Your Mac OS X can get bogged down with many unspoken languages. They just sit there unused if you are only using one or maybe two.
While English and Spanish may be needed, Sanskrit and even Klingon only come in handy if you’re elsewhere in our galaxy.
These hundreds of added languages only clog up space and slow you down. Monolingual for Mac gets rid of the extra languages in an easy to use free application. This Monolingual for Mac review will take an in-depth look at what it does and what users think about the program.
Monolingual For Mac Review: What Is it?
Monolingual for Mac removes any languages from your software applications that you don’t need. If you are only a one language speaker, then Monolingual can go through and remove all the embedded extra languages that you don’t need. Essentially freeing up tons of megabytes on your hard drive. It is simple and easy to install and use. Our editors thought it was pretty useful so we decided to give it a once over and see what it is all about. Our first thought is always, how you get it and if installation is easy. Let’s take a look.
Monolingual For Mac: Installation
Just a quick note before you download this software. Make sure you back up your entire system prior to using this. Some applications may get a little funny on you after removing languages. It won’t hurt anything, but always good to have a backup.
Monolingual needs at least Mac OS X 10.7 or higher to run. Just get the software and do a quick install. The cool thing is this freeware comes with no ads. The program will open up really quickly and has pretty good instructions on how to use it and troubleshoot any issues.
Monolingual For Mac: Features
In order to give you a good Monolingual for Mac review, we need to outline the features for you in detail.
The program is relatively simple and only does a few things, but for a small program it really does do a lot.
Languages
After you install, the program opens up a box with any applicable languages. You simply check or uncheck the boxes on languages you want to keep or delete. There have been some reports that a few programs need the languages to function correctly like, Adobe. The program allows you to go in and add exceptions for programs you don’t want included. When you are ready, you just hit the remove button and the program goes to work. The amount of saved space will really surprise you!
Input Menu
You can also delete your keyboard input languages in this part of the program. For instance, if you delete the Klingon language files, then you most likely won’t be typing any Klingon either. This will help you free up even more space.
Architectures
From here you can delete the processors you don’t need to use. Most Apple products use Intel, but there are still some PowerPC processors hanging around. They don’t really do anything for your computer and literally just hang around taking up valuable space in your computer. The architecture feature will go through and allow you to delete them.
Just note with any of these features, you may delete something you actually needed. You will need to reinstall OS X from the beginning if this happens. The good news is Monolingual will as you if you are sure you want to do this prior to removing anything.
Expert Reviews
Here is what the staff over at Download.com had to say when asked for a Monolingual for Mac review:
“Monolingual performs its function well and has excellent user instructions. If you need a bit more space on your hard drive, this software could prove to be useful.”
Monolingual For Mac User Reviews
This program had a good balance of both positive and negative reviews. Our editors feel it is up to you to look at a monolingual mac review and decide whether a program is going to work for YOU, the user. Here is what users had to say:
Positive Reviews
“Ingmar fixed everything!! V1.6.7 is perfect now! Highly recommend. One item for my wish list though – if it could perform language removal automatically on a regular, user defined basis/time line. (Kind of like macaroni used to do). Thanks Ingmar!”-V
“Man that is awesome!!! One of the best pieces of software I have downloaded this year!! My MacBook has been really slow recently, so this will hopefully help a little bit!”-J
“Monolingual is a great tool for excising unused language files support in order to make deployments via file based management tools (like remind) much lighter. Plus, it’s just easy to use software.”-N
“Great program …Amazing how much data is used for languages…and when using a SSD Drive I am glad to have the extra space…Thank you”-K
“This has been a boon. Some users carry on about simply buying larger hard drives. I bought my 2011 MBP with a 500GB drive, because it performed better that the 750GB for video. I use lots of apps, and have lots of raw images I want to have on my internal drive (and not have to carry an external). I try to keep 20% of my drive free to make the most of virtual memory and improve drive performance. As a result, I am always pushing the limit and constantly having to find stuff to remove. The remaining GBs above the 100GB I keep free become precious as does remaining air for a person trapped in a large but confined space filling up with water. Being able to remove over a GB of languages in a click means a lot to me. Frankly, I believe that apps should give an install option of a single language, or multiples.”-J
Negative Reviews
“Still a problem on Lion with version 1.5.4. Monolingual runs but then never indicates the size of the language files removed and then crashes/closes on its own.”-B
“I’ve used this in the past with great results, though it’s a very niche application. The current versions (1.5.4 and 1.5.5) however are not fully functional. The app used to clean a system in a few minutes, now it takes a few hours. It then got hung up somewhere and after 12 hours did not progress further. On re-run it appears to not be doing anything after an hour. This seems to indicate that it’s search and delete process is incredibly inefficient to the point of crippling the application. Hope to see this fixed so it works like it used to a few years ago. That being said, it did remove 1.8gb on 10.7.5 before it choked and died.”-EW
“Beware!!! About a year ago, I made the mistake of choosing all languages to be removed, which turned my MacBook Pro into a temporary doorstop. Make sure you leave your preferred language intact 🙁 Fortunately I had backed up just before using it, so could revert :-)”-L
Our Final Thoughts
Our final thoughts on this Monolingual for Mac review is that it is a remarkably small little mac cleaner that doesn’t do a whole lot, on the other hand its free and doesn’t contain any third party ads. It is helpful to be able to clear up some space by removing unused language files, input methods, and old architecture. Just make sure you run a full backup of OS X before using this.