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General discussion

Do you recommend that I upgrade to El Capitan?

Apr 15, 2016 4:06PM PDT
http://tr4.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2015/12/22/a98167d1-1d1a-4d9f-8aa5-ab3a8fece760/thumbnail/770x578/bbb652b4f7fcee7c795d870f1dc4d396/01spgos-x-el-capitan-the-smart-persons-guidehero.jpg

I am completely against upgrading the OS on existing hardware. My experience with doing so is there are always issues. So I have stuck with my "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" Mac OS Snow Leopard 10.6.8 despite all the offers to upgrade it for free. I am starting to get messages now that existing software won't work or be updated unless I upgrade, so I fear I may eventually have to bite the bullet and upgrade (or buy a newer Mac). For those who have upgraded to El Capitan, what issues have you had and would you recommend doing the upgrade? If you do recommend the upgrade, are there things I should be made aware of before I proceed? Thank you.

Hardware information: Mac Pro (circa 2009) 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 8GB ram

--Submitted by: Gary C. aka lawfirmgwc

Note: Updated with hardware information

Post was last edited on April 22, 2016 12:46 PM PDT

Discussion is locked

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Definitely Do It.
Apr 23, 2016 1:59AM PDT

It further protects your investment & online activities while also likely speeding up your system (It did for me). My MBP = MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010), 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7, w/8Gb of RAM & 1Tb 7200 rpm HD.

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Not if you are a Photoshop user
Apr 23, 2016 2:20AM PDT

Upgrading from 10.6.8 will mean that you lose access to Photoshop software, unless you are prepared to use it in the clouds and pay for it constantly. Not my choice, as a photographer I prefer to keep my things under my control. My partner tried updating her system and we quickly reverted to the original, since a number of applications simply stopped working or gave odd results.

El Capitan maybe OK for many, but my choice would be to purchase another computer, so that i can leave my Photoshop application on the original one. I have read all kinds of work arounds, but there are not enough hours in the day to to fiddle with these things.

I am another of those "If it ain't broke don't fix it" guys.

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Um, what?
Apr 23, 2016 5:33AM PDT

I run my purchased copy of Photoshop on 10.11 just fine.

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What version
Apr 23, 2016 7:13AM PDT

Do you mean the full Photoshop or the cut down cheaper version?

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Yes i do.
Apr 23, 2016 3:10AM PDT

El capitan had lots of issues at launch which stopped my GF from updating hers since she read that people had files going missing, stuff crashes and such, but that was only the first 3 revisions of the capt'n.

But as the 4'th update came out, and i got myself a mac aswell, i bit the bullet and jumped it. The issues i had was airplay that just wouldn't connect to the apple tv, it connected, but that caused me to not have any internet connection at all. and not long after, an update came which fixed that. So now i have not had any particular problem at all. (other than crossover that runs windows stuff freeze now and then hehe)

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Upgrade worked on both MacBook and iMac
Apr 23, 2016 3:16AM PDT

It works great on my circa 2013 Macbook pro. My mother of 80+ has an iMac circa 2009 that was having all sorts of problems the El Capitan update fixed. I have been using Macs since 2008 and have found their upgrades far less costly and contain less issues than Windows upgrades.

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Sherlock Holmes at your service
Apr 23, 2016 3:46AM PDT

I am putting my technology Deer Stalker hat on to deduce what you need. My background is in Logistics Plans and Programs with an update in Program Management. So my first task is to determine what you truly need. Unfortunately, my recommendations are more expensive than my customers truly desire, even though I am usually proven correct, given enough time. Things happen in the real world, eventually.
The fact that you are a lawyer and you have a Mac Pro with a Xeon processor, I deduce that you use it for business purposes. The loss of this computer for even one day would affect your professional life to a painful degree. However, given that the laptop is over six years old, it may not be a primary work laptop, but a personal computer.
Assuming that it is a purely personal computer, you should be comfortable with a complete backup solution and do the upgrade. If you have doubts as to how the os is functioning, my experience tells me it is time. By the time you are sure, the industry will be ready for an even newer upgrade. The big rule of thumb is NEVER upgrade to a new os until it has had a major update and is stable or if the software drivers are unusable (i.e. Microsoft VISTA).
If the laptop is for business use, I have a rule of thumb that I use. If you need one, you really need two. If you have two, three is a safer number, if you can afford it. There is always better safety in numbers. I learned this little gem of knowledge while supporting a business customer that was using a desktop computer he bought at Best Buy. He needed a service call for immediate service within two hours for a bad motherboard. Unfortunately, he was covered by a personal warranty, not a commercial one. Bottom line, he could have bought two computer systems for each hour he was idle.
So my solution for a business use is to buy a new computer with the new os and have a backup computer ready to go at a moment’s notice. Customers have no patience for anyone with a broken computer. They may have sympathy, but they will run to someone else to get the job done, usually someone still using paper and a pencil.
Technology is great until it doesn't work, then it becomes what the industry calls a pain in the a**.

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Elementary
Apr 23, 2016 5:36AM PDT

The machine in question is not a laptop, Sherlock. From there your entire argument falls apart.

