Should I take the free Maverick upgrade from Snow Leopard 10.6.8?

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Should I take the free Maverick upgrade from Snow Leopard 10.6.8?

My Macbook Pro has been working fine with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 for almost 4 years now. Just found this article (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9246609/Apple_retires_Snow_Leopard_from_s upport_leaves_1_in_5_Macs_vulnerable_to_attacks) which says snow leopard will no longer be supported or updated by Apple. Should I continue running Snow Leopard since it works fine? Or should I take the free upgrade to Maverick as long as I can to have security?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Feb 27, 2014 9:00 AM

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Answer 1

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baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Feb 27, 2014 2:54 PM in response to oco25713

Only upgrade if you want the iOS-like features. Do note that if you do, you lose all PPC apps. An alternative is to partition your drive, put a bootable clone onto it, and upgrade that. Allows running either OS. I run three w/o issues, preferring SL to the others. Prudent computer use should keep you safe from any purported exploits.

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Answer 2

Feb 27, 2014 3:28 PM in response to oco25713

Hello and good evening Oco25713,

Great question! While it is always a great thing to update your system to match the latest version of Mac OS X, There are some new and exciting new features in OS X Maverick along with some great power managment tools to get the most out of your Macbook Pro. You can get any information on the OS X update at Apple.com/OSX I would also check to see if you have the system requirements to run Mavericks.

If you have any more questions please let me know!

Best regards,

Brandon

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,668 points

Feb 27, 2014 6:23 PM in response to oco25713

Depends on what you need.

If you depend on seven-year-old software that hasn't been updated by the devoloper, then you probably shouldn't upgrade. Given that you are questioning whether you should change your OS because it is no longer being supported by the developer while sticking with software that has been equally abandoned doesn't make much sense to me. However, if it is the only software that provides you with a means of income, you're pretty much stuck.

Also, if the updated OS's don't provide you with any added benefit, then upgrading may not be necessary.

Will you be under some greater risk since there will be no more security updates? Hard to say. Given that unix is quite secure, and exploiting some flaw in Snow Leopard is likely not a windfall due to user-base numbers, I doubt the risk is substantial. Unless you are running a company with large assets, you are not likely a target of anyone.

Now, if you are an old stick-in-the-mud, you might not like progress, expanded mobile capability, simpler user interfaces, etc. In that case, stick with Snow Leopard. It really doesn't have any of those drawbacks.

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