Should I upgrade from OS X 10.7.5?

At some point Apple will stop issuing security updates to 10.7.5. In order to keep your system as up-to-date as possible it is wise to keep OS X up-to-date. This also may come at a price, that being that you may have apps that you use that are not supported on more up-to-date versions of OS X. You should check these prior to upgrading. You can use RoaringApps.com to do that.

In addition newer versions of OS X need more RAM, so that may require a RAM upgrade too. If your machine has 4GB or less of RAM it should be upgraded to 8GB or more.

Until earlier this year I was using a Mac G4 running OSX 10.4.11. Even older than your 10.7.5. Basically the same rationale as you. I upgraded largely because I was given a newer used computer. I ran the G4 over a decade and never felt particularly concerned about "security". In that regard, the much bigger population of newer Macs makes a nicer hacking target, and most security is personal behavior such as not clicking on unknown links in e-mails which can happen in any OS version. From my perspective the only real reason to upgrade if you are mostly happy with your current software is if you do things online which require security. Fortunately for Tiger OS a port of Firefox was available which was essentially a modern browser available for PPC Macs (so not yours 😟 ). I didn't even use it on a daily basis but started it when I needed to enter a credit card number or do online banking.

You don't say anything about your computer either, other than it is an iMac. We don't even know if this whole topic is moot because you can't upgrade that particular machine anyway. Another alternative would be to have a dual boot system and boot to something newer when you have to but otherwise continue with your old system.

I never said the security was better, I said it was kept up-to-date. You cannot upgrade to 10.8 - 10.10, as of today you can go from 10.7.5 to 10.11.6. Effective tomorrow (when Apple releases 10.12 (Mac OS Sierra) you would go from 10.7.5 to 10.12.

soyeso wrote:

I have read that there are security advantages to the newer versions. I am also looking at options for more security.

Actually the older versions of OS X are available from Apple but kind of tricky to find.

I never get upgrades when they first come out. Too dangerous in my experience until they work out the bugs.

Thanks

OS X is the ONLY security you need. You are hinting at adding additional security, you cannot. What you can do is potentially damage OS X by adding cleaning, antivirus or other third party applications that allege to increase security. They do not!

rkaufmann87 wrote:

as of today you can go from 10.7.5 to 10.11.6. Effective tomorrow (when Apple releases 10.12 (Mac OS Sierra) you would go from 10.7.5 to 10.12.

Are you positive about all those release constraints?

Mountain Lion is still for sale: Mountain Lion 10.8 purchase link U.S.A. - http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion

Do we know yet if El Capitan will be pulled? It would be very unusual for Apple to do that. Sierra drops support for a series of machines and usually Apple will keep available the last software version to support a line of machines being dropped. I know the computer soyeso is running can do Sierra but that is not saying soyeso has to go from 10.7 to Sierra. The bigger the jump one makes in doing upgrades the more the chance that some software won't make it. Going on past Apple behavior, El Capitan will likely still see security updates for a while.

There are always security flaws. The thing about supported software is that something is being done about them as they are discovered whereas unsupported software has to live with them, and of course they are known to the world as no longer being patched.

Limnos wrote:

rkaufmann87 wrote:

as of today you can go from 10.7.5 to 10.11.6. Effective tomorrow (when Apple releases 10.12 (Mac OS Sierra) you would go from 10.7.5 to 10.12.

Are you positive about all those release constraints?

Mountain Lion is still for sale: Mountain Lion 10.8 purchase link U.S.A. - http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion

Do we know yet if El Capitan will be pulled?

Actually, no I am not positive. I guess time will tell though.

Limnos wrote:

rkaufmann87 wrote:

as of today you can go from 10.7.5 to 10.11.6. Effective tomorrow (when Apple releases 10.12 (Mac OS Sierra) you would go from 10.7.5 to 10.12.

Are you positive about all those release constraints?

Mountain Lion is still for sale: Mountain Lion 10.8 purchase link U.S.A. - http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion

As is

Snow Leopard - here

Lion - here

Based on what year/model your Mac is - OS X versions and builds included with Mac computers - Apple Support - and which OS X versions were bought from the App Store (under Purchased), you can get 10.6 through 10.10. Also, Internet Recovery is a special case of offering you the shipped OS X version, not the currently installed one, on supported Macs. I also preserve old Installer Applications and Grey disks for OS X to have a handy copy.

Loner T wrote:

you can get 10.6 through 10.10.

You can't get 10.9 or 10.10 unless you already downloaded them at some stage in the past. Anything that can run 10.9 or 10.10 can in theory run 10.11 and Apple pulled 10. 9 and 10.10 as soon as each newer version was released.