PMASON  Fare thee well, StuffIt...  
(Version 13.0.3)

PMASON  Ditto here on a PowerPC running Mac OS X 10.4.11. Deleted prefs, but no window will open.  
(Version 4.5)

PMASON  The installer grabbed my Stuffit Deluxe folder (Applications folder) and the StuffItCM plugin (Contextual Menu Items folder) and put them both in the Trash.

Whatever for?

Now, I wouldn't mind losing Stuffit Deluxe, but that'll be when I say so. As to the StuffItCM plugin, it's the only part of the suite that's of any use to me --and I'm referring to the 11.X version only.

I have aliases to files and folders strewn throughout my drive which I back up and take home on a daily basis using the contextual menu plugin. Version 11 correctly resolves these aliases and compresses the originals to a flash drive for me.

For some reason that's beyond me, version 12 won't resolve aliases, removing the one feature that made the plugin more useful than built-in zipping.

As a result, motivation for buying Stuffit Deluxe 13 is zilch. I'm not about to shell out my hard-earned cash just to find out whether the new plugin will again resolve aliases.  
(Version 13.0.1)

PMASON  Now Xslimmer has really done it.

On a 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo machine, the application wrongly figured it was running on a Power PC processor and proceeded to merrily remove the wrong code from hundreds of applications.

I sent the developer a screenshot showing the "About this Macintosh" Finder window and the About window from Xslimmer, side by side. The Finder reports "2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo", Xslimmer says "Running on PPC".

These crippled applications will have to be reinstalled.

These results are forcing me to conclude that Xslimmer is dangerous. Earlier this month the developer offered my money back. I said never mind. But as I wrote to him a few minutes ago, now I'm taking their offer.

Patricio Mason

Santiago, Chile  
(Version 1.5.3)

PMASON  Further to yesterday's comment, a check of applications that had unwanted language packs removed by Xslimmer shows that, in fact, these were removed from the first level only.

While a Get Info on the application will show that only the desired language(s) remain(s), in fact hundreds of unwanted language packs still reside inside these applications, only at deeper levels. These will not show in a Get Info window. As such, you will not notice unless you check the application package contents, either manually or with a file finder utility.

It therefore appears that Xslimmer doesn't work recursively, which means that the point of removing unnecessary material is being achieved only partially.  
(Version 1.5.3)

PMASON  Trouble in paradise.

Running a fresh Leopard install on a PPC machine, Xslimmer 1.5.3 has just stripped Spanish language packages from some applications, although Spanish is selected as one of my two language preferences (after English) in the International panel of System Preferences.

Most strange of all, I'm now finding that random components in the (expressly excluded) System and Library folders have also been stripped of Spanish language packages. I have two internal discs with identical Leopard installations, so comparison is easy and definitive.

The more I compare, the more components with missing Spanish language packages I'm finding. Where this has happened, the component has been left with only an English language package, whereas the identical component on the other internal disc has both English and Spanish language packages.

I normally run in English, so this is not an immediate disaster. But it does mean that my computer can no longer startup in Spanish. Given the circumstances, I won't even try.

Getting my machine back to pre-Xslimmer state will require a complete reinstallation. I'm not amused.  
(Version 1.5.3)

PMASON  Said it once, say it again:

Great little application. Nothing beats it for speed, power and simplicity. Merci, and keep up the good work!  
(Version 3.0b7)

PMASON  Turly, hear the voice of the faifthful and PLEASE upgrade FinderPop to run under Leopard.

Pretty please?  
(Version 2.0.1)

PMASON  Great little application. Nothing beats it for speed, power and simplicity. Keep up the good work!  
(Version 3.0b1)

PMASON  Have been a registered user for several months with nothing but good results. Works as advertised, sets up in minutes, it is a solid piece of software, developer is responsive, updates come regularly, price is unbeatable. Enough said.  
(Version 2.1.4)

PMASON  Checked -in addition to the console log, this product writes to the asl and secure logs as well, thousands of times a day. As a result, log files grew by about 5 MB in size altogether in just three days.

In addition to the bad housekeeping, it would appear that speed gains, if any, are offset by wasting cycles writing to logs.

Sorry, can't use it anymore. :-(  
(Version 2.7.1)

PMASON  Speed Freak 2.7.1 seems to work well but writes thousands of iterations of this entry to the Console log:

Jan 26 15:10:36 MacintoshHD authexec: executing /System/Library/ScriptingAdditions/StandardAdditions.osax/Contents/MacOS/uid

Any way to keep it from wasting cycles like that? At this rate, after a few days the Console logs will have considerably grown in size.  
(Version 2.7.1)