Hello! I have a 17inch MacBook Pro running 10.5.8. I've been running Avid and so haven't updated the OS. But...it's time. Can you recommend the latest version I should use and possible problems with incompatibility. Thanks!

Apple is still selling 10.6 at $20. You need to buy it to get app store which allows you to download later versions of X. You can then buy:

-- http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion

please verify that your machine will run:

-- http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion

I'm not certain of which macbook pro you have, but you probably want to add more memory.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade

A lot of people like 10.6 snow leopard. Has a reputation as a good release. Hadn't slide into that ipad stuff. See if it does want you want. You can get a later web browser by going with Firefox maybe chrome. 10.6 was the last X to support ppc applications via emulation.

R

If you plan to continue with Avid, consider what the replacement cost, and application memory requirements will be for the version of OS X that you choose. This is over and above the memory requirements for OS X. Your MBP is likely old enough that the memory expansion will be capped at 6 GB.

One of the issues with choosing software for older Apple operating systems is that many vendors now require a minimum operating system release that may be newer than you can install, or has far greater memory requirements than your MBP can support.

I think you need new hardware. Avid seems heavy on the hardware.

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/compatibility/Media-Composer-System-Req uirements

But it's definitely time for an upgrade - the system is super slow,

Updating the software without knowing why may not do you much good.

I'll look into this some ore later.

R

But it's definitely time for an upgrade - the system is super slow

Lets see if we can find what is wrong.

1) etrecheck -- don't know if it will work on your machine or not. A great tool for finding all about your mac.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

2) console logs -- look for problem messages.

http://www.macissues.com/2014/03/23/how-to-use-the-system-console-in-os-x/

3) Run /Applications/Utilties/Activity Monitor while you are using your machine and see if you can identify the problem.

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Look into running activity monitor.

Some semi-random thoughts on addressing performance problems.

Activity Monitor
Look at what is happening with your Mac when you run Activity Monitor.

Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor

Look at my activity monitor image below.

You want to monitor the cpu time:

make certain:

1) little arrow appears in the %CPU column

2) little arrow is in the down direction

3) Activity Monitor is monitoring (All Processes)

4( Make sure that you have clicked on the cpu tab.

Use the View menu to change to All Processes if needed.

... clipped ...

You can gain some understanding of Activity Monitor by looking at it every once in a while. Look at the small graph below to see the total cpu time used. See what processes are listed on top.

Here is how I have my cpu display set up for Yosemite.

AppleJack
"AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI, or don't have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use."
http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

Console
You can use the console application to examine Mac OS log files. The logs will contain information on various system processes.

Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Console

File > open console log
this will display the startup messages

and
file > open system log
once the system is started, messages will go into the system log

Other folks
bdaqua advises running disk utility from install disk ( or recover partition ) and performing a safe boot:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2256611
Using the Recovery partition

Hold down command+r at boot.
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4718
http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/03/how-to-boot-into-os-x-lions-recovery-hd-partition /

K Shaffer advises checking for available RAM

Here is all the technical detail for your early-2008 MBP. It is limited to 6GB memory, and shipped with OS X 10.5.2. That Snow Leopard 10.6.3 DVD supports this hardware, and will require you to perform a clean install of the newer OS X release. That means that you will first need to perform a full backup to an external drive using Time Machine, or other capable solution. Once 10.6.3 is installed, you would continue to perform software updates until none are available, ending in OS X 10.6.8.

Before you update, you should run Disk Utility to verify your boot drive, and see if it produces green results (ok), or you get red results that may indicate either drive corruption or early drive failure which could be a contributing factor for machine slowness.

I would also launch the Console application in Applications:Utilities and look at the “now” system log entries to see if there are blatant error messages, or repeated warnings occurring in the log — most recent on the bottom. Individually, you can type the words Error, Warning, Fatal in the Console search window to isolate current and past issues.

From a hardware perspective, your MBP is now almost 8 years old. It is not a question of you leaving it for another machine, it is a matter of this machine leaving you. In 2013, I was using the 15 inch version of this exact hardware. Worked flawlessly, shut it down one evening, and the next morning, it would not power up. Nothing I did, including different battery, resets, or disassembly would revive it. Two months later, the identical behavior occurred for the 17 inch model on my team.