Upgrade options besides El Capitan

Every version of OS X has received terrible reviews. This one is no different. Most is nonsense written to sell articles and magazines. And, everyone posting in these forums has a problem. The millions of users without problems don't post here. 😀 Here are your options.

Upgrading to El Capitan

You can upgrade to El Capitan from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. El Capitan can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for FREE.

Upgrading to El Capitan

To upgrade to El Capitan you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Download El Capitan from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. El Capitan is free. The file is quite large, over 5 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.

Macs that can be upgraded to OS X El Capitan

1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later

2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later

3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later

4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later

5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later

6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later

7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later

To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.

Are my applications compatible?

See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps

Upgrading to Lion

If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mavericks, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.

You can purchase Lion at the Online Apple Store. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.

Lion System Requirements

1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,

or Xeon processor

2. 2GB of memory

3. OS X v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)

4. 7GB of available space

5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.

El Capitan has terrible reviews.

The opposite is true. I have never seen a bad review of El Capitan.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/os-x-10-11-el-capitan-the-ars-technica-revi ew/

http://www.macworld.com/article/2987277/operating-systems/os-x-el-capitan-review -mac-upgrade-thats-as-solid-as-a-rock.html

http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/mac-software/os-x-el-capitan-mac-review-3613524 /

http://www.cnet.com/products/mac-os-x-10-11-el-capitan/

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/29/os-x-el-capitan-reviews/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2486071,00.asp

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/os-x-el-capitan-hands-on/

One option is to create a new partition (~30- 50 GB), install the new OS, and ‘test drive’ it. If you like/don’t like it it, you can then remove the partition. Do a backup before you do anything. By doing this, if you don’t like it you won’t have to go though the revert process.

Check to make sure your applications are compatible.

Application Compatibility

Applications Compatibility (2)

El Capitan 10.11 Compatibility information

Open Disk Utility, select your hard drive (step 1), then the Partition tab (step 2), and select the partition. Using the /// at the bottom move it up (step 3) until the size box decrease by about 50 GB. Select the newly created space and hit the + button (step 4). Name it something and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as the format (step 5). Then hit the Apply button(step 6). Download the installer from the App Store and when it starts, point it at the new partition. You might want to make a copy of the installer outside the Applications folder to avoid having to re-download it in the future. Once installed, go to System Preferences/Startup Disk, select the new partition and reboot. Test away.

I recently upgraded from 10.6.8 to El Capitan. I HATE IT. I'm not a whiz when it comes to this stuff and I am desperately trying to find a way to go back to what I had. I am so discouraged and frustrated.

I HATE IT.

That doesn't tell us much of anything. What do you dislike about it? And please don't say the interface. Yes, the design is drastically different from what you're used to, but that has nothing to do with usability.

Are things not working, such as PowerPC software? If that's one of your items, that's been true since Lion, 10.7.x. No PowerPC software will run natively in OS X after Snow Leopard.

Dellapearl1 wrote:

I recently upgraded from 10.6.8 to El Capitan. I HATE IT. I'm not a whiz when it comes to this stuff and I am desperately trying to find a way to go back to what I had. I am so discouraged and frustrated.

Tell us what you find hate worthy about it. Or (if you want to go back) restore your backup (the one you would have made before replacing your OS)

What about El Capitan do you hate?

I don't. Just as I quoted you here, that was a quote out of Dellapearl1's post just above mine where he says, I HATE IT. The rest of my post should have made it pretty clear I was looking for a response to his post.

For myself, I'm using El Capitan all day, every day with no issues.

Kurt Lang wrote:

I HATE IT.

I don't.

Make up your mind! 😁

Perhaps leaving out the "attribution of quotes" confuses newbies...

One of my complaints about El Cap, aside from the Disk Utility mess, is that you get nagged if you choose to use a browser other than Safari. It's incredibly annoying, and makes me want to travel to Cupertino just to find the people who included that "feature" and slap them upside their pointy heads. Fortunately, someone here posted a way to disable that intrusive nonsense. Apparently the Safari nag started in Yosemite, although I have not yet encountered it there.

https://www.slightfuture.com/how-to/osx-try-safari-promotion

Lanny, printing is still an issue with El Capitan, although not as bad as before January 27th:

http://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-8811

And 10.11.2 thankfully corrected issues with Image Capture scanning that existed on 10.11.0, and 10.11.1.