Xslimmer

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Xslimmer

Xslimmer running on Mac OS X v10.5.
Developed by	LateNiteSoft
Latest release	1.5.1 / Feb 25, 2008
OS	Mac OS X
Genre	Utility software
License	Shareware
Website	http://www.xslimmer.com/

Xslimmer is an application for Apple's Mac OS X developed by LateNiteSoft.

The software is a utility to tweak universal binaries by stripping the binary from either its PowerPC or Intel code (depending on the system architecture used). In this way, savings of up to 47% could be reached (according to users). Google Earth 4, for example, reportedly shrinks in size from 101 MB to 52.8 MB (which is a 47% reduction).

As the developer states, the driving goal of Xslimmer is to achieve size reduction without compromising functionality. As of version 1.2, the option to strip applications from unwanted language files and localizations is added.

Additional features for safe use include a "blacklist" and a custom folder list (which is by default populated with key system locations). This prevents problems with applications (or the system itself) that will no longer work after size reduction.

With the "App Finder Genie", a user can list all size reducible applications on the hard disk and choose to slim them and save a considerable amount of hard disk space.

[edit] Notable observations

The mini-review of The Apple Blog even states that Photoshop CS 3 (Beta) now has "a solid 5 second launch time vs. the previous 6-8 seconds" on a 2 GHz MacBook with 2 GB RAM. This is with a slimmed binary and after restarting the computer and re-opening the application. This shows that some speed improvements could be made, possibly with other applications as well.

[edit] Future development

This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future software.
The content may change as the software release approaches and more information becomes available.