Q: I want to download the Maverick OS but have read a lot of negative reviews

There are quite a few changes that many do not like, but I haven't found any problems with using Mavericks.

As to losing everything, you can only do that if you don't have a backup. And, if you don't have a backup, you can lose everything at the drop of a hat.

There are lots of discussions here about the changes which you may or may not like.

Tags replace Labels -- ie no colored labels in the finder, but you can use multiple tags on any file or folder.

No local contacts and calendar sync. You must use a server-based solution such as iCloud.

PowerPC applictions will not longer work--but that will be the same for Lion or Mountain Lion.

The other question you must ask yourself is, how many postitive reviews of anything have you ever left?

Check out how many folks are using Mavericks:

https://www.gosquared.com/mavericks/

This is a huge adoption rate compared to other operating systems.

In these days of social media, of course you will see negative comments about absolutely everything.  But I suggest not letting that influence you at all.

did you end up downloading Mavericks?  I have the same worries regarding reviews.  Spoke with an Apple support person today, and he suggested I upgrade - before Yosemite comes out.  Even so, reviews as recent as yesterday are very mixed.  Mostly about machines running very slowly, and mouse not working, things like that.

I might try over the weekend anyway.  Thanks.  Input appreciated.  I have a refurb late 2011 OS X Lion 10.7.5

Mostly about machines running very slowly, and mouse not working, things like that.

From what I've seen here, most slowness has been caused by installing crapware. Get rid of the crapware and it runs fine.

Install it on an external drive and test it out. Or, clone your current drive to an external and install on that to test.

@Barney-15E can you define "crapware", I'm not sure what you mean.  Thanks.

Mavericks is just a headache. I have had so many problems and disappointments with Apple's changes (they are forcing people to use only apple approved apps. and extensions which alot of times is very inconvenient. I also had many problems with system updates. I had to completely erase the disc. re-install

Lion, then update to Mavericks and re- migrate my backed up account back into Mavericks. After a lot

of problems, I re-installed my old Mountain Lion. One problem though, when you do this is that you can not migrate backwards from Mavericks, you have to

physically drag the desktop items and apps back to Mountain Lion- newer Apple apps won't work in Mountain Lion. To get all of your new photos back to the Mountain Lion version of iPhoto, double-click your specific account folder locate the photos folder inside this you will see the iPhoto library hold the control key down and right click on this you will see a set of options one of which is show package contents select this option and you will see a Masters folder which has all

of your photos. With Mavericks you cannot open .FLV files in Quicktime as you can with Mountsin Lion.

JERRYMAC wrote:

 

Mavericks is just a headache. I have had so many problems and disappointments with Apple's changes (they are forcing people to use only apple approved apps. and extensions which alot of times is very inconvenient.

What nonsense, how about some facts to go with that.

I'm not sure again!  This is so difficult because the reviews for Mavericks is either hot or cold.  It's true though, last night I wanted to download a game app, and I couldn't because I hadn't upgraded to 10.8.  If it's true about Quicktime being affected, that worries me.  I tend to use it for screen captures. 

I see tempers flared a bit, saw it in my emails, but I guess those comments got blocked or deleted.  I think it gets frustrating when people cannot sit in the same room together and look at respective computers and point out what the problems are.  I'd feel a whole lot better if I had that option.   I might wait til Monday then, when I may be able to get some support. 

I'm not really having problems with Lion, except that I got completely phished day before yesterday - something that actually began in iTunes.  Anyway, I digress.

Csound1 Although I see you're a long time contributor to discussions, I still feel so wary. 

Crapware is anything that purports to clean, protect, optimize, or maintain your Mac.

In addition, any software that is installed with an installer that does not come with either an uninstaller or specific instructions to remove the software is crapware. That second set may be actually useful and not cause problems; however, the developer hasn't put in the necessary effort to fully support their software, so it will likely break with any update that comes along.

Anything ing that installs with an installer is likely modifying your OS (or the developers are idiots). Any system mod will cause instability.

I dislike many of the changes that were made to the OS starting with Lion. Some of them can be tweaked or adjusted, some not. It is also true that Mavericks has been problematic for a lot of people, and it can't all be written off as being due to crapware. I have found it slower than earlier OSes on two Macs I got this summer.

