Does upgrading Operating Systems benefit someome using an older Mac???

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Im calling my mid 2009 older......
 
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That's kind of a loaded question.

Does the new OS have features that interest you? (if considering Mountain Lion, remember with your version Mac you can't do display mirroring to an Apple TV so if that's the the feature you want then you're out of luck)

How much RAM do you have? I don't know what was default or what you may have upgraded in terms of RAM from 2009 so you may need to purchase more RAM to effectively use a new OS (a minimum of 2 gig is required, 4 or more is recommended for Mountain Lion)

Are you concerned about security updates? Older OS' will eventually be EOL'd to the point where there will no longer be any security updates.

Will it slow down or speed up your machine? Well, that kind of depends. It may or may not feel snappier. As an example, I recently wiped the iMac I am using right now and installed Lion. Since upgrading it to Mountain Lion it feels like it's operating smoother but this is a subjective opinion based on my use of this system. That said, there are reports of some people having serious issues with the current version of OSX (10.8).

Will your software all work? It may or may not - check our Roaring apps to find out: App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps - App compatibility and feature support for OS X & iOS

If you're happy with your system and you're using at least Snow Leopard you probably don't *need* to update. You may find that more and more software (especially software on the App store) will require at least Lion be installed so you may eventually just need to upgrade to be able to get newer versions of software.

If you decide you want to upgrade, I'd get an external drive, use a cloning tool (Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner) to create a bootable copy of your drive (also boot from that external to make sure it works), then upgrade. If you decide you don't like it, use the cloned drive to restore your boot drive to the way it was.
 
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If you're still on Snow Leopard, Nethfel has said everything that needs to be said.

That said, anyone already on Lion should upgrade to Mountain Lion if the machine supports it. Mountain Lion provides better performance, uses no more resources to do so, and fixes a lot of the usability issues Lion created while adding a few nice extras. All this for $20, which is well within "impulse buy" territory. Just as with Leopard -> Snow Leopard, there isn't a particularly compelling reason not to upgrade from Lion to Mountain Lion if your machine supports it. I'm not sure whether this speaks to the quality of Mountain Lion or how terrible Lion was, but 10.8.0 feels more mature than 10.7.4, which is a rarity for new OS X releases.
 
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chscag

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I'm not sure whether this speaks to the quality of Mountain Lion or how terrible Lion was, but 10.8.0 feels more mature than 10.7.4, which is a rarity for new OS X releases.

Great reply. I agree with how terrible Lion was.... Some folks are referring to it as Apple's "Vista". I'm not sure I would go that far, but Mountain Lion is a definite improvement and as you say, well worth $19.99.
 
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chas_m

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I had nothing but fun with Lion, and Mountain Lion just brings more to the party. People who say Lion was "terrible" -- I really don't know what to say to that. I use my Macs VERY fully -- video editing, disc making, web surfing, site management, audio work, photography, casual games, iWork and a lot more. I think I'd know if a Mac OS version was "terrible."

If I want "terrible," I'll go back to Windows or Linux. I often think Mac people get a little spoiled by all the excellence they enjoy, and so any slightly dimmer bulb in the scoreboard is treated so much more harshly than the mediocrity users of other systems have to put up with ...
 

dtravis7


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I had nothing but fun with Lion, and Mountain Lion just brings more to the party. People who say Lion was "terrible" -- I really don't know what to say to that. I use my Macs VERY fully -- video editing, disc making, web surfing, site management, audio work, photography, casual games, iWork and a lot more. I think I'd know if a Mac OS version was "terrible."

If I want "terrible," I'll go back to Windows or Linux. I often think Mac people get a little spoiled by all the excellence they enjoy, and so any slightly dimmer bulb in the scoreboard is treated so much more harshly than the mediocrity users of other systems have to put up with ...

10.0 Developer was not very good. :D Then again, First ever OSX!

My least favorite from a performance point of view was 10.5.

