Edit : Be extremely careful with some of the things below, best way is to have a backup.
I've been using PPC for about 12 years now, first a Pismo G3 and now a PB 1.67 Ghz.
It's fairly rare that I look into the PPC sections, only on slow news days but maybe I can add a few things.
Skinniezinho said:
Are there any software tweaks that I can make to make my experience better?
There are many more things you can do to make your mac faster and cleaner.
You say Trimthefat is a program to remove Intel Architecture, this is true but it only does so on Applications.
There is a way to remove Intel Architecture from your WHOLE system, although you need some skils and if you mess up your system might not boot.
I did it this way :
Make all files visible, Show & Hide App is the easiest way.
Use this command to get rid of non PPC architecture :
ditto --rsrc --arch ppc <input folder> <output folder>...
Example 1 : ditto --rsrc --arch ppc /Applications /Applications111
Example 2 : ditto --rsrc --arch ppc /usr /usr111
Note the 111 on the end, I add this so it won't overwrite the existing folder since if the files are in use inside it won't work, also you can use anything -222-qwe- or whatever as long as it is different.
After it is finished you then move the original to the trash, rename the other one back to original (example Applications111 to Applications) and then restart.
The best way is to do one folder at a time and delete the trash only after restart or better when you have plenty of space leave it until you're sure everything is ok.
Do it on all these folders.
/Applications
/bin
/Developer (only if it's there)
/Library
/private
/sbin
/System
/Users
/usr
And on the next two Kernel files, yes even your kernel can be skimmed.
/mach_kernel.ctfsys
/mach_kernel
The only problem is that you have to remember to remove non PPC arch every time you install new Apps, not needed but better if you do.
There is such a clean PPC install for download on a certain site but it's against the rules to give such a link.(Mix of demon and android
)
Note, you need to log into root to do all the above.
You can save GB by doing the above and to remove even more GB you can further delete many of the next things if not needed.
Language files.
Many use programs to delete unnesesarry language files but I do it this way.
Download Easyfind and open it, the best way is to log in as root, now search for .lproj with the following settings on the left, only folders-all words-ignore case-package contents-invisible files & folders.
Thousands will show up and now select the language files you don't need, keep en.lproj-english.lproj-englishGB.lproj-englishAu.lproj.
The easiest way is to select the first one if it's not an english file and scroll to the last one before the english.lproj and hold the shift key and click that one, you selected a bunch now and click delete, takes a bit of time to move them to the trash.
You can do the same after the english.lproj files.
Beware If you search in all of your disk you remove all non english files, some programs might not work, adobe for instance, oh and of course if you're non english you should not delete your own language files.
You can do the same for help folders but only do so if you know what to delete, help folders inside your Applications and Applications/Utlities folders are overall safe to delete.
Next Documentation and dictionaries, if you are fine without them it's safe to delete them,they are in :
/Library/Dictionaries
/Library/Documentation
Then if you don't need voices you can safely delete most of them, I left only the Vicki.SpeechVoice, they are in :
/System/Library/Speech/Voices
Note You need root access or sudo rm command.
Next Modem scripts, you can safely delete the scripts if you never need a modem, they are in :
/Library/Modem Scripts
/System/Library/Modem Scripts
Lastly, this is a very difficult one and completely depends on which hardware you have, the Extensions folder.
There are quite some extensions which under normal circumstances can be deleted but again it depends on what hardware you have.
I have a powerbook G4 1.67 Ghz and in it is an ATI Graphic card so I can delete all Geforce .kext files and Intel Graphic .kext files.
Actually I didn't delete them, I made a new folder in /System and called it Disabled Extensions.
All of the next ones I moved to that folder :
Powerbook G4 1.67 Ghz Leopard 10.5.8
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ACard62xxM.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ACard68xxM.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ACard671xSCSI.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ACard6280ATA.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ACard6885M.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ACard67162.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/Apple_iSight.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/Apple16X50Serial.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleACPIPlatform.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleADBMouse.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleAPIC.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleBlower.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleBMC.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleEFIRuntime.kext (Intel Only?)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleGraphicsControl.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleHDA.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleHPET.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleI2SModemFamily.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelGMA950.kext (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelGMA950GA.plugin (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelGMA950GLDriver.bundle (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelGMA950VADriver.bundle (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelGMAX3100.kext (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelGMAX3100FB.kext (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelGMAX3100GA.plugin (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelGMAX3100GLDriver.bundle (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelGMAX3100VADriver.bundle (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer.kext (Intel Macs only)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleLM7x.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleLM8x.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleLM87.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleMaxim1989.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleMaxim6690.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleMCEDriver.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleMobileDevice.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ApplePCCard16ATA.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ApplePCCardATA.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ApplePlatformEnabler.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleRAID.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleRAIDCard.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleSMBIOS.kext (Intel Only?)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleSMBusController.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleSMC.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleSMCLMU.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleSPU.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleSym8xx.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleTyMCEDriver.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleUpstreamUserClient.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleUSBAudio.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleUSBDisplays.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleVSP.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/AppleXsanFilter.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATINDRV.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeon8500.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeon8500DVDDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeon8500GA.plugin
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeon8500GLDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeon8500VADriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonDVDDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonGA.plugin
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonGLDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonX1000.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonX1000GA.plugin
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonX1000GLDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonX1000VADriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonX2000.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonX2000GLDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/ATIRadeonX2000VADriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/CHUDKernLib.kext@@@@ (Comes with Developer Tools)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/CHUDProf.kext@@@@ (Comes with Developer Tools)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/CHUDUtils.kext@@@@ (Comes with Developer Tools)
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForce.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForce2MXGLDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForce3GLDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForce7xxxGLDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForce7xxxGLDriverPPC.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForce8xxxGLDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForceFXGLDriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForceFXGLDriverPPC.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForceGA.plugin
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForceGAPPC.plugin
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForcePPC.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForceVADriver.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/GeForceVADriverPPC.bundle
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/IOACPIFamily.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/IOBluetoothHIDDriver.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/IOFireWireAVC.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/IOI2CControllerPMU.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/IOI2CControllerSMU.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/IOI2CCPUVoltage.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/IOI2CMaxim1631.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/IOI2CMaxim1989.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/IOI2CMaxim6690.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/IOSMBusFamily.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/iPodDriver.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/iTunesPhoneDriver.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/LSIUltra320.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/MegaRAID.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/SCR24X_Apple_Driver.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/SM56KUSBAudioFamily.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/SMCMotionSensor.kext
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/SoftRAID.kext****
/System/Disabled Extensions 28-04-12/zfs.readonly.kext****
**** If you have any of these or need them don't move/delete.
Note You need root access.
Through trail and error I also found out that not all ATI kexts were needed, the ones in bold are I think safe to move on all systems.
Edit : It took Me very long to figure out which to move and which to keep, some kexts depend on others and I always started up in verbose so I could see if some extensions lacked dependencies on other kexts, or I read the system log.
I also deleted Java since I don't need it but that's really hard to do so I won't start on that one, I only used 2 Java Apps before, Cyberduck which there are other Apps for and Mobile Partner for Huawei USB 3G stick but only needed the kernel extensions and use Menu Extra and Network Pref. to connect, it's an awful program so I deleted it, use SurplusMeter for data usage now, much better.
(Java is Slooooowwwww on PPC)