I have had my MacBook for just over 2 years now and am running Snow Leopard, having never upgraded the OS.
I would just like to know are there any Pros of still being on Snow Leopard (only because someone commented to me the other day,that as far as he was concerned Snow Leopard was the most stable OS Apple has ever created, and if his new iMac could run it he would downgrade to it – but its not possible).
Also, How disadvantaged am I by still being on Snow Leopard, as opposed to being on Lion or Mountain Lion ?
Merry Christmas
—–
Simon
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The Pros & Cons Of Still Being On Mac OS X Snow Leopard ?
Comments: 12 Responses to “The Pros & Cons Of Still Being On Mac OS X Snow Leopard ?”
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I would disagree with the statement that Snow Leopard was the most stable OS Apple ever created. That would be Apple DOS 3.3 (Ran on the Apple II computers in the early 80s).
I'm only half-joking, to make a point. If stability were the only factor, then it would indeed make sense to go back to an Apple II from the early 80s. It was rock solid.
But stability is not the only factor. Features, speed, compatibility are also factors, to name a few.
Mountain Lion definitely has more features. How valuable those are to you depends on you and your needs and how you use your Mac. For instance, iCloud documents have quickly become very valuable to me. I can work on a document between my desktop and laptop without even thinking about it. Reminders, Notes, Messages, AirPlay and Notifications are also useful.
Compatibility is also a factor. Have you run into any software you want that only works on Mountain Lion (or Lion and newer)? If that hasn't happened to you yet, it may soon.
Some people upgrade to the latest and greatest immediately (me!). Others stick with the old OS until they buy a new Mac. You have to decide what is right for you. Fortunately, price isn't much of a factor anymore as Mountain Lion is pretty cheap.
The other downside of an upgrade is that you have to spend time learning some new things. Some people like that, while others do not. But that doesn't say anything about Mountain Lion vs. Snow Leopard -- the same would be true between Tiger and Snow Leopard, for instance. Or Apple DOS and ProDOS.
I completely agree, that alot of new software requires Lion & some even require Mountain Lion in order to work, and like u say, its not expensive to upgrade to the latest OS........so why not ?
(From what I understand future releases of Windows will be based on a more frequent OS release akin to that of Apple's & price structure too)
When you upgrade you have to learn new things, and it just might be the case that some people do not like doing that
I'll see what 2013 brings....probably a new OS Release from Apple :)
If you have old software designed for PowerPC processors that require Rosetta (and therefore Snow Leopard or earlier) and can't be easily and inexpensively replaced with an Intel-native application (lots of games fall into this category), you can still get all the benefits of Mountain Lion: Create a second partition on your hard drive. On the first partition, install Mountain Lion. On the second partition, install Snow Leopard. I did this myself until earlier this month.
You are currently running both in a dual boot, is that correct ?
Snow Leopard is still actively supported by Apple in terms of security updates etc....is that correct ?
As far as I know, yes. But it can't last forever.
Simon, there is safety in numbers, and the number of people still using Snow Leopard is getting smaller with each new day. Also, I believe that Apple, like most software companies, is assigning its best programmers to Mountain Lion and to the next "cat" ... .
Staying with Snow Leapard is similar to using C:\ in windows.
My MBP came with Snow Leopard.
It is a good operating system. But the newer version(s) are better.
Move forward, or you will regret it. I am not the Apple police.
Thankyou all for that, with reference to what John Hammer was saying, a friend told me that he has Mountain Lion, but he (aswell as other people he knows) keeps a copy of Snow Leopard on an external hard drive for times when they need to run software that is incompatible with 10.7/10.8. If you're really curious about 10.8, get an external HD or USB stick and install it on there to try out for fun.
I do not know how to do it (maybe that a question I should post in the new year)
For now Merry Christmas
Great work,thanks for sharing.
You have to realize that changing the OS is only a (minor) part of the equation. It's the rest of all your softwares that may also require upgrading. And that can be quite of bit of bucks. No mentioning that you may have to learn new tricks on the newer versions of the softwares you update. So I would caution to make the upgrade unless you carefully tally in all the other costs. Of course, if you get them for free, then by means, go for it...
I know somebody that still user`s Windows 98,but he is a very technical guy. He does all the upgrading himself. Like some of the comments up above.