From 10.2 up was quite good.
 
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chas_m

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10.0 Developer was not very good. :D Then again, First ever OSX!

I'll definitely go along with that. Very buggy, but exciting.

From 10.2 up was quite good.

I concur. I think Mountain Lion is well on its way to becoming a classic. So far my experience has been resoundingly good. Leopard I didn't like nearly as much until Snow Leopard came along.

Lion I think gets an unfair rep because it introduced a lot of changes. Even though 90 percent of the changes were for the better, people have a very weird attitude about change that I can't always wrap my head around. Now with Mountain Lion most of those changes have been accepted, so it's seemingly being better-received.

... I still have no use for Launchpad, mind you. :)

But unlike some, I don't think that means it should be banned and the people who use it put to death. :)
 

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Chas, Agree. So far Mountain Lion is very nice overall. If one does not like the IOS features, they do not have to be used unlike Windows 8! :D

To explain my comment on 10.5, I loved the OS and feature set, just felt it was a bit large and slowish and then Snow Leopard came along and was so much smaller and leaner and booted so fast. Otherwise I loved 10.5.

An on Launchpad, I still find it fast (for me) getting to my utilities! Maybe I am strange, but use it for that all the time. :D
 
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If I want "terrible," I'll go back to Windows or Linux. I often think Mac people get a little spoiled by all the excellence they enjoy, and so any slightly dimmer bulb in the scoreboard is treated so much more harshly than the mediocrity users of other systems have to put up with ...

Mediocrity from the competition is no excuse to get sloppy with one's own products. ;)
 
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My least favorite from a performance point of view was 10.5.

The only cat I've used is Leopard. I have no complaints.

What happened to the OP?
 
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Lion was not good...

Mountain Lion is much better, but Mountain Lion is what Lion should have been.
 

dtravis7


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You calling Lion Vista? Vista was not good. :D
 
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Lion was not good, Vista got better with age Lion got the same with age fortunately we now have SP1..
 

dtravis7


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I am running Lion on OLDER macs and it works much better than any Vista with any service pack did on equally old PC hardware. My only complaint about Lion was Safari and memory usage. Other than that not one issue.

To answer Tom, not sure where the OP went off to. :D
 
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To answer Tom, not sure where the OP went off to. :D

Tom?
Do I need to break this down for some people?


Macintosh
Mac in tosh
tosh
to***sh
to MAC sh
(Mac in Tosh)
 

dtravis7


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Want to fight? :D

Some people? WOW!
Amazing.
 
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chas_m

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:)

For others who may read this thread (because it covers a very common question) here's my take on this:

Once your machine has gotten to the age that it only meets the bare minimum specs on the latest version of OS X, you probably have a choice: upgrade some things (RAM, HD, software) and keep up one more time, or (particularly if everything is working well) stick with what you have.

You can continue to upgrade the non-OS software for as long as you eligible, and Apple issues security updates for some (just the last couple of) older system versions.

But when that moment comes, you should be aware that no matter how awesome your Mac currently is ... the clock is now ticking towards retirement. Depending on your needs it could be a couple of years, it could be another five years ... but the clock is ticking.

Most likely (and for most people), you'll want to replace the hardware sometime BEFORE it just dies utterly, so this problem sort of takes care of itself usually ... but the further behind you fall, the more chances there are that standards will have changed, software will be discontinued, and you'll have more work to do to get used to the new stuff when you finally get around to the new stuff.

My general suggestion is that if you've made the decision to stay put with the OS version you have, that's fine ... for a year or two. After that, you're probably creating more issues for yourself in the future. IOW, one probably should fall TOO far behind the current OS. As an example, I'd say people who (for whatever reason) couldn't or wouldn't make the jump to Lion as being okay for another year or so -- they'll probably continue to get Safari, iTunes and security updates from Apple, and their third-party software is likely to be supported for a while yet.

By the time 10.9 comes out however, you'll be well and truly obsolete.
 

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