Permanent 2.8.0 has been released, which features the ability to delete write-protected files, such as files owned by another user. The system will ask for administrator credentials to use this feature. Due to Mac App Store restrictions not allowing for granting administrator privileges, this version of the app will only be available for download from the Edenwaith website.
This is the version of Permanent Eraser I have been looking forward to for a long time. With this release and the recent addition of the Erase Free Space Automator action in Permanent Eraser 2.7.2, two long standing features I (and other users) have wanted have finally been added to this app. A lot of features and improvements have gone into Permanent Eraser over the years, and this is the culmination of all of the major features I wanted to include in Permanent Eraser 2.
The Future of Permanent Eraser
Aside from any patches, this is expected to be the last major release for the Permanent Eraser 2.x line. It's been a fourteen year long trek from the initial release of Permanent Eraser 2.0 in April 2004 to today's version. There have been numerous changes in the world of computing since then, but none of have affected Permanent Eraser as much as the change from mechanical hard drives to solid state drives (SSD). It's time for a change.
The first fledgling ideas for Permanent Eraser 3 emerged in 2007, and the next incarnation formed in 2014, so the ideas on how to reimagine Permanent Eraser have been floating around for a number of years. Permanent Eraser was made to securely erase files on hard drives, but that need has declined precipitously over the years, but it leaves open the possibility of solving some new, interesting problems which have arisen over the past few years. There are a number of intriguing ideas I'm eager to explore with the next version of Permanent Eraser.
Permanent Eraser 3 will be a massive rewrite and require an extensive amount of time and effort, so I do not expect the next version to be released for at least a year or more. Permanent Eraser has long maintained an extensive backwards compatibility with older versions of the Mac operating system (PE 2.8 is still works on PowerPC Macs!), but that legacy support will be dropped and PE 3 will likely require at least OS X Yosemite as it makes use of more modern features and capabilities in current hardware and software.
Permanent Eraser 2 has had an amazing run with thousands and thousands of users, and this has become one of my favorite projects I've developed. I look forward to see where I can take this app in the future.