Universal binary bloat

[Update 2/1/06: TrimTheFat is now a popular "Stripper" for removing Intel binaries. It's in early beta. I'll likely test it on my iLife 06 install.]

The latest version of Lemke Software's GraphicConverter has gone universal. The size difference between a universal and PowerPC installation is rather impressive:

• 48MB universal binary (installed)
• 14MB PowerPC (installed)

I'd expected doubling at most, but almost tripling? Of course in an era where a single photo may be 8MB, an extra 34MB is not not that big a deal. Interestingly the downloads aren't that different -- something must compress rather well.

I expect we'll see some 'strippers' out soon to get rid of the unwanted Intel code. All very familiar for old codgers who remember going from 68K code to PPC/68K combos.