Organizational Standardization on OSX 10.9 or 10.10

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Level 1

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Organizational Standardization on OSX 10.9 or 10.10

Hello,

We use Mac Minis to control custom hardware. Due to a variety of changes to OSX from 10.9 to 10.11 that interfere with the control processes, there is an effort to choose a version of OSX to standardize upon. Any upgrades need to occur after we have evaluated the new version against our tools and requirements. An example of a problem we have encountered has to do with the FTDI driver(s) exist in Mavericks. Another example has to do with our setup and installation scripts.

For the next year or so, is there any reason we could not install 10.9 on newer Mac Minis?

I ask this because one of our Engineers / Research Techs attempted to install 10.9 on a newer MacBook Pro and was informed that the OS was too old.

What issues would we encounter installing 10.9 on a new Mac Mini?

What considerations are there to upgrading all of our Mac Minis to a newer version of OSX when (if) we have resolved all of the technical issues?

Thank You

-isdi-

Posted on Feb 3, 2016 5:19 AM

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Answer 1

keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Feb 3, 2016 5:46 AM in response to ISDi

For the next year or so, is there any reason we could not install 10.9 on newer Mac Minis?

What considerations are there to upgrading all of our Mac Minis to a newer version of OSX when (if) we have resolved all of the technical issues?

Unfortunately, most of the time you can only install the version of OS X that came pre-installed on a Mac Mini.

There are very few exceptions. For example, I purchased a refurbished late-2012 Mac Mini that came with OS X 10.9 installed. I wanted to run OS X 10.8.5 so I tried and was able to install 10.8.5. But, I could not install any versions older than 10.8. Another example is I purchased a refurbished early-2015 Macbook Pro Retina that came pre-installed with OS X 10.11. However, I was able to install OS X 10.10.5 on it but nothing older than 10.10.5. So, in some cases, even though the Mac had a version of OS X pre-installed depending on hardware, it might be possible to install an earlier version but only 1 version back.

The newer Mac Minis may come with OS X 10.10 or 10.11 installed and as you have found, will not allow older OS X installs.

So, your best bet is to lab test newer and existing Mac Mini models with a newer OS X version and work out any issues with your software/hardware before considering to upgrade all of your Mac Minis.

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Answer 2

Lanny

Level 6

13,183 points

Feb 3, 2016 9:03 AM in response to ISDi

First, El Capitan is free.

You should have a backup, preferably a cloned backup, on an external drive. You can then boot from that external and try out El Capitan to see if it is compatible with the rest of your needs.

We don't know anything about your "custom hardware," but there is no reason why you can't test how it may work with other OS X versions.

As long as you have good backups, you have no risk to try things out.

Basically, in agreement with Keg55.

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Answer 3

a brody

Level 10

82,941 points

Feb 3, 2016 4:30 PM in response to ISDi

10.9 and 10.10. are no longer available. As such as long as your Macs are all older than those operating systems, you can setup a partition on each to run a cloned copy of a working copy from another Mac Mini. Carbon Copy Cloner is excellent at doing this. That way, in your environment, you can dual boot the operating system that came with it, and other using the startup manager (the Option key), and Disk Utility to create large enough partitions. Once you have established all your applications, printers and drivers work with a newer operating system, then you can upgrade to that operating system. But be sure to follow this rule:

Always have at least two separate copies of your data at all times.

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