bobwhitesel

Q: Mavericks - are the bugs finally out?

My wife and I use two laptops - late 2011 MBA & early 2013 MBP.

We are happily running OS 10.8.5.

Have enough bugs been fixed in Mavericks for the Community to recommend upgrading?

Bob

Mac mini (Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Jan 9, 2014 9:22 AM

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Q: Mavericks - are the bugs finally out?

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  • by John Galt,Solvedanswer

    John Galt John Galt Jan 9, 2014 9:35 AM in response to bobwhitesel
    Level 9 (50,051 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 9, 2014 9:35 AM in response to bobwhitesel

    Complaints regarding incompatible software or ill-conceived system modifications have arisen with every OS X version ever released. They exist in roughly the same proportion with Mavericks, and they will continue to exist with every OS X release there will ever be. Apple can't fix bugs in third party software they did not create and do not control.

     

    Read: Does anyone have any positive feedback after upgrading to Mavericks?

     

    Back up your system first.


  • by Tuttle,

    Tuttle Tuttle Jan 9, 2014 9:38 AM in response to bobwhitesel
    Level 7 (29,520 points)
    FrontRow
    Jan 9, 2014 9:38 AM in response to bobwhitesel

    Weigh the number of bugs against the number of improvements on 10.8.5 and decide what you want to do. I went with the, I believe, many improvements on previous OSs and don't find any of the "bugs" to be too debilitating. I think 10.9 is great. If you're happy with what you have and are hesitant about having to relearn certain actions or having to get used to a somewhat different GUI, then you can afford to wait.

  • by tbirdvet,

    tbirdvet tbirdvet Jan 9, 2014 9:54 AM in response to bobwhitesel
    Level 4 (3,018 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 9, 2014 9:54 AM in response to bobwhitesel

    I'm running both systems.  I have found some things improved with Mavericks (faster start up/shut down and iPhoto, et. al.) and some things are a step back (minor things not working, Time machine icon not moving, external drives not sleeping) so you take a chance and see if you like it.  Make a backup and revert back if you do not like it.

  • by arthur,

    arthur arthur Jan 9, 2014 10:26 AM in response to bobwhitesel
    Level 5 (5,193 points)
    iBooks
    Jan 9, 2014 10:26 AM in response to bobwhitesel

    Mavericks is excellent on my MBP 8,2. Fast and flawless. New features I like: iBooks, iCloud keychains.

    There are a few things to be aware of before you install it:

    1. Any new OS has some bugs and incompatibilities with old software and hardware.
    2. If you have any mission-critical software or peripherals, make sure they are compatible first.
    3. Mavericks does not play well with some old/bad software:
      1. Crapware: anything that purports to "clean", "monitor", "protect", or speed up your mac. Unnecessary on Macs and often harmful. Examples: CleanMyMac and MacKeeper (the King of Crapware).
      2. antivirus software
      3. "haxies" : apps that change the appearance of the GUI.
    4. Mavericks does not play well with WD hard drives: this is because the software that comes on the drives, and the software that comes with the drives that WD wants you to install on your mac, and in some cases the firmware that is built into the enclosure of the external drive, are all incompatible with Mavericks. None of the software is necessary. If you have a WD drive, you should:
      1. reformat (erase) it before you use it with a Mac
      2. don't install the software that comes with it
      3. research it on line to see if it has the incompatible firmware on it. If it does, and you just bought it, I'd return it.
    5. Before you install Mavericks, it's a good idea to:
      1. have a good backup, like with Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner
      2. make sure you have enough RAM. Mavericks needs a fair amount of RAM to work well. The specs say 2GB, but 4 is probably a more realistic minimum. If you do memory intensive work, you'll want more.
      3. uninstall Crapware. This can be a problem because one of the hallmarks of crapware is that there is usually no uninstaller, and it can damage your OS and be very difficult to completely uninstall. You may have to reformat (erase) your HD and do a clean install to completely get rid of it.
      4. uninstall antivirus software and haxies.
      5. repair your hard drive and permissions with Disk Utility
      6. boot into safe mode, and then run the installer Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
  • by peter_watt,

    peter_watt peter_watt Jan 9, 2014 10:35 AM in response to bobwhitesel
    Level 3 (910 points)
    Jan 9, 2014 10:35 AM in response to bobwhitesel

    Bear in mind also Policy changes that are not bugs but you may not like them.

    Most contentious is no longer being able to sync calendar and contacts by USB cable, and changes to graphics design, dock colours, file coloured tabbing etc. look through the forum for these.  They will never be changed (probably).

    Personally none of them affected me.

  • by bobwhitesel,

    bobwhitesel bobwhitesel Jan 9, 2014 10:55 AM in response to bobwhitesel
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 9, 2014 10:55 AM in response to bobwhitesel

    My thanks to all of you who responded!

    It is just what I have been waiting for.

    I think the promise of better battery life will be worth

    learning a new GUI, etc.

    Thanks again for your help.

    Bob

  • by mellowed,

    mellowed mellowed Jul 7, 2014 6:41 PM in response to bobwhitesel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 7, 2014 6:41 PM in response to bobwhitesel

    For some of us it's not simply a matter of weighing the possibility of minor bugs in the new OS X versus many minor enhancements.  In my case I need to have a second and third monitor running on my older Mac Mini.  With my move from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion I lost the ability to run a third monitor.  The software company that enabled my third monitor on Snow Leopard (DisplayLink) blames Apple for changes in OS X that they could not fix.  When I upgraded to Mavericks I discovered that my second monitor no longer worked well enough to use.  It had all sorts of freakish distortions in portrait mode (which is essential to me).  So I had backtrack and rebuild my Mountain Lion system.  I can cope with Mountain Lion and the loss of one monitor but not with Mavericks, where I'm left with just one working monitor.  If the newer versions of OS X ever work out the bugs well enough for me use it with two or optimally three monitors then I'll upgrade from Mountain Lion.  Frankly, I'm very tempted to return to Snow Leopard and three monitors.