And I have less than half that on this laptop of mine.
Is it worth it right now? Is there a way to get that much quickly? Any other options?
I’m still using MacOS 10.11.6, and to be honest I’d rather be using 10.6.8 but it wasn’t sufficiently compatible with what I needed to be able to run.
Other than increased compatibility with external resources or new software installation requirements, there’s no advantage to upgrading to later OS versions, so it depends on what you’re needing to do. Can you still do it on the OS you’re running now?
That’s a very good question I hadn’t considered. My mind immediately associates OS updates with better security, so I think I have “no choice” or that performance is irrelevant. But if that were so, then there literally wouldn’t be a choice to not upgrade to begin with.
So I guess for someone like me, who mostly does basic stuff that’s too uncomfortable to do on a handheld device, no need to go out of my way for it? It’s not like I knew it existed before the suggestion automatically popped up for me.
I’m a hobbyist who has a Macintosh SE running System 6.0.8, a PowerMac 7100 runing MacOS 8.6, a PowerBook G3 with MacOS 10.3, a PowerBook G4 with 10.4, another with 10.5, a MacBook Pro running 10.6.8, one with 10.11 which I’m typing from, one with 10.13, and a newer one with 10.14 on it.
I haven’t encountered any security issues with the older machines and their older operating systems. The MacOS 10.4 box is exposed to the outside world, in fact, I use it as a web server. Never had any issue with it.
Your mileage may, of course, vary. But overall Macs are not the target of most malware, whether you choose to denigrate it as “security via obscurity” or not. MacOS isn’t bulletproof, never was, but if you keep a backup to restore from and take reasonable precautions you’re not likely to get hacked.
What version of macOS are you on currently? Did you actually try to install it and it told you it wouldn’t because of the low disk space or are you just assuming it won’t based on the requirements?
A quick way to recover that disk space is to delete files you don’t need anymore. Or transfer them to another hard drive, install the update, and then transfer the files back.
If security is something you’re concerned about, Apple (generally speaking) provides security updates for about 3 years after a major OS release. So if you’re on last year’s Big Sur, you’re fine for a while yet and if you’re on the 2 year old Catalina you can probably expect security updates to keep coming until sometime this fall.
That’s completely up to you. Check out the new Monterey features here and see if any of them appeal to you. Here they are listed in a more convenient bullet point-type list.
That is just patently false. You can love old software as much as you want, but come on.
Opened the list of Monterey features. The Passwords management looks cool; wouldn’t use any of the others. Tradeoff is you can’t run any 32-bit applications unless you run a virtual machine that boots an earlier version of MacOS. And my guess is that I’d spend the first 18 weeks trying to disable or manage the intrusive new behaviors.
Hey, I’m still resenting things that MacOS 8 broke that worked in System 7 