Yosemite now or later?

[rainbowcat]

I always wait for .1 release, but this is really tempting me. Just spent an hour using it at Apple Store, and it was great. Of course, I was using an MBA a year younger than mine. Wondering if it's going to slow down my 2013 MBA. I'm teaching a tech course tomorrow night, and would like to be able to show them Yosemite, but can't afford glitches.

I really value the opinion of folks here - what do you think - now or wait?

 

[lclev]

I have a MB Air mid-2013. I have installed Yosemite. So far I have had a fun time with email but most of that has straightened out. Here are a couple of links that discuss that issue:

http://www.mac-forums.com/os-x-operating-system/316663-mail-program-wont-send-since-yosemite.html
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/316620-fixed-my-mail-app-issue.html

It has been smooth for me except for the mail issues which have now smoothed out but as you read the above links you will see it was a strange journey and not everyone has been successful yet. I have also found the wireless HP printers that use to work with my MB Air no longer working. I will be investigating this issue (I am the IT at work so it is to me I have to go for help!)

Would I upgrade??? I did make a Carbon Copy Clone first on a bootable external drive and a Time Machine back up first but so far I am not reverting back to Mavericks.

Lisa

I will add I have not seen any degradation in performance like some have claimed. My MB Air is an i5 with 4GB of memory so not that beefy but she is running fast and no beachballs!

 

[rainbowcat]

Thanks Lisa. I use Thunderbird and Inbox for mail, so I'm not too concerned about that. Realizing that those posting here are those having problems, and the smooth installs are not posting, I'm still a bit nervous. Can't afford to buy another external hard drive, and really don't want to deal with Carbon Copy Clone unless I have to, although it's a very good idea.

 

[lclev]

I had email problems using the built in mail app and Outlook which brought me to the idea it might not have been an application error but how Yosemite was handling imap and smtp. As I said it has all smoothed out although I don't think it was because of my efforts.

I did have to change my home router firewall settings from moderate to low to get anything to work but I am not sure if that has changed too as I haven't changed my firewall settings on the router yet. I do have Yosemite's firewall on.

Lisa

 

[harryb2448]

Yosemite has been through six Public Beta releases, as well as Developers Releases and imho is excellent. If you are unsure by all means wait. Adequate memory is the number one criteria and 8GB is recommended here. If the MBA came with only 4GB maybe it cannot be increased?

 

[lclev]

I have 4gb on my 2013 MB Air and she is running just as fast as she did on Mavericks. She has always been very fast so I don't think memory will be an issue for the OP.

Lisa

 

[harryb2448]

Don't know Lisa. Never experienced Air's with fixed memory. For this reason avoided the iMac with no user upgradeable memory also! Fussy old so and so ain't I?

 

[midway40]

Like Lisa my MBA is running just as fast as Mavericks did with 4GB. I think if it didn't have a SSD it would have been slower though. I don't do any heavy duty stuff just internet, email, docs, and some photos so I think it will be ok.

 

[lclev]

Don't know Lisa. Never experienced Air's with fixed memory. For this reason avoided the iMac with no user upgradeable memory also! Fussy old so and so ain't I?

No I totally get it. My MB Pro was upgraded to 16GB. When I bought my MB Air I just wanted something I could take anywhere and have awesome battery life. I use it for online cruising, email, and I do keep quickbooks on it. I always like the upgradeability option but the price was right.

Lisa

 

[XJ-linux]

I'm waiting on installing it. Call me old school, but I always give a new major OS version a few weeks in the wild before I install. I'm sure Y is awesome, but I don't have the time to troubleshoot as I once did. Glad to hear those with issues found some work arounds!

 

[Rod]

I had email problems using the built in mail app and Outlook which brought me to the idea it might not have been an application error but how Yosemite was handling imap and smtp. As I said it has all smoothed out although I don't think it was because of my efforts.

I did have to change my home router firewall settings from moderate to low to get anything to work but I am not sure if that has changed too as I haven't changed my firewall settings on the router yet. I do have Yosemite's firewall on.

Lisa

Turn off the Yosemite Firewall. It is off by default for a good reason, (because you don't need it). Believe me it will cause more problems than it solves. There will be conflicting opinions on this of course.

