Upgrade???

[unblocktheplanet]

When my wife’s 2019 MBA was AppleCare, the geniuses did a fresh install of Monterey, an ‘upgrade’ from Mojave.

She’s gotten used to it (I remember my hair-pulling going from OS 9 to OS X) but I don’t see ‘convergence’ as any sort of benefit. And I don’t really want to know the how & why of all those bells & whistles I’ll likely never use.

The reasoning behind the new Mac OSs is that the great majority of users buy a minimal Mac with a 126-, 256- or 512- (at most) GB disk. And most buy a 13-inch Mac which makes shifting screens an advantage.

That lack of local disk space means one’s files have to be stored in iCloud.

That gets me to the place to ask, is one’s data safer on one’s own disk or in the cloud?

I see no real reason to update from 10.13 but I’d like to hear other users’ reasons for any love affair with Mojave, Big Sur, Catalina & Monterey. Anybody?

There may come a time when Apple forces us to update. The question is, do we really need all those security ‘features’ in our personal lives?

 

[IWT]

Security features, as you put it, are in my view a crucial component of Apple’s strategy. They always been quick to plug vulnerabilities; but the limiting factor is the age of the operating system. Some threats cannot be accurately dealt with on older OS platforms. As a general rule Apple supports the current OS and the two, sometimes three, previous ones.

As regards the iCloud. If your Mac’s Hard Drive is of limited capacity, there are options for offloading data such as the Music and Photos Libraries to EHDs which you would need to purchase.

Backups are absolutely essential in my view; Time Machine being the obvious first choice as the software needed is built into Apple’s operating system and only requires an EHD 1.5 to 2 times the storage on your Internal Drive.

In addition, you should have a Cloned backup. What I’ve discussed so far, doesn’t involve iCloud.

iCloud has many advantages. It can sync just about anything between all Mac Devices. This is very useful as it saves having to treat each device separately and re-establish all your bookmarks, music, books, contacts, calendars on every device manually.

iCloud also offers backup storage at very cheap rates. 50GB is free and thereafter you pay for extra storage. For example, I pay the price of one coffee/month for 200GB storage.

Apple is very protective of your storage with them. It’s about as safe as any in the world.

Lastly, partly for reasons of Apple support and partly for the additional features available, one should try to keep pace with these by having a recent, if not the latest OS available. I am currently on Big Sur. Upgrading to Monterey is an imminent intention of mine.

I hope some of my thoughts have been helpful.

Ian

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Apple will NEVER force you to upgrade, but the apps you want to continue to use and upgrade will force your hand.

You want to avoid that, then create a bubble around the Mac such that nothing ever updates on it and it will work as well as it is right now for the rest of its life.

As far as security goes, if you don't trust cloud security and are short on local storage, then invest in external drives or NAS' to keep your data close to you and under your control. Ensure that you employ a multiple-backup strategy (i.e., don't just back important data onto a single other device, use at least 2)

Security is the thing that no-one cares about until things go sideways, then you're up in arms about how others couldn't/didn't protect you, so take it seriously and be vigilant.

 

[pigoo3]

That lack of local disk space means one’s files have to be stored in iCloud.

Not necessarily. I agree...many Apple computer models don't have as much onboard storage as many users would like. Especially since upgrading internal storage on many computer models is either impossible after purchase (some models still can be upgraded even though official Apple info says no).

Many users treat their computers as if the internal storage is a big black hole of endless/infinite storage. AKA...they want to have everything they've ever done with the computer to be stored internally In many cases this just isn't reasonable...since eventually...even the largest internal storage can be filled up.

This is where better user storage habits should be cultivated/practiced. This means if some things aren't "mission-critical"...they can or should be off-loaded to some sort of external storage...or using a Cloud based storage strategy (as mentioned above).

I personally like having everything local...thus every now & then I need to purchase an external hard drive when I need more off-loaded storage space.

I probably have above average storage needs...and I can manage things fine with a 256GB SSD. Just got to off load items as necessary. If I had more internal storage (say 1TB)...then I'd eventually just have more off-loading to do when the 1TB drive got near full.

Nick

 

[unblocktheplanet]

Thanks for all your helpful replies.