# What do you consider when upgrading your OS? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-when-upgrading-your-os/660786 "2013-06-12T05:20:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-when-upgrading-your-os/660786/1 "2013-06-12T05:20:37Z")
I’ve got a four year old Macbook Pro on which I’m still using OSX 10.6.8 (two versions behind current). I have, however, used 10.7 and 10.8 at work, and while there were a few things about it that annoyed me (like the default hiding of stuff I use at home to do backups), I could also look up how to get around those pretty nicely. I saw some of the negative reviews of Mountain Lion on the App Store, but I don’t use a lot of the features they were missing, like the four finger app swipe (I didn’t even realize you could do that). Plus, I figure I’ll upgrade one way or another, when I get my next computer if nothing else (although I plan to hang onto this one as long as possible), so now might be the time. Any reason not to? What should I consider when making this decision? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-when-upgrading-your-os/660786/2 "2013-06-12T05:25:34Z")
If it works the way you want right now, why mess with that? I have 10.5 on an iMac in my kitchen, and that’s waay long in the tooth and I keep thinking I should upgrade it, but I keep seeing no good reason to. Which sounds like you, right? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-when-upgrading-your-os/660786/3 "2013-06-12T05:46:06Z")
I get your point, and I do agree to some extent, but if your iMac’s in your kitchen, how much do you really use it? I mean, this is my primary home computing platform. Eventually, time’s gonna catch up to the OS, and I figured I may as well “train” myself in the new stuff. Plus I wonder if performance will be better with the newer OS. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-when-upgrading-your-os/660786/4 "2013-06-12T06:34:17Z")
If you want someone to say “ohnos, don’t upgrade”, I’m not that guy. I don’t find 10.7 or 10.8 tres sexy vs 10.6. They’re just this year’s flavor. I get OS-X upgrades for free via work, so I just upgrade because I must to do my job. I liked 10.6 quite a lot, I grudgingly liked 10.7, and 10.8 is also fine. 10.9 is pretty crashy so far, but I’m sure they’ll shake it out. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-when-upgrading-your-os/660786/5 "2013-06-12T07:40:11Z")
Whether Mr. Torvalds has released a new kernel. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-when-upgrading-your-os/660786/6 "2013-06-12T18:08:47Z")
Consider if your applications support the new version. And consider if you really want/need anything in the new version. I had a _major_ pain upgrading from (I think) 10.6 to 10.7 a few years ago. Everything seemed to get slower. I had a bunch of kernels panics for a few days until I found some webpage that told me how to fix some broken kernel extension. The VPN software I used to connect to work needed to be upgraded, and the new one had a weird bug in it that I spent several hours sifting through mailing lists and trying things before I found the fix. I had to buy a new version of Parallels, since the version I’d been happily using no longer worked on 10.6. The new version of Parallels was total shit. Moved at a crawl. Actually unusable. Never did find another good solution there, so I gave up playing the one old game I used Windows for. Other upgrades had always been quick and easy, so I just blindly did them when they came out. I don’t do that any more. All in all, it took probably 20 hours of my time and an extra $60 for the crap version of Parallels, and I don’t even remember if there was something in 10.7 I really wanted. When 10.8 came out, I didn’t bother. I didn’t need any of that stuff. I am planning to upgrade to 10.9 when it comes out, since the battery life savings and full-screen not being totally stupid with multiple monitors are worth the upgrade to me. Computers are complicated. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-consider-when-upgrading-your-os/660786/7 "2013-06-13T00:53:37Z")
I shudder at the thought of getting a new computer and having to learn a new OS. I think they hate us, they especially hate us old farts.