drorata:
Your last two email raise several issues and I will respond to them. But first, I want to reiterate that since you are not the OP, I am responding broadly, not just for you, but for the complete "audience" whom might read this thread:
A. Apple's continuing support of Snow Leopard or lack thereof:
drorata wrote:
I am looking into changing my OS for two reasons:
1. I understand that apple doesn't support SL anymore.
That is a common misconception that is being repeated by many otherwise knowledgable members of this forum. The fact of the matter is that they, just like I, have no independent proof of whether that statement is true or false and probably will never have such certainty. So in an uncertain world, one must look at the empirical evidence, assess the risks and come to their own conclusion on this issue.
1. Some people point to a security update release by Apple in February that did not include Snow Leopard. Other people, knowledgable about such issues, have pointed out that the security flaw that was fixed in February was not present in Snow Leopard and hence a security update was not needed for Snow Leopard.
2. Some of these same people point to a lack of any security updates for Snow Leopard since last year. To me this is proof of nothing...
3. Apple has continued to support and update apps for Snow Leopard. For example, they have recently released both the 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 updates to FaceTime for Snow Leopard. If Apple has abandoned the most important consideration for using a version of OS X, namely abandoning the support of Snow Leopard, what would prompt them to waste the time and effort to update FaceTime. Apple's thinking would be that every user should be using FaceTime in Lion, Mt. Lion or Mavericks, so why fix it for Snow Leopard? It makes no sense.
4. Apple continues to offer Snow Leopard for sale on The Apple Store. Further, as you will note if you do an anedotal review of recent posts on this subject, many users of OS X Tiger and Leopard, who have the hardware ability to upgrade to Mavericks and want to do so, are required by Apple to purchase Snow Leopard and install it, upgrade it to 10.6.8 and run it to gain access to the App Store to purchase and download the installer for Mavericks.
However, by offering Snow Leopard for sale, Apple is clearly aware that some of its purchasers will also be using it as their primary OS X with no further upgrade. No where does Apple warn the current purchasers of Snow Leopard that they are no longer providing security support for it. Why would Apple expose itself to such legal liability for selling a product that is security flawed without warning of that flaw?
At the end of the day, a partioned installation of Mavericks in addition to Snow Leopard would offer the user the ability to do most if not all of their security "at-risk" activities in Mavericks and return to Snow Leopard when their activities do not implicate the internet, such as running most PowerPC apps.
B. "...and I am feeling it."
drorata wrote:
I am looking into changing my OS for two reasons:
2. The installation that I have of SL is about two years old and I feel it.
That problem is outside of the scope of this thread. You should post a new thread about the "sluggishness" of your operation of Snow Leopard and gain a wider audience to respond to that problem then just the handful of us who original responded to this thread over two months ago.
Quite honestly, I review posts about Snow Leopard quite often yet I see few if any other suggestions that Snow Leopard has become sluggish. On the contrary, most people report how robust their use of Snow Leopard continues to present to them and they post about the worry about updating older hardware to Mavericks and its possible slowdown of their use of OS X. Let us not forget that your Mac is now four years old...
C. Time vs. security
drorata wrote:
I want to minimize the risks on one hand and save as much time as possible on the other hand.
Don't we all?
Other than the time needed to partition your hard drive or add an external drive, how much time is lost in this method with the attendant gain of use of both Snow Leopard vs. Mavericks? Not much, in my opinion.
D. A clean install of Mavericks
drorata wrote:
From my experience the easiest way to tackle (2) is to backup the system (in particular the DATA) and clean install. I'm ready to follow this path, and that's why I don't mind so much about clean install.
Partioning or adding an external drive is a "clean install" of Mavericks. That is the whole point, so that you do not destroy your existing installation of Snow Leopard.
E. Sharing of data
Lastly, I have a followup question: Assuming I am installing Mavericks on a partition on my MBP and everything is great. Can I then remove SL and stick to the new system? Can I share DATA between the two installations?
Yes and yes.
F. Backup and restore of data
drorata wrote:
I don't really care, because all the data is backed up, and won't be too much of a problem to retreive it.
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem of migrating from Snow Leopard to Mavericks.
Most Snow Leopard users have no idea that they are using PowerPC apps (those written for the PowerPC CPU used in Macs prior to 2006) on their post-2006 Intel CPU Macs This is accomplished by a miraculous piece of software called Rosetta that Apple included in TIger, Leopard and optionally in Snow Leopard. Their license to the underlying intellectual property expired with the release of Lion, so it is no longer present in Lion, Mt. Lion and Mavericks.
It is not the absense of your data that will suffer in Mavericks, but your inability to run your PowerPC apps in Mavericks so as to be able to open, modify and resave your data in Mavericks. Restoring your complete operating system (Snow Leopard) is not a trivial exercise compared to just restoring data. And if during this time you cannot access important documents, the problem is increased exponentially.
G. Install problems with Mavericks
drorata wrote:
One technical questions: HOW can I install Mavericks on a partition and/or ext HD? When I click the installer I get the error message cited in the OP right away. So I do't have a chance to point where to install something...
As I similarly pointed out earlier you do yourself a disservice by addressing this concern to the handful of members who follow this thread. You are better off reposting this core problem and getting a fresh set of eyeballs on this problem.
All of this is of course subject to the aphorism: Your mileage may vary!
If you want to take risks and save time, only you know your situation best!
Good luck!
