GeekTool Released in the Mac App Store - Free Download

GeekTool, a technical application for those who like to have anything but the default Mac OS X setup, is now available for download through the Mac App Store.

A free application for anyone running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later (Lion supported), GeekTool lets you display various kinds of information on your desktop via 3 default plug-ins:

• File plugin to monitor MacOS X activity with /var/log/system.log, or any file that you want to follow.
• File plugin to monitor MacOS X activity with /var/log/system.log, or any file that you want to follow.Shell mode to launch custom scripts or commands like "df" to check space left on filesystems or "uptime" to monitor load on your machine.
• File plugin to monitor MacOS X activity with /var/log/system.log, or any file that you want to follow.Finally, image mode helps you monitor bandwith usage, CPU load, memory availability on your server with tools like MRTG or RRD.

The developers ask customers to note that GeekTool is precisely what its name implies - a tool for geeks.

According to Tynsoe.org, “The audience of this App is technical people with good understanding of Unix and shell commands. This is not something for general mac users, unless you are ready to spend some time googling and trying to get what you want.”

The folks at Tynsoe.org urge Mac App Store reviewers to take all this into account before posting any notes.

Of course, the reviews are already in with nothing but confusion from the users who likely thought GeekTool was as simple as any Mac customization app.

As some users point out, there are numerous tutorials on the web that can help users learn how to use this tool.

“For instance, if you're interested in replicating the sand and clock wallpaper above, you can google ‘Awesome Clock and Sand Desktop Geektool’ and you'll find a video tutorial that demonstrates how to build those ‘geeklets’, or desktop components,” according to Christopher Spence writing over at the Mac App Store.

Another user, Alex Bardasu from Romania, is overall thrilled with the functionality of GeekTool but claims it’s missing a few features, such as a geeklet gallery so that users don’t have to run about the web to obtain their scripts.

It is this omission that makes average users walk away from the app, Bardasu believes.

Download GeekTool for Mac OS X (Free)