 

[Demapples]

Zero problems here with Yosemite on 2010 MacBook and 2011 Mac. Very smooth upgrades. But I tend to run a vanilla setup.

 

[chas_m]

There have been some reports of issues. VanSmith, for example, seems to be having a Mail issue that I've seen reported elsewhere, and he doesn't like the anti-aliasing for non-Retina machines, among other things.

Personally, I've been running it for months now. In beta, I saw some issues (mostly minor graphical stuff) and a few serious issues (iMovie didn't work for quite some time). All were fixed before the final, and I haven't got any complaints here on my end,

If you had a Thunderbolt or USB3 external drive, you could install Yosemite there for demo purposes and run it off the external, then be back to your usual system with a simple reboot. First day with a new OS that has some significant changes is NOT the best possible time to do a public demo!

 

[Alwyn]

I always wait for .1 release, but this is really tempting me. Just spent an hour using it at Apple Store, and it was great. Of course, I was using an MBA a year younger than mine. Wondering if it's going to slow down my 2013 MBA. I'm teaching a tech course tomorrow night, and would like to be able to show them Yosemite, but can't afford glitches.

I really value the opinion of folks here - what do you think - now or wait?

Having read Lisa's and others' comments I would strongly advise following CHSCAG's advice to me to install Carbon Copy Cloner or similar before installing Yosemite. I have decided to do this having experienced a number of problems with iCloud and Mail following installation of Yosemite.

I still don't know why my wife's Facebook pic is appearing on all the e-mails we send from our iCloud e-mail addresses.

 

[lclev]

Turn off the Yosemite Firewall. It is off by default for a good reason, (because you don't need it). Believe me it will cause more problems than it solves. There will be conflicting opinions on this of course.

Sorry, recovering Window-aholic here. I just took the plunge and quit using any antivirus. Trust me, that was a HUGE step for me. I use my MB Air at too many places to take a chance by not using the firewall on my mac. I have never had any issues with it and my paranoid side will not feel comfortable turning it off.

Lisa

 

[McBie]

Turn off the Yosemite Firewall. It is off by default for a good reason, (because you don't need it). Believe me it will cause more problems than it solves. There will be conflicting opinions on this of course.

With all due respect, but this is a bad piece of advice.
Switching of a security control without providing any facts ( only emotions ) is not the right way forward.
Unless you have a compensating control in place ( ie. maybe another firewall ) where your computer is located then I suggest to have it switched on, and operate in Stealth Mode.

As you said, there will be conflicting opinions on this. ;P

Cheers ... McBie

 

[harryb2448]

Let's be clear.

Apple's default for Filewall is Off.

If you use your Mac at hot spots, cafes, etc by all means activate it. When at home your router's firewall is excellent.

 

[chscag]

We've regurgitated this over and over. The answer is still the same: while the default for the Apple built in firewall is for it to be off, it does no harm to leave it on. I have mine set to off since I do not intend to lug my 27" iMac with me when I go to Starbucks for a meeting. However, when I owned a MacBook I left it on at all times. And if I get another mobile Mac I will again turn it on.

 

[lclev]

Hey, turn your firewall on or turn it off. It is a matter of personal preference....until a problem occurs but what ever. As for me and my 'puter it will be "on" because I do use it in a portable mode. Was at a conference a couple of weeks ago. The motel had "free" WiFI. My girlfriend logged on with her Windows 8 computer and got a virus that hosed her computer. It would not boot. It would start then loop to a restart and try again. Cost her $150 for Geek Squad to fix it. (I will refrain from commenting on what I think about that.)

Anyway, I had my MB AIr and my trusty firewall on. I had no issues at all. I admit the virus was probably written for Windows but hey, I will gloat where I can.

Lisa

 

[rainbowcat]

I'm waiting on installing it. Call me old school, but I always give a new major OS version a few weeks in the wild before I install. I'm sure Y is awesome, but I don't have the time to troubleshoot as I once did. Glad to hear those with issues found some work arounds!

Guess I'm old school too. My trouble-shooting skills aren't good enough to solve any glitches quickly enough.

Greatly appreciate everyone's feedback. Thank you all.