tenaciousk,
10.6.8 is the version of Mac OS X (Snow Leopard) that’s installed on your MacBook Pro, not the version of your browser. Presuming that you’re currently using Safari, it sounds as though your choices to keep using your favorite Web tools are:
- stay with Snow Leopard, and change from Safari to another browser, e.g. Firefox or Chrome; or
- upgrade to Mavericks, and use the latest version of Safari.
What you should do depends upon your current situation. If you currently run PowerPC apps under Snow Leopard, then you should stay with Snow Leopard, because they aren’t supported in any newer version of OS X. If you have 2 GB of RAM installed, and you don’t want to increase your RAM, then you should stay with Snow Leopard, because Mavericks will probably need more RAM than that to run well. If you really like Safari, and don’t need to worry about whether any third-party apps you have installed will be supported under Mavericks, then you could upgrade to Mavericks. My inclination would be to try staying with Snow Leopard and experiment with another browser, to see if you find one that you like and if your favorite Web tools are usable in it. If so, then you can just use the new browser for your favorite Web tools, and keep everything else the same. If you decide that you don’t like the new browser, then you can figure out whether migrating to Mavericks would be a reasonable alternative.