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I'm looking for anything that can be deleted and that don't required by system to work properly.
So far I'm delete DVD Player.app, Chess.app, Photo Booth.app, Stickies.app, Dashboard, Launchpad.app and Mission Control.app (still works after reboot with gestures!)

In terminal.app:
sudo rm -rf DVD\ Player.app

What else ?

If you want to free up some disk space: How can I free up some disk space?

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  • How much space do you need? On my Lion machine `/Library/Printers' is 650MB - and you probably do not want all of them – Mark Jul 14 '12 at 11:17
  • Good idea ! but please post it as separate answer – diimdeep Jul 14 '12 at 14:13
  • Is your question specifically about what and how to delete using the terminal? Then please edit your question and also try to include terminal in the title and as a tag. – Pro Backup Jul 15 '12 at 9:05
  • Another question about deleting files in general: Reducing Lion OS Footprint by removing unnecessary files/folders – Lri Jul 15 '12 at 11:20
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Most of the applications you'll delete are going to be restored the next time there is a software update, and even still it'll only save superficial amount of space. For example, the Mission Control, Launchpad, Dashboard, Time Machine, etc. apps are all less than half a meg, and only serve as links to call upon these features via Dock or Finder.

If you want to make a substantial cut on space without making your mac bulimic, i suggest Monolingual, which deletes unused language support (which is usually around 500 MB to 2 GB) and redundant app binaries.

Most Mac apps are "universal," meaning they support both Intel and (the older) PowerPC processor architectures, by having every application contain a binary compiled for each. If you're running an Intel Mac, monolingual can be used to delete the unused app binaries, saving 1-2 GB

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  • From Snow Leopard on there are no PPC binaries (however universal still exists and it is 32 and 64 bit intel) – Mark Jul 14 '12 at 21:58
  • For the OS, yes, but most applications from third party developers still have universal support. – Alexander Jul 15 '12 at 3:37
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    Keep in mind that Monolingual also needs to be run after every update. Not only default applications are restored, also the removed languages and binaries will be restored by most Apple (security) updates. – Pro Backup Jul 15 '12 at 8:56
  • that is true but it should be good for a few months – Alexander Jul 15 '12 at 15:48
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Is also depends whether your system is used as workstation or server.

For our server usage we do delete this:

$ sudo rm -R /Applications/Automator.app /Applications/Chess.app /Applications/Mission\ Control.app /Applications/Stickies.app /Applications/Utilities/AppleScript\ Editor.app /Applications/Utilities/Audio\ MIDI\ Setup.app /Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth\ File\ Exchange.app /Applications/Utilities/DigitalColor\ Meter.app /Applications/Utilities/Grab.app /Applications/Utilities/Grapher.app /Applications/Utilities/Podcast\ Capture.app /Applications/Utilities/Podcast\ Publisher.app /Applications/Utilities/RAID\ Utility.app /Applications/Utilities/VoiceOver\ Utility.app /Applications/Utilities/Xsan\ Admin.app /Applications/Utilities/Boot\ Camp\ Assistant.app /Applications/Image\ Capture.app

$ sudo rm -R "/Library/Application Support/Apple/Mail" "/Library/Application Support/Apple/Grapher" "/Library/Application Support/Apple/iChat Icons" "/Library/Application Support/Apple/Automator/Workflows" "/Library/Application Support/iLifeMediaBrowser" "/Library/Application Support/ProApps/Internal Plug-Ins/BrowserKit/iLife.bkplugin" "/Library/Application Support/Script Editor/Templates" "/Library/Printers/Canon" "/Library/Printers/EPSON" "/Library/Image Capture" "/Library/Documentation/Help" "/Library/Scripts/iChat" "/Library/Scripts/ColorSync" "/Library/Scripts/Mail Scripts" "/Library/Scripts/Printing Scripts" "/Library/Scripts/UI Element Scripts" "/Library/Scripts/VoiceOver" "/Library/Audio" "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins" "/Library/Modem Scripts" "/Library/iChat" "/Library/QuickTime" "/Library/iTunes" "/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.remotepairtool.plist" "/Library/PodcastProducer" "/System/Library/PodcastProducer" "/System/Library/Compositions" "/System/Library/LinguisticData" "/System/Library/Speech" "/System/Library/Spelling" "/System/Library/InternetAccounts" "/System/Library/Automator" "/System/Library/QuickTime" "/System/Library/InternetAccounts" "/System/Library/Image Capture" "/System/Library/ScreenReader" "/System/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins" "/System/Library/Services/AppleSpell.service"

$ sudo rm -R /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/CaptiveUserAgent.plugin /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/CaptiveSystemAgent.plugin /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/AirPortUserAgent.plugin /System/Library/UserEventPlugins/iCalAlarmAgent.plugin

$ sudo rm "/Library/Desktop Pictures/*.jpg" "/Library/Widgets/*.wdgt"

$ sudo rm -R /System/Library/PreferencePanes/FibreChannel.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/InternetAccounts.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Speech.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Ink.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Trackpad.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Mac.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Xsan.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/MobileMe.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/iCloudPref.prefPane "/System/Library/PreferencePanes/ParentalControls.prefPane"
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