Filed under: OS, Software, Open Source
Monolingual
One of our readers recently wrote in and asked us how he could slim down his install of OS X. One simple way is to get rid of all those languages that you don't use which are installed by default with OS X (if you hit 'Customize' while installing OS X you can really cut down on the bloat by only installing the languages and print drivers that you will use).Monolingual is a freeware app that deletes all those other pesky languages from your Mac (just be careful not to delete the language you use because the only way to get them back is to reinstall OS X).
I just ran it on my Macbook and it freed up 2.4 gigs of space, though it did take about 30 minutes to run.
Update: Be careful to only remove the extraneous languages from your Mac using this program (as I did). Uncheck all the 'Architecture' options, otherwise you'll break Rosetta and blame me (and no one wants that).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Bob said 9:17AM on 6-01-2006
Just be careful not to remove the languages for Adobe products such as Photoshop, InDesign, etc. I used monolingual before and had to remove and reinstall these Adobe programs because they didn't like what went on.
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bret said 9:26AM on 6-01-2006
I used Monolingual just last week on my iMac and my Macbook, it worked great. I reclaimed 3GB on my Macbook!
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frank said 9:35AM on 6-01-2006
Careful. Using apps like Monolingual will prevent certain Adobe CS2 apps (like Illustrator and Acrobat) from being updated.
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Adrian vG said 9:40AM on 6-01-2006
Just double checked that I wouldn't delete the languages I use and have the following question:
Where on this planet do they speak Klingon???
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Greg said 9:52AM on 6-01-2006
I just started setting up monolingual, choosing the languages I want removed, and I came across this VERY UNEXPECTED LANGUAGE:
http://static.flickr.com/78/157953848_0a573a7aba_o.jpg
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Greg said 9:53AM on 6-01-2006
To clarify, that language is KLINGON!!!
Does anyone actually run OSX in Klingon mode?
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Ephraim said 9:58AM on 6-01-2006
Youpi Optimizer does the same. Worked great on my Rev. A iMac, where 10.3 was a tight squeeze on the 4GB disk.
http://phupe.club.fr/english/YOIndex.html
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Andre Foeken said 10:16AM on 6-01-2006
Don't use the remove architecture part if you want to KEEP using svn or need the G4 parts of your libraries (developers)...
I am very mad at myself for using it...
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Chris Coleman said 10:23AM on 6-01-2006
I've been using Monolingual for years, and it's a great little app. It was a big help with my old Pismo PowerBook, which only had a 6 gig drive. Space isn't so precious these days, but it's sometimes nice to clean out the junk and get a few hundred megs back.
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Greg said 10:42AM on 6-01-2006
Yeah, I just discovered that Adobe CS hates me for removing something, likely the G4/G5 architecture, because I'm running it under Rosetta.
I'm regretting this already.
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ShadowBottle said 10:42AM on 6-01-2006
Yeah... I've been looking into using monolingual for awhile but there are some scary warnings out there. Like don't remove mandarin because it will mess up adobe products or something?
Is there a list of languages that are SAFE to remove with monolingual?
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Shrimp said 11:29AM on 6-01-2006
I think Greg just found this out, but:
DON'T REMOVE ARCHITECTURE ON INTEL MACS.
I did it on my iMac, and Rosetta stopped working(and a couple other things like Disk Utility and Activity Monitor). I thought that my PPC applications would be lacking their PPC binaries and I'd have to reinstall them, but all I had to do was archive and install OSX and it fixed Rosetta.
Bottom line: Monolingual removes languages well, not execution code (at least for Intel Macs, I have no idea what architecture removal will do to PPC Macs .. and I don't want to try.)
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Erik Dasque said 12:00PM on 6-01-2006
Yes, this application is evil. It removed Rosetta for me as well, no warning, no undo. I now have to re-install my system, my apps, ... and waste 3 hours doing that today.
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sally said 12:06PM on 6-01-2006
does anyone know if delocalizer (http://www.bombich.com/software/local.html) (which does the same thing) causes these problems? i have used it on my G5 and several G4s. I have had no problems (so far?) with Adobe CS apps, or anything, for that matter.
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Greg said 12:13PM on 6-01-2006
Shrimp, can I fix Rosetta without formatting my machine?
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Greg said 12:40PM on 6-01-2006
Scott, you might want to provide relevant links to the Apple discussion forums with your posts on possibly hazardous, unsupported software. Monolingual is a huge mess for those with intel macs.
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Marcus Kazmierczak said 2:25PM on 6-01-2006
I wouldn't recommend using this product unless you really really need 2gb of space.
I had problems with it wiping out my Keyboard Layouts, even when I removed somethng I didn't think I would need.
Also, it would probably be best not to use it remove architectures. Rosetta may get wonky if you're running a Macbook Pro.
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Marcus Kazmierczak said 2:28PM on 6-01-2006
I was able to fix the issue with Keyboard Layouts by copying the contents of /System/Library/Keyboard Layouts from another Mac.
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Stephen said 3:33PM on 6-01-2006
#15 or you might want to include those relevant links since you know about them
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Greg said 7:35PM on 6-01-2006
Stephen, I meant to post those links, but had to get back to archiving and installing OSX.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=457198&tstart=30
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