NONTROPPO  This is a wonderful tool; simple to use yet with a whole set of different optimization options available. Drop your images and let it do its magic. It gets a precious space in my dock...  
(Version 1.0.1)

NONTROPPO  DMG works fine here (9.26)  
(Version 9.26)

NONTROPPO  M86: Just delete the application and the preference files and you will be fine (Opera does *not* install outside of Application support/Preferences and cache files). What you are seeing is probably the version of Opera bundled by Adobe in the CS suite, don't worry about it.  
(Version 9.26)

NONTROPPO  Conceptually, I like the concept behind Filedefense. I like to have control over what new applications do and don't do on my machine.

But the implementation of this program is horrible. First, I encountered a number of glaring bugs: 1) "Allow All" often asks me more than once for the same app. 2) On restarts, applications I've already whitelisted keep reasking for validation.3) The ON/OFF button fails to keep state on restart.

Then the UI is so inflexible. I may wat to allow read access but not write access, or limit access to Application Support/* — but I cannot do this. I can only allow/deny on a per file basis any file operation. That causes a requestor hell that makes Vista look good. The program UI has a horrid application list that is not editable, and an always visible help file for no reason. The application list is the real problem, no filter, no sorting, no fast editing.

I want to like this application but it is so badly implemented it makes it far more tedious to use than it needs be. I hope the developers seriously expand its flexibility and usability and prompt me to write a more positive review. Additionally, I'd like to see it more like a Sandbox, with the ability, like the windows nagware SandboxIE to allow new apps only to work on copies of files. That would make OS X solid against future trojan attack.  
(Version 1.0)

NONTROPPO  Noraa: try deleting what.xgestures.plist in your /Library/Preferences/  
(Version 1.7.3)

NONTROPPO  For free, this is great, does most of what Candybar does. Thankyou Julien!  
(Version 1.3b)

NONTROPPO  XGestures is the best $5 you can spend on software for OS X. Mouse gestures are an incredibly effective interface addition. I normally work in mixed keyboard / mouse mode but sometimes I'm far from the keyboard. Gestures allow full navigation and triggering of all your apps. Navigate in Finder, Forklift, Safari, FF using the same gesture for back, much faster than using their back buttons. Toggle side panels, run applescript.

The only issue is with Wacom tablets. The developer knows about this and will try to fix it once he geta a tablet to use. I stopped using my Wacom tablet, as I found disabling XGestures just to disruptive to my overall workflow!  
(Version 1.7.3)

NONTROPPO  Latest versions work flawlessly in Leopard, including the all-new AAC full VBR decoder. This is great software  
(Version 20071119)

NONTROPPO  Scrivener has the perfect balance of simplicity and feature-set. It allows you to manage your research items without clutter or undue complexity; dynamic search, smart-folders, item notes, keywords etc wrapped up in an elegant UI. Writing allows split-pane mode to keep another document in view, and additional notes to be be always present. Outlining and corkboard give you semantic overview of your writing and research. And you can easily strip it all out into a minimalist page to just write. The elegant writers-apps space is pretty full on Mac, but Scrivener seems to be top of the bunch for my needs.  
(Version 1.09b)

NONTROPPO  Fantastic, I've had no problems and being able to write, while not blazing fast, it better than going over the network as I had to do before. Thank you for such a simple package, and to the NTFS and Macfuse teams.  
(Version 1.1004u2)

NONTROPPO  Excellent user interface and the perfect blend of necessary features.

I've had no reliability issues. I send my Macbook (10.4.9) to sleep (Aurora can play you songs for a set time before sleeping) and it always wakes up at the right time.  
(Version 3.3.2)

NONTROPPO  Memory managers are a dubious area of software. Users appear critically sensitive to the amount of free RAM, and assume the larger this number the faster things will be. Operating systems designers and many systems engineers believe the opposite.

For informed opinions, please see:

http://www.bitsum.com/winmemboost.asp

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/41095/41095.html

Both articles are highly critical of memory 'optimization'.

I have tried using iFreeMem for a several days. Now, in the limited scenario that I am starting an application for the first time, that i have lots of other apps open BUT don't care about their performance, iFreeMem creates a bit of headroom. But the whole system becomes more sluggish. The benefit of slightly reduced loadtime of data is offset by the severe performance hit as *every* other application has to page its data back in. Most usage scenarios I tried simply caused my machine to beachball for seconds after "optimizing" my memory.

In general if you are using more than one app, you will significantly damage your performance until everything is paged back into memory which gets you back where you started. If you don't mind grinding your disk only to get one app to have more headroom, then go ahead. In terms of design, it appears well programmed and the memory monitor is nice.  
(Version 1.3)

NONTROPPO  Try:

http://nontroppo.org/-/media/mainbar.htm

to learn how to make your address entry *above* your

and:

http://my.opera.com/dstorey/blog/show.dml/861522

for the details to macify a bit more. For more detailed hardcore tweaking, the Opera Wiki has listd of the acton commands for manual editing of menus / toolbars / key bindings / mouse gestures. As an example, to toggle most UI elements on and off using a mouse gesture:

GestureLeft,GestureRight,GestureLeft=Set alignment, "hotlist", 6 & Set alignment, "document view toolbar",6 & Set alignment, "Personalbar", 6 | Set alignment, "hotlist", 0 & Set alignment, "document view toolbar",0 & Set alignment, "Personalbar", 0  
(Version 9.20b1)

NONTROPPO  Tomis: see my link below yours to help get you the interface you suggest.

The issue is that there are lots of existing Opera users who Opera will upset if they start hacking away all the UI specificities. I am a recent OS switcher who sees no issue with Opera's UI. You can make opera *more* minimalist than safari in about 8-10 clicks.

Indeed I know of one opera user who has no address bar, no tab bar. He has *no* UI chrome, just a page! He uses option+tab to switch tabs, or the window panel linked to a mouse gesture. The window panel can be customised to accept a find box so you can "spotlight" search your open tabs (he usually has >100 tabs open); then gestures to close the panel.   
(Version 9.20b1)

NONTROPPO  A very comprehensive and innovative browser, it is cross platform and so may feel a little odd, though they are slowly improving the macification with each release. The user interface is very customisable; to macify it some, see here: http://my.opera.com/dstorey/blog/show.dml/861522  
(Version 9.20b1)

NONTROPPO  Beware: Bootcamp V1.2b caused a significant decrease in the performance benchmark running under Matlab, up to 2X worse.

There are also issues with the keyboard mappings corrupted (I had to revert from apple's UK mapping to US english).

Trackpad seems to work fine here however...  
(Version 1.2b)