THMGHTD  I've been actively using SIMBL for years and consider it completely indispensable. After reading SHK747's one-star drive-by, though, I realize I've been taking it for granted. Big time.

So here's my stupid opinion.

I love SIMBL.

I love it so much I probably love the developer, Mike Solomon, too, in some kind of cool, appreciative way.

Honestly. As you wade through the catalog of system hacks out there, each trying to improve your computer life one way or another, it's not long before you realize:

The difference between a hack and a solution is staggering.

Some hacks out there are worth considering, for sure, even when their side effects create a whole new monster (I'm looking at you, APE -- don't act shocked).

But over the years, as the OS overhauls have come and gone and we've seen even minor updates give developers major problems, SIMBL has become more useful. Not less.

That's not some small thing.

What SIMBL does for developers and end-users alike is simply awesome. So maybe now's a good time for a little rallying behind the (depressingly few) developers like Mike who make our stupid worlds go 'round.

Or at the very least, how about a little perspective.

To SHK747: You're frustrated or hitting a wall somewhere or something. I get it, guy.

But with a whopping 11 posts/reviews/comments prior to yours -- that's 11, total, over 4 years -- and with only 2 of those having ratings (really. two.), it seems like maybe there's a large enough appreciation/acknowledgment deficit without casually driving the stats down.

Don't get me wrong: I love the democratic process. And the loyal opposition will always be instrumental in figuring out the kinks.

But being a curmudgeon just doesn't seem quite so... productive.

I don't know. Maybe you really hate SIMBL now.

I'm just thinking... maybe it's Big Picture time. Maybe yours will be the star heard 'round the world, and everyone who makes use of software like SIMBL -- all the people getting by with the help of other people -- will band together and represent, truly, the opinions of the majority.

The grateful, satisfied majority.

Anyway. I love SIMBL. Thanks Mike. A lot.

Note: Even though I mention SHK747's comment, I feel like it's largely a review of SIMBL (and maybe an allegory for freedom, I'm not sure), so I'm posting it as its own thing.  
(Version 0.9.4b)

BORLOX  There's a serious security issue with this software that users should be aware of before they decide whether to install it. From the developer's site:

---

Once you've installed SIMBL, you need to drop some bundles into the Plugins folder. (/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins) SIMBL scans this folder for bundles each time an application launches. It will check both the Local and User domain for this special folder.

This means that it will check ~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins before looking in /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins.

---

One of the few trojans to successfully exploit Mac OS X in the wild was called "Oompa-Loompa." It worked by installing an input manager in the home directory of any user who ran it. As a result, user-domain input managers were disabled in Leopard, and the permissions of the local Input Managers folder were changed so that root privileges were required to install anything into it.

SIMBL appears to re-open the security hole that was closed in Leopard. A trojan, only slightly different from the one described above, can install a SIMBL plugin in the user's home directory. Any application can then effectively be replaced by the trojan, even if the user is not a member of the admin group and doesn't have permission to modify the applications directly. You might think that because you're not running as an admin, applications such as Safari or Keychain Access are safe from unintended modification, but with SIMBL installed, you'd be wrong.

If you're going to use SIMBL, you should take steps to ensure that plugins can't be installed without your knowledge. How you do that is up to you, but if you don't have a strategy, you shouldn't be using it.

The developer should, in my opinion, change the way SIMBL works so that it doesn't load plugins from the user domain. That would mitigate the danger.  
(Version 0.9.6c)

HAL0THANE  I was one of the users who reported the bug listed as fixed in version 0.95b. I reported it on 0.93b, and within hours it was fixed. I've found, in general, independent Mac developers to be much more responsive and engaged in the care of their products than any other type of developer I've interacted with (and I used to be a full-time programmer), few have been as quick to provide new builds to tackle major problems as Mike Solomon.

Who would have even _considered_ changing SIMBL from an Input Manager to a Scripting Addition in order to keep it working under 10.6? Yet that's what he did, and within no more than a handful of days. And he has added 64-bit support just as quickly.

I've been using SIMBL for almost as long as I've been using Mac. I imagine a silent majority (or sizable minority) of SIMBL users do not even know they are: I've installed apps more than once without realizing they depended on SIMBL. Like the apps and add-ons that get all the glory -- Quicksilver, Growl, MacFUSE, and the others -- SIMBL is completely indispensable.  
(Version 0.9.5b)

F451  When I installed it was fail too, but when I restarted my Mac the new version was indeed installed and working quite well. A lot kinks were resolved with this versionÑKudos to Mike!  
(Version 0.9.7)

KHANNIBAL  Install failed. Don't know why. I am on 10.6.1.

0.9.6c worked well until now, but 0.9.7 install fails at the end of the process.  
(Version 0.9.7)

BORLOX  Afraid not. Changing the owner of the link has no effect. For your approach to work, you'd have to change the permissions of the user Library folder so that it couldn't be written by the user. That would of course create a lot of problems.

There's no easy workaround for the security hole created by this software. The developer could fix it, but he seems not to want to.  
(Version 0.9.7a)

WEASELBOY  9.7a fixed the installer issue for me on 10.6.1.  
(Version 0.9.7a)

DOKTER_MAC  Version 0.9.6c seems to work just fine under Leopard (10.5.8) & my G5 PM.

Everything is Universal & the installer works perfect.

I don't understand why they say this version is only for Snow Leopard & Intel?

Anyone who knows more about this?

Regards  
(Version 0.9.6c)

ZX  How come SIMBL Agent is called up on any application lunch?   
(Version 0.9.6b)

ZX  Thank You.

But what happened to /Library/Application Support/SIMBL? It looks like this version installed in /Library/ScriptingAdditions/SIMBL.osax

?  
(Version 0.9.1)