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Best OS for mid 2009 MacBook Pro?

Hi everyone,


I have a MacBook Pro from mid 2009 with the following specs:


2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3


I had OSX Lion on it with no problems, but recently decided to upgrade to Mountain Lion to be able to use the Messages app on the computer. For the first few days, upgrading had seemed to speed everything up! The Messages app is super buggy, but I was very happy to have upgraded. At this time I also created a new user and copied over about 400 GB of data from my desktop. Everything worked fine after this for a while... but a month later, things have gotten BAD. Applications take forever to open, everything is sluggish. I've tried repairing disk permissions, but it hasn't helped.


I'm wondering if maybe Mountain Lion is too much for the computer? Does anyone have any experiences to report about performance? I think I'm going to do a complete wipe and reinstall of the OS, and am wondering if I should go back to Lion, stick with Mountain Lion, or maybe even upgrade to Mavericks or Yosemite (though I suppose those would be too much for the computer).


Any insights or experience welcome!


Thanks.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5), 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM

Posted on Mar 4, 2015 11:16 AM

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Posted on Mar 4, 2015 1:10 PM

My personal opinion is that Snow Leopard is the best OSX for your MBP. It still is the most efficient from Apple.


If you need applications that will only run on newer OSXs, then that is not an option for you.


Have you gone into the recovery partition and opened Disk Utility>First Aid?


Also consider installing the maximum RAM (8 GB) that you MBP will accept, especially of you have thoughts about Yosemite. An SSD would speed things up, but the cost is still rather high.


Ciao

2 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Mar 4, 2015 1:10 PM in response to Nayeli

My personal opinion is that Snow Leopard is the best OSX for your MBP. It still is the most efficient from Apple.


If you need applications that will only run on newer OSXs, then that is not an option for you.


Have you gone into the recovery partition and opened Disk Utility>First Aid?


Also consider installing the maximum RAM (8 GB) that you MBP will accept, especially of you have thoughts about Yosemite. An SSD would speed things up, but the cost is still rather high.


Ciao

Mar 4, 2015 1:25 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

Thanks! I entirely agree about Snow Leopard. I have been holding onto that on my desktop. Such a beautifully designed and stable OS. I still consider it to be the peak of Apple OS development, despite Yosemite and such "looking pretty". Unfortunately so many developers now don't even support it.


Thanks again.

Best OS for mid 2009 MacBook Pro?

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