Is Mountain Lion worth upgrading to?

[5tevie]

Hi Guys and Guyesses.
After reading another thread about various Operating Systems for Mac PCs I'm starting to wonder if it is worth upgrading my own Mac. I have a Mac Mini from mid 2010 with 8gb of RAM, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and Snow Leopard. I upgraded the RAM myself and she runs like a dream and, apart from a glitch re the resolution when I changed TV screens (now a 70" LED screen that blows my socks away ) has caused me no problems at all.
But the thing is, never having seen a Mac running Mountain Lion and being to far away from a store to go for a look, how do I know if I will get any benefit from buying and installing it?
I'm only a general PC user. I enjoy my computers and will happily pass a full day playing poker, browsing eBay or writing posts on any one of a dozen forums that I read. Using iPlayer and watching movies is another way that we pensioners pass the time.
So what advantages will I see if I upgrade to Mountain Lion and if you made the change yourself, did you find it worth while?
Cheers,
Steve

[bobtomay]

imho - keeping your computer's software updated is not a matter of whether it is "worthwhile" or not.

It's a matter of keeping a current running system, one that is being actively patched and updated by the developer(s) and one that has a "current" knowledge base of support and support by those that are using the same version you are.

When you want/need support, what version are those you will ask questions of be running? Are they going to be using the current OS or piece of software, or will they still be using a version that is several years old?

Some answers to tech support questions will remain the same - others will change - some change enough that it becomes harder and harder to find someone that remembers what to do with a version of the OS (or other software) that is 2-3-4 versions back and no longer have those versions installed anywhere to go have a look to see what you are seeing.

That has already happened with 10.5 and older and is happening now with 10.6.
The "active" support community is no longer using 10.6 - they are using 10.7 & 10.8 on a daily basis. And the more they use the current system, the more of the older system they will forget.

When running older versions, more and more you will need to rely on the web of several years ago hoping that others had your problem or issue back then and there was a fix posted online somewhere and that it is still posted.

[5tevie]

Aw, c'mon, Bob. That was far to sensible an answer for this time on a Saturday morning, lol.
I get your point, and it's a good one, that the techies on this forum who may/will be asked to solve any problems will most likely be using the latest software themselves.
So, where to get it from in disc form?
Off to search.
Cheers,
Steve

[bobtomay]

Well, on my 4th cup of coffee already.

To get it on disk form, you download it and make your own disk - before you install it. You only need a 8GB USB flash drive and directions are here.

[chas_m]

If a Mac is from 2008 or earlier, I'm inclined these days to tell people just to stay with Snow and upgrade when they buy a newer machine, which should be in the near future.

For more recent machines like yours, Mountain Lion is, IMO, a no-brainer. It's been great.

[osxx]

It is the fastest OS to date on my MBP 09.

[toMACsh]

If a Mac is from 2008 or earlier, I'm inclined these days to tell people just to stay with Snow and upgrade when they buy a newer machine, which should be in the near future.

Yep. That's my strategy. My Mini is from 2007 and still runs great with Leopard. It does what little I require of it, and has been virtually problem-free all these years.

But I've read many posts from folks who are sticking with Snow Leopard, some after downgrading from Lion or ML because they liked SL better.

[5tevie]

Hello again, guys.
Just a quick update about what has happened in the intervening hours since my last post.
I went to Google and typed in "Where can I get Mountain Lion for Mac?" and after a few clicks I got whisked off to the Mountain Lion download page on the Apple site. I did as I was told to download and install ML but pretty soon I was having second thoughts. The first snag was that the download was at the one third stage after 3 hours. When I looked again this morning it was getting towards the end but still a ways to go. The bad news here is that it was virtually impossible to do anything else while the ML download was taking place. I could play Solitaire and write a few notes but anything Internet related was a waste of time. Trying to watch iPlayer, for instance, gave 5 seconds of TV followed by 15 seconds of buffering. Even worse was trying to read e-mails.
4 minutes and 40 seconds after clicking my Hotmail link in Favourites the Hotmail headers appeared. It was a further 1 minute and 15 seconds before the sender names and subject lines appeared. Clicking on a subject line passed another 4 minutes and 20 seconds before the actual e-mail could be read. Replying and sending were equally time consuming. This frustration could all be solved by having a "Pause" button on the ML download so that important stuff could be done in a timely manner. If that isn't possible, maybe a message saying, "This download is best done overnight" would be useful.
Anyway, the download has now completed and so far I can only see one problem.
In the olden days when this Mac Mini ran Snow Leopard, scrolling down a page was done using a sort of swipe movement going from the top edge of my Magic Mouse towards the bottom edge. Changing to ML seems to have made it work the other way round. Any ideas about how to get it changed back would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Steve

[bobtomay]

Well, it depends on your internet speed - I downloaded ML in about 20 minutes a couple weeks ago.

To switch up the direction of scrolling - same thing we had to do in Snow Leopard - just been awhile - open System Preferences - Trackpad (or Mouse - not sure how it will be listed, have never had a Magic Mouse) - open the Scroll & Zoom tab - check or uncheck the 'Scroll direction: Natural' box

[pigoo3]

Just a quick update about what has happened in the intervening hours since my last post.

By internet forum standards…that wasn't a "quick update"!

- Nick

p.s. Just teasing!

[newscribe]

Originally Posted by 5tevie
This frustration could all be solved by having a "Pause" button on the ML download so that important stuff could be done in a timely manner. If that isn't possible, maybe a message saying, "This download is best done overnight" would be useful.

I think from ML download start to end of install took about 1 hour over WiFi connection, seems pretty reasonable for a new OS X. And I was under the impression that you can pause any active download from the Mac App Store by right-clicking on the apps icon in the Dock and selecting “Pause” from the menu. Then resuming the download is just a matter of right-clicking again and selecting Un pause : even if you have turned your Mac off for the day.

[5tevie]

Bob ..... I did as you said and my scrolling is back to how it used to be. Thank you.

Oldscribe ...... If it all works as you say, and I have no reason to doubt you, then that is all good.

I think the last sentence of my sig makes a lot more sense than I originally thought it did, lol.
Thank you one and all.
Steve