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A Mac is like an ant colony: a force of indefatigable workers perform tasks under the surface to carry out the whole operation, none of them having special knowledge of the whole subject. The ants of macOS include agents, background daemons, assigned functions (called Cronjobs Later cron Tools), startup scripts and much more.
The Lingon X8 is like a glass sheet next to an ant farm, providing visibility into the seemingly manic chaos that keeps the colony alive. The app lets you schedule recurring tasks to launch an app, run a script, run a command, or, in macOSMonterey, launch a shortcut. It’s a mix of options that anyone can benefit from through the most technically proficient. Creating duplicate work and modifying entries can be a good thing in MacOS. Having a simple interface is a dream come true.
In Lingon, click the + icon at the top of the window and the app will guide you through four steps:
- Name the specified action and choose whether it should run only as your logged macOS user, all users or root. (That last option may be needed for some low-level work and should be used with caution.)
- Select Application, Script, OrderOr Shortcut.
- Enter text for a script or command or select an application or shortcut.
- Control how and when it is run at one or more repetitive intervals, whether it is turned on in startup, and whether it is restarted in the event of a crash.
For example, if you want to activate a specific app whenever you are using MacOS, it should be set as a startup application – but it may crash, you may accidentally skip it, or MacOS may decide that it is not active. . Selecting “Launch again if crashed” in Step 4 above can ensure that it is always available.
Programmers and those who work directly with Unix commands, PHP scripts, shell scripts and other code will find it easier to set up and schedule tasks than to work on the command line.
A colleague pointed me to Lingon for reasons other than scheduling, though: to fix the startup problem. While this is not its primary focus, Lingon X is the best tool I have found for beginners through advanced users. The app provides insights into all apps, scripts, agents, and other software that you may have when you start your Mac and which automatically relaunch if macOS sees that they are not running due to a crash or intentional user action.
Lingon’s main window contains a list of items under the group that lets you see everything set to launch on MacOS startup, relaunch after a crash, run in the background, or run on a schedule. You can like See> TimelineAnd Lingon writes all the upcoming verbs in chronological order, including how long the next one will happen.
With See> list Once selected, you can browse the list and find items related to the software that you thought you stopped using or uninstalled a few years ago. One of the most common hidden causes of poor system performance, crashes, and unexpected disk operations is agents and similar items that constantly restart after failing because they contain outdated code, but macOS restarts them.
Lingon comes in two versions: Lingon X (14.99), downloadable from the developer’s site, with full system functionality including root access; And Lingon 3 (3.99), a still-useful but more limited Mac App Store program. Creator Peter Borg Lingon offered a feature comparison on the site.
You can download Lingon X and use it free of charge to check the settings, but a paid license is required to save or delete items.
Lingon X requires MacOS Mojave 10.14.4 or later but offers earlier versions starting with Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan. Lingon 3 requires Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks or later.
The Lingon X schedule makes repeating work a breeze. But it does allow you to remove unwanted repetitive actions and residual crafts that can affect the performance of your Mac.
Lingon appeared on Mac James in 2008 with the release of the latest version 2.1.
With the strong resurgence of the Mac in recent years, we want to celebrate the tools we use and recommend readers to make the most of your macOS experience. Mac James highlights the great nuances of Mac software, apps that have high usability, a sharp focus on solving limited problems, and are usually developed by an individual or small company. Stay tuned for weekly updates, and send your suggestions to the Mac James Twitter feed (MakJames)