 (Tiger)
For more information, visit:
http://www.macmusic.org/softs/share.php/lang/EN/id/3215/
Charles W. Moore
Tags: Blogs ï OSX Odyssey ï