Right out of the box, my 2012 Mini that shipped with Mavericks felt sluggish. Some of that can be attributed to the 5400 rpm HD, but not all: I partitioned the HD and installed Mountain Lion, and ML runs better on the same hardware. My 2012 13" MacBook Pro also came with Mavericks installed. It takes around a minute and 20 seconds to boot to the log-in screen. My 2011 MBP with Snow Leopard boots in about 20 seconds.

I would suggest that you install it on a spare HD to see if you want to go ahead and upgrade your main system drive. Before you do anything, you must make a bootable clone of your current system so that you can go back to it if you need to.

There are things u cannot install without OSX 10.9 and as I said b4

once u install it u are restricted by what printers u can still use, what kinds of video files

u cn view in quicktime(.flv). I have been using Macs since 1982 and the last time I saw this kind

of instability was when Apple almost went under- just b4 Steve Jobs came back to Apple.

There r always things u r going 2 have to give up when Systems progress, but when an upgrade

causes corruption and there are different kinds of problems with progressive updates this is a big problem.

If you upgrade, make sure u have a healthy backup so you can re-install it. Mountain Lion is the most stable

system so far. With Mountain Lion, with progressive updates the system got more stable but with Mavericks

it seems like new problems crop up- like I said it's been a long time since I've seen these kind of problems.

Personally I'm going to wait till the OSX comes out

probably nxt month or so and wait 6 months 2 see what others think. I can wait

because I saw what Mavericks did when I initially

upgraded from Mountain Lion then when I re-installed by stable Mountain Lion backup, it was apparent

how many issues there were. I'm going 2 wait this time !!!!

Csound1 wrote:

 

JERRYMAC wrote:

 

Mavericks is just a headache. I have had so many problems and disappointments with Apple's changes (they are forcing people to use only apple approved apps. and extensions which alot of times is very inconvenient.

What nonsense, how about some facts to go with that.

The discussions have quite a few of these already very well documented.

"Crapware" is tied to usage patterns and user behavior. In most cases, a user has a problem, and is tempted to find a 'fix' which results in "crapware" being allowed on the machine. Gatekeeper can only block so much.

In general, every Software Update after a release is fixing shortcomings which are left in the original release. There are no new features in 10.9.1-10.9.5, are there? 10.10 has new features, so 10.9.1-10.9.5 are all patches on 10.9.0.

The current issues with iOS8 (although unrelated to Macs) are not making anyone feel warm and fuzzy.

iTunes 11.4 broke many device syncs, does not install correctly. Is it part of Mavericks? Maybe. 

Older hardware can be upgraded to Mavericks as noted here - OS X Mavericks - Technical Specifications

but performance is worse than the OS that originally came with the machine. For example, on a 2.2G/2010 MBP with a 5400rpm drive, SL, Lion, ML perform much better than Mavericks.

Two specific functions that are important were broken (The VPN issues required a switch to Cisco AnyConnect instead of the built-in VPN).

From About the OS X Mavericks v10.9.2 Update

• Fixes an issue that may cause audio distortion on certain Macs
• Fixes an issue that may cause VPN connections to disconnect

There are lots of WiFi issues with 10.9.0 through 10.9.5. For example - OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 Update

Fixes an issue that prevented some Macs from automatically connecting to known Wi-Fi networks

Improves the reliability of wake from sleep.

I will add these to litany of woes (directly or indirectly related to Mavericks).

I HATE YOU IOS 8, WHY DID YOU SLOW MY IPAD DOWN?

I understand this has nothing to do with Mavericks.

ATV3 will not boot after latest update/already tried restoring via iTunes.

This is an exclusively Apple-controlled environment, with zero possibility of "crapware".

AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext error on installing iTunes update

This is an exclusively Apple-controlled environment, with zero possibility of "crapware". There is zero third-party intervention here.

Long time ago, there was no concept of AppleCare. If your Apple device did not work, even after 5+ years of use, Apple would fix it, and for free in most cases.

Now a 2011 AMD GPU machine Logic Board is almost considered "legacy".

The products are (and have been) very good with very admirable Engineering. It is now questionable how much of that still exists. What Jobs (and Wozniak in Apple's infancy) did for Apple, no one will ever match for any other corporate organization. Akio Morita (Sony) and Bill Gates (MS) are very close peers for such contributions.