Pro&Cons of upgrading 2009 iMac from Snow Leopard to Mavericks?

[pigoo3]

First I never thought there was a secret conspiracy. You are definitely reading something in that's not there. Just curious why a company would do so.

Have you ever heard the saying..."Don't look a gift horse in the mouth"?

This is my point. If someone (or Apple) gives you something for free...you don't ask why.

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

First I never thought there was a secret conspiracy. You are definitely reading something in that's not there. Just curious why a company would do so.

Usually when someone asks this sort of question...they are concerned about something "bad" may be included. Like..."Why would they give it away for free?"..."Maybe there's some sort of spyware in there to track the things I/we do."

But if you're honestly just curious why they would give Mavericks away for free...who really knows. Unless someone actually works for Apple in their Marketing Department (to know for sure)...we would only be guessing.

Earlier in the thread I mentioned that Apple charged:

- $99-$129 for OS 10.0 thru 10.5...then all of a sudden they charged $29 for OS 10.6 and 10.7. So you could ask why did they do this??
- Then Apple reduced the price of the OS upgrade again...and charged $19 for 10.8. So you could ask...why did they do this??
- Then Apple gave 10.9 (Mavericks) away for free. So again someone could ask...why??

Obviously there's a pretty clear trend of some sort here.

- Nick

 

[MacLicious]

Only get your RAM from OWC or Crucial. It's DEAD easy to upgrade. I can link you to a video if you give me your exact specs and model numbers.

Any other RAM may or may not work right and will probably cost a lot more as you have seen.

I just ordered RAM for my iMac from OWC. They Guarantee it will work of they will make it right.

Mavericks is now free because really as was said above Apple is a Hardware company and they make enough from the hardware. Just enjoy your free OS! I sure am! Grin


Another note, OWC has videos on how to upgrade the RAM on all the metal iMacs.

Above are screenshots I have attached of my specs. I will be ordering from OWC as they have mine in stock. Crucial is cheaper but doesn't have them in stock. I can buy locally Kingston brand but it is special order and will cost me $154.00 + our lovely 13% tax. So it's much cheaper at OWC. It's good to know that you personally like that online store. I prefer to buy from places people recommend. I know if I go to the Apple store they will probably charge close to $150 and then there's the 2-3 hours it will take to get there, wait in line to buy and get home. I like ordering online from the comfort of my computer room. I'd do most of my shopping this way if I could. (except groceries lol).
I watched the video from OWC's site, but the guy in the video referred to a 2007 iMac when mine is the 2009. Not sure if there is a difference, it looked the same. Appreciate the help!

 

[tornadochaser]

Ha ha! I knew that there were other 'stinker's"...but I didn't feel experienced enough to call them out! But actually...whenever I have to use any Windows OS...they all seem like "STINKER'S" to me.

And seriously...I don't mean that in a closed-minded Apple "fan-boy" sort of way! I just prefer the simplicity & ease of using the Mac OS.

- Nick

Nick….all windows versions are stinkers…actually more like pure crap, Mac is far superior to microsoft any day

 

[MacShane]

That is very true. Windows 1 and 2 were a joke. Even 3.0 was not the best. 3.1 was the first Windows that at least had a decent GUI, but it was still really (no matter what anyone says) a shell on Top of DOS. It crashed so much I saw grown people cry over loosing all their work and time. And yes I owned and worked with most of the older versions of Windows.

Mac OS (System) from the beginning was superior.

Windows 95 was the (To me) first Windows that had a nice GUI and was at least pretty stable.

Windows 2000 is where to me MS really got it right. At the time 2000 made Mac OS9 look antique with true preemptive multitasking and flat page memory management. It took OSX to blow it away! I was using 2000 and it never crashed on me. Then I tried OSX 10.2 and was won over. From that point on Windows became my Gaming OS! Grin

Sorry for going on and on but when i saw your comments about old Windows I had to comment!

And yes XP was nice for Windows anyway!

I use Windows 7 at work and STILL lose work on almost a weekly basis due to crashes. I've lost a full half day or more of work more than once. OS X isn't without crashes every once in awhile, but in the 4 years I've been using Macs, I have NEVER lost work. I can always count on it to be there just the way it was before the crash, on restart or reopen...

 

[MacLicious]

Seeing in this thread there was some discussion about why Apple was giving Mavericks away for free, I found these online.

From Apple's Website:


"OS X Mavericks Available Today Free from the Mac App Store
SAN FRANCISCO—October 22, 2013—Apple® today announced that OS X® Mavericks, the 10th major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is available for free from the Mac App Store℠. With more than 200 new features, OS X Mavericks brings iBooks® and Maps to the Mac®, includes a new version of Safari®, enhances multi-display support, introduces Finder® Tabs and Tags and delivers new core technologies for breakthrough power efficiency and performance.

“Mavericks is an incredible release, which introduces significant new apps and features, while also improving the performance and battery life of your Mac,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “We want every Mac user to experience the latest features, the most advanced technologies, and the strongest security. We believe the best way to do this is to begin a new era of personal computing software where OS upgrades are free.”



I found this online from Digital Trends:

"Yes, that’s right – free! Apple has always worked on a faster update cycle than Microsoft, and this has traditionally resulted in small leaps forward sold for between $20 and $30 dollars. The company has decided that that no longer makes sense, particularly since iOS updates are free of charge; from now on OS X will be distributed the same way. Anyone running OS X Snow Leopard or later can download the new version of OS X without paying a cent.
Users who have an older version of OS X will first need to purchase Snow Leopard, which is $19.99 on Apple’s official store.
Compatibility
Updates to OS X often come alongside the sun-setting of older Macs which lack the features and processing power required to run the latest incarnation. Such a move would certainly sting with Mavericks, considering it’s free, but Apple hasn’t knocked any new hardware off its list of supported devices with this update. If your Mac can run Mountain Lion, it can run Mavericks."


Read more: OS X Mavericks: Everything You Need To Know | Digital Trends
Follow us: @digitaltrends on Twitter | digitaltrendsftw on Facebook

 

[harryb2448]

And Apple basically are a hardware manufacturer and new releases do encourage Mac users to upgrade their equipment.

 

[chas_m]

Just curious why a company would do so.

I'll tell you: because they really, really, really want everyone who has compatible hardware to get of their duff and get on Mavericks so that they and developers can get on a "clean" 64-bit system and drop 32-bit support as soon as possible.

Getting nearly all users on the same OS versions has been a *tremendous* boon to iOS developers and a *huge* advantage over Android. The same will be true when (nearly) everyone is on 64-bit systems on the Mac.

 

[MacLicious]

Ya that makes a lot of sense chas_m. Never thought of it that way!

 

[MacLicious]

I revived this thread to report on my experience with OWC.
Because Crucial was $15 cheaper I wanted to buy from them but memory was on backorder, so I decided to go ahead and order from OWC. They have an awesome website and as pointed out by MacInWin they have a video on their website showing how to do the upgrade yourself. It was ridiculously easy. I ordered the 18th of December and received it in Canada on January 3rd, 2 weeks from time of ordering bearing in mind during the Christmas mail rush. I used their cheapest 'special' on shipping which used USPS for I think $2.99, so I was very surprised to receive it so quickly!
Thanks to everyone for all the helpful information!