Is it worth it to upgrade Tiger?

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Is it worth it to upgrade Tiger?

I have a 2007 (if memory serves correctly) iMac still running 10.4.11 Tiger and have been doing some research on upgrading and am wondering if it is worth it to upgrade, and if so what is the way to do it? I mainly use it for Photoshop, Final Cut, iPhoto is where I store all of my photos and iTunes. I've considered just starting over with a new Mac, but can't really justify it because I only use it for those few things, it still runs like a charm, and I'm no where near running out of space. If upgrading is the way to go, how do I do it? Do I go from Leopard, to Snow Leopard, to Lion (which I don't think I'm going to do right away, if I can even upgrade to Lion), or do I just go straight from Tiger to Snow Leopard? Do I get the $29 version of Snow Leopard, or buy the whole package? Or should I just not even worry about upgrading, and keep using Tiger? I'm rather confused about the whole upgrading thing and I don't know that much about Macs, so please keep it simple. I'm not by the Mac right now, but will be later and if you need more info just let me know and let me know how to access that information. 🙂 Thanks in advance!

Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Dec 13, 2011 11:56 AM

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Answer 1

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Ralph Landry1

Level 8

41,844 points

Dec 13, 2011 12:04 PM in response to Betsy Rose

Upgrading can become a very personal thing. A lot depends on are you happy with your machine right now, are there features in the newer operating systems you would like to have, and can the hardware perform well with the upgrade.

To upgrade beyon Leopard you have to have an Intel processor. A 2007 machine should have that. So you could go directly to SL if you want to. Check the memory and free hard drive space and see that you meet the SL requirements before buying anything.

Snow Leopard will give you a great deal of what is in Lion except for iCloud. And Lion requires an Intel Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7, or Xenon processor. So you need to consider that.

A new machine will be significantly faster and have much more memory and much larger hard drive. So that is something to also consider.

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Answer 2

Dec 13, 2011 12:11 PM in response to Betsy Rose

This is the information on Snow Leopard at the Apple on-line store

That would be all you would need to upgrade to SL.

Of course, anytime it says a memory requirement that is a minimum to run. Much better performance is usually gained by doubling the minimum.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

238,997 points

Dec 13, 2011 12:15 PM in response to Betsy Rose

I'd be careful or doubtful even about upgrading if it does what you need it to do AND the software you have works... it may not in a higher OS.

10.5 requires twice the resources of 10.4, 10.6 requires twice that of 10.5, 10.7 twice that of 10.6, so your essentially downgrading your iMac with every OS upgrade.

And Lion may put you in a bit of shock, for instance Save & Save as..., are now gone!!!

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Answer 4

Dec 13, 2011 2:11 PM in response to Betsy Rose

Some other considerations regarding upgrade to Snow Leopard.

It's possible that some of your current apps may not work in Snow Leopard. You can check here: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Application Compatibility List at http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/ (Probably Lion also - Roaring Apps http://roaringapps.com/apps:table).

Your current apps should run in Leopard.

If you currently run some OS 9 apps in classic mode, Leopard & higher don't support classic mode.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 5

Betsy Rose Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 13, 2011 3:32 PM in response to Betsy Rose

Thanks everyone for the extremely helpful and easy to understand information! I think I am going to hold off for a little bit-I saw on the list of compatible apps that Photoshop CS3 has had some issues and that's what I run. When I get some extra cash I will upgrade Photoshop, and then probably upgrade to SL or Lion. We will see how I make out this Christmas! 😉

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Answer 6

Dec 13, 2011 4:47 PM in response to Betsy Rose

Good to see you added more research to what we were advising so you could make a well informed decision.

Hope Santa is good to you this year 😝

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