© 1992 Lawrence I. Charters
AppleTree, March 1, 1992, pp. 1-2.
Probably the best set of utilities available for the Macintosh today is System 7 itself. But after you get System 7, you’ll find you need other things. First, more memory. Second, more hard disk space. Here is my “short list” of essentials:
Most drive formatting utilities are, shall we say, pretty bad, especially if you bought a drive from a “generic” drive company. SilverLining has my vote as the best Macintosh drive formatter and driver around, with Drive7 a decent, inexpensive alternative.
SilverLining, $149
(order direct, only)
La Cie, Ltd.
(800) 999-0143
Drive7, $79.95
Casa Blanca Software
(415) 461-2227
Once you decide you want to format your drive, you realize you have to back it up. My favorite is Fastback Plus, which is fast, but any backup program is better than none.
Fastback Plus, $189
Fifth Generation Systems
(800) 873-4384
Probably the easiest way to keep your Mac happy and healthy is to keep the size of the System file (not the System folder, but the file) as small as possible.
Suitcase allows you to store fonts, sounds, Fkeys (function keys) and other things outside the System file, yet trick the Mac into thinking they are installed. My System file has 7.3 MB of sounds, fonts and such, yet is only 1.1 MB in size, thanks to Suitcase. If anything ever happens and I need to reinstall my System, I also don’t have to worry about reinstalling all the rest of the stuff, too.
Suitcase 2.0, $79
Fifth Generation Systems
(800) 873-4384
If you do have a problem, it is always nice to have something handy to recover the drive, undelete a file, reduce fragmentation, or perform other chores. Of all the utility packages available, Norton’s is the easiest to use, and has the most intelligible manual. The MacTools Deluxe package, on the other hand, does much the same thing, and includes a good backup program.
Norton Utilities for Macintosh, $129.95
Symantec Corp.
(408) 253-9600
MacTools Deluxe, $129
Central Point Software
(503) 690-8088
There are lots of things to like about System 7, and aliases, and the ability to put “things” (documents, applications) in the Apple menu for instant access are two of them. HAM (Hierarchical Apple Menu) is by far the best “Apple menu organizer” I’ve seen. It only does one trick, but does it better than anything else out there, and doesn’t seem to conflict with anything. An outstanding utility.
HAM, $99
Microseeds Publishing Inc.
(813) 882-8635
System 7 also opens up the wonders of TrueType fonts, and soon a built-in version of ATM (Adobe Type Manager) will add automatic on-screen PostScript font scaling to the Macintosh. This means it would be really nice to have something that can change old Type 3 fonts to ATM-compatible Type 1 fonts, and translate to and from TrueType. There is something that does this easily, and inexpensively: FontMonger.
FontMonger, $99
Ares Software Corp.
(415) 578-9090
Now that you’ve added all of your System 7 applications and utilities, not to mention more RAM and a bigger drive, you’ve probably notice there still isn’t enough room for it all. That’s why you need DiskDoubler, the fastest, easiest to use, and most reliable compression program available. Apple liked it so much they purchased a site license for all their employees, worldwide.
DiskDoubler, $79
Salient Software
(415) 321-5375
Two other “essentials” are both “free,” from Apple. One, Extension Manager, is a clever Control Panel device that allows you to “tum off’ (and on) Control Panels and Extensions that you may not be using, to reclaim RAM, or that might be in conflict with something else. QuickTime, another Apple goodie, has been so heavily covered that I’ll just say you want it, even if you don’t think you do. On the down side, as of this writing it only works on 68020 Macs and greater, though a rumored 68000 version is supposed to be under construction.
Incidentally, if this seems like a long list of “essentials,” keep in mind that my System Folder is crammed with many, many megabytes of other “essentials.” At 24MB, and nearly 700 files, I certainly consider this just the “short list.”