# Mac users: thoughts on OS upgrading? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 30, 2011, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-users-thoughts-on-os-upgrading/601267 "2011-10-30T07:57:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-users-thoughts-on-os-upgrading/601267/1 "2011-10-30T07:57:45Z")
Actually, this isn’t about Lion; I’m behind the times! So I got my Macbook Pro in mid-2009. Not long after, I got Snow Leopard for free, but never really upgraded, partly because I wanted to see the bugs shake out at first (especially after reading stories on these boards about sudden slowness at all). As time passed, I continued not bothering, under the old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” policy). However, it’s been long enough that I’m starting to feel the effects of not doing so, such as the latest Flash (I think? some major Web tech) update not working on 10.5. Is there any reason not to upgrade at this point? I can back up my HD on an external HD if I _really_ have to go back, but it’s a lot of bother to do so, of course. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![FoundWaldo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@FoundWaldo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoundWaldo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-users-thoughts-on-os-upgrading/601267/2 "2011-10-30T08:35:56Z")
Always back up before an upgrade. You should be backing up regularly anyway. Time Machine makes it easy. At this point, you should probably just go all the way to Lion, because eventually Snow Leopard is going to be in the same boat. Lion is cheap, and has a lot of good improvements (and yes, some things I don’t like, but that’s how it goes). The biggest hitch with Lion is that PowerPC applications won’t work anymore. But if this is the first Mac you’ve had (or you didn’t copy over or install software from your previous one), it’s not too likely you have anything that old anyway. The ones I’ve had to deal with are ancient Quicken (2003) and Office (2004). ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-users-thoughts-on-os-upgrading/601267/3 "2011-10-30T11:13:11Z")
You’ll have to install Snow Leopard and update it if you want to install Lion. This is because Lion is only available as a download from the App Store on Mac and you have to get Snow Leopard to the point that it supports that App Store. As far as I know, this is still correct. If Apple is making a disc-based version of Lion available now, obviously I’m wrong. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-users-thoughts-on-os-upgrading/601267/4 "2011-10-30T14:37:43Z")
I wouldn’t go to Lion, unless you **really** need to. Snow Leopard is the most stable and compatible OS X. I have Lion on my new laptop, and while I don’t hate it, I also don’t find the new UI a very big improvement, and the loss of Rosetta is a big step backwards. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-users-thoughts-on-os-upgrading/601267/5 "2011-10-30T15:47:54Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > You’ll have to install Snow Leopard and update it if you want to install Lion. This is because Lion is only available as a download from the App Store on Mac and you have to get Snow Leopard to the point that it supports that App Store. > > As far as I know, this is still correct. If Apple is making a disc-based version of Lion available now, obviously I’m wrong. Apple does sell a thumb drive-based version of Lion, but admits that it’s more expensive than the downloadable version: [OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive - Apple](http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD256Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDAzOA) You are correct, there’s no disc-based version. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-users-thoughts-on-os-upgrading/601267/6 "2011-10-30T21:01:37Z")
Yeah, the Rosetta thing is of concern to me, since my version of MS Office is '04. I suppose I could upgrade that too, but… I spent two years being one version behind; that’s generally okay. Two gets more and more difficult. Thus why I’m asking. And I’m only asking about Snow Leopard for now because I _have_ that already. ---
**Author:** ![Amblydoper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-users-thoughts-on-os-upgrading/601267/7 "2011-10-31T03:20:27Z")
Snow leopard looks and feels just like Leopard, with some minor UI changes. It is mostly an under-the-hood upgrade that improves stability and performance. I don’t see any reason to keep Leopard if you have the Snow Leopard upgrade on hand. Lion was a bit of a controversial upgrade for several reasons. It seems that most everyone was/is affected by at least one of those reasons. Personally, I see it as the first step towards Apple’s next-generation OS (whatever that may be) and first steps are usually pretty awkward. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-users-thoughts-on-os-upgrading/601267/8 "2011-11-01T23:26:16Z")
> [@Amblydoper](#): > > Snow leopard looks and feels just like Leopard, with some minor UI changes. It is mostly an under-the-hood upgrade that improves stability and performance. I don’t see any reason to keep Leopard if you have the Snow Leopard upgrade on hand. My upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard was really bad. General performance went way down. Several applications I had stopped working (one of them claimed to support SL, the others didn’t. My own fault for not checking, but still). It was a big mess. I’m not saying that this will happen to others. It just made me very wary about doing any upgrade on a computer that’s working fine. Is there something you really want that’s in the upgrade? If not, consider that.