Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?  (Read 4402 times)

Mark F

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 365
What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« on: December 21, 2011, 11:18:44 am »

I'm running OS 10.6.8 and hadn't been to my System Preferences for a while. I see that at the bottom there is now a new "Other" category that includes Growl and Macfuse. I never intentionally downloaded either of these, have no idea what they are and from what I see on the web they are not part of Snow Leopard or other Apple products.  Can anyone clue me in as to whether they should be part of my System Preferences and if not, how to get rid to f them?

Thanks.
Logged
Mark

francois

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 13769
Re: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2011, 11:35:10 am »

Growl is a notification system and, IIRC, was installed with Adobe CS5 suite (or Photoshop CS5). You can remove it by control-clicking on the Growl icon in your system preferences. Grow website is here.

MacFUSE is a file system extension. It is no longer supported in Lion but should work with Snow Leopard [10.6.x]. Read the developer's page here.

Edit: added links and corrected typos.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2011, 11:38:46 am by francois »
Logged
Francois

Mark F

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 365
Re: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2011, 12:48:30 pm »

Thanks, Francois.  I did upgrade from CS4 to CS5 recently.  I will follow those links and see if I want to keep those two programs but I'm glad that they are not some sort of spyware or trojan.

Logged
Mark

francois

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 13769
Re: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« Reply #3 on: December 22, 2011, 03:21:18 am »

Mark,
MacFUSE could have been installed with WMWare or Parallels Desktop virtualization software. I don't think that you'll have problems with either MacFUSE or Growl. It might be different if you upgrade to newer versions of Mac OS X…
Logged
Francois

Mark F

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 365
Re: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« Reply #4 on: December 22, 2011, 08:32:58 pm »

Well, I have been running Parallels for as long as I've had my Mac, so I do not think they came from there. Anyway, after I check those programs out on the sites you mentioned I will remove them if I do not plan to use them. It bothers me that they self-installed in my Systems Preferences without even asking.
Logged
Mark

francois

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 13769
Re: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2011, 09:40:24 am »

…It bothers me that they self-installed in my Systems Preferences without even asking.

Me too!
Logged
Francois

john beardsworth

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4755
    • My photography site
Re: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2011, 10:29:43 am »

I think Dropbox may also install Growl
Logged

Jeremy Roussak

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8961
    • site
Re: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« Reply #7 on: December 23, 2011, 07:05:37 pm »

Well, I have been running Parallels for as long as I've had my Mac, so I do not think they came from there. Anyway, after I check those programs out on the sites you mentioned I will remove them if I do not plan to use them. It bothers me that they self-installed in my Systems Preferences without even asking.
I doubt they "self-installed": how could they?

Growl provides a pretty handy way in which various applications can post messages. I've had it installed for a very long time and have never had any problems with it.

Jeremy
Logged

K.C.

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 671
Re: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« Reply #8 on: December 24, 2011, 02:12:06 am »

It bothers me that they self-installed in my Systems Preferences without even asking.

That's not possible in OSX. They may have been part of a package install and you didn't notice it, but they didn't install without you authorizing them.

MacFUSE did most likely come with your virtualization application. Installed to facilitate the alternative file system it uses . Growl is pretty useful if you're every running a background app that's supported.

Neither of them offer any potential problem.
Logged

francois

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 13769
Re: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« Reply #9 on: December 24, 2011, 06:26:42 am »

That's not possible in OSX. They may have been part of a package install and you didn't notice it, but they didn't install without you authorizing them.



Growl was installed with the Adobe CS 5 suite: http://growl.info/thirdpartyinstallsdetails/adobecs5.php

Logged
Francois

mediumcool

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 770
Re: What are "Growl" & "Macfuse" ?
« Reply #10 on: December 24, 2011, 07:34:31 pm »

Give Growl a try-out; I find it to be useful and inconspicuous.
Logged
FaceBook facebook.com/ian.goss.39   www.mlkshk.com/user/mediumcool
Pages: [1]   Go Up