I am still on 10.5.5 with iWork 09, Quicktime 7.6.2 and iTunes 8.2, none of which work without 10.5.6. A simple hack into SystemVersion.plist file.

Its another story that Safari 4 Beta crashed on me every time I opened a new tab, since it required a security update, which just didnt agree to install without hacknig into the dmg.

And a few days ago ‘Installer’ seemed to deny installing any App that came in a *.pkg format. Repairing permissions did the trick.

All this because of bandwidth issues. Who’d be in their right sense doing all this otherwise? And I havent even created any kind of backup, yet.

There’s nothing wrong with third party software, of course, but you have to expect that when you’re using some hack that digs into the low level system processes and then update the OS, those hacks might not work any more.

There’s nothing phony about Disk Warrior! It’s probably the best $100 utility I’ve ever bought! (I have a 4-digit serial number… well below 2000!)

I run it (after Cocktail) before any serious System update. Or when things like disappearing or changing icons start to happen (pretty rarely, but DW fixes it).

Any time an external hard drive doesn’t mount, Disk Warrior will almost always fix it.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9558805
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9481137
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9463903
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9508119

That’s just 0.003% of the threads that show up on the Apple discussion forums (half of which are deleted by the Apple Staff).

I’d say most important tips are run disk utility, use the combo update, and backup using Superduper.