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Yes, with caution
Apr 23, 2016 3:54AM PDT

As others have pointed out, there are some "legacy" things that may not work anymore. I went to El Capitan from Yosemite as soon as it came out and discovered that the "new" Notes was lacking in functionality and insisted on posting to iCloud. I had been using Notes in Yosemite to keep track of all my logins and password, but I kept it out of iCloud because I didn't want all that info showing up on my less secure devices - iPad and iPhone. Thanks to a Time Machine backup, I was able to restore and fix my Notes problem. Bought Sticky Password that works just great and encrypts all my password information. After migrating out of Notes (I actually don't use it anymore), I re-did the upgrade and am happy with it. I like the new Photos app because it works the same now on all my devices.

But you should be very cautious because you're upgrading from a really old version of OS X. Take a look at all the advice posted here and go through the list of apps that you use all the time to make sure they'll still run.

One good bit of news for me is I find that El Capitan runs faster for many things on my 2012 Mac Book Air. It's more efficient. On Yosemite, as soon as I ran anything that used a lot of graphics, the fan on my laptop went nuts. It's almost entirely silent now on El Capitan.

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You don't need to involve notes with iCloud
Apr 23, 2016 4:46AM PDT

Just a quick bit of info.

If you don't want notes to sync with your other devices (iCloud). Simply go to the Apple menu, select "System Preferences" and then click on iCloud. Then uncheck the notes checkbox. You are no longer syncing your notes.

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Why?
Apr 23, 2016 5:59AM PDT

I haven't due to an annoyingly persistent iCloud problem and Apple's inability to rectify it in a timely manner, so I've been stuck on Yosemite. I did try El Capitan on an external drive and found that many of my favorite utilities were disabled by SIP. I also found that if you have any iCloud email aliases e.g. a personal address and a business address, both will be received but only one will be used to reply. No choice. Apple determined that aliases are superfluous and removed that function from the Mail app.

I repurposed that drive as a backup and have ignored El Capitan ever since. Personally I regret installing any OS later than Mountain Lion.

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why indeed
Apr 23, 2016 7:36AM PDT

Your issues are not the only ones, but there will always be issues. I am not a fan of Mail, and email clients in general. Web browser will work anywhere. If you must use an email client, I recommend Thunderbird.

One of the things I don't appreciate is Ive's flat lifeless interface. He should stick to hardware.

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Indeed
Apr 23, 2016 12:23PM PDT

I don't care for webmail because it requires the browser to be open at all times and Safari leaks memory like a sieve. I actually used Thunderbird for a few months but went back to Mail because of the Mail Drop feature (Yosemite's only truly useful new feature).

Ive sucked the life and beauty of both iOS and OS X. He's a menace without Jobs to control him. He really needs to go.

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El Capitan icloud and other aliases work for me
Apr 23, 2016 9:33PM PDT

@mpias I also found that if you have any iCloud email aliases e.g. a personal address and a business address, both will be received but only one will be used to reply. No choice. Apple determined that aliases are superfluous and removed that function from the Mail app.

As a historic ".mac" and then "mobileme" user, I have 8 aliases attached to my icloud account, which work perfectly. I also have 2 aliases attached to a gmail account. Again - no problems in El Capitan.

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I still have all my alias's in Apple Mail on El Capitan
Apr 24, 2016 6:17AM PDT
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Many Mac configurations. In the end, yes upgrade.
Apr 23, 2016 8:03AM PDT

This is my experience. I have a 2012 iMac 27, I7 that came 16gb of RAM. Thing ran flawless under Yosemite even after I upgraded to 32gb of a very reputable supplier of 3rd party RAM over a year ago. I upgraded to El Capitan and started having problems with random shutdowns. Extensive troubleshooting with Apple Support both remotely and at the Apple Store was not conclusive. The 3rd Party RAM tested out just fine as well. It came down to a last resort suggestion to re-install the original 2 memory modules that came with the iMac. I did that and the random shutdowns ceased and my iMac with El Capitan OS installed has been running just fine ever since.
Should you update? In the end, you have little choice in my opinion, since with the upgrade you get all the security fixes as well as compatibility fixes for new or existing apps you may have or may want to purchase in the future.

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Yes, but at your own risk
Apr 23, 2016 8:20AM PDT

I've been updating since Snow Leopard too, and it was a great OS, and I'm using Yosemite 10.10.5 at the moment. I always wait until the last split second to upgrade to the latest OS, because the first versions always have issues, and I for example "hunt" the time when El Capitan is going to replaced with the next upgrade and then I will upgrade to El Capitan waiting the next OS upgrade to be upgraded to the next OS and so on. At work we have a a 21.5 inch iMac (mid 2010), a 17 inch MacBook Pro (late 2011), and a 27 inch iMac (late 2013) all running the same OS and all run fine and have been updated from their original OS. I know people that never updated from their original OS and got stuck with it with no available upgrading options anymore and they can't even upgrade their internet browsers, or any programs for that matter, so in my opinion, it is better to always upgrade but at the latest version of that particle OS possible. Now, taking all precautions, you can still run into some issues, there is no turning back, but this is very rare.

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Actually
Apr 23, 2016 9:03AM PDT

My companie's internal testing found that El Capitan fixed a lot of the issues introduced with Yosemite. Plus I found that Apple finally let you enable TRIM for 3rd party SSDs in El Capitan.

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El Capitan
Apr 23, 2016 8:22AM PDT

I upgraded my Mac to El Capitan when it was first released and had no problems at all and still have not had problems. I'm happy with it.

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Upgrade or unplug
Apr 23, 2016 9:00AM PDT

I'm a security professional and implore you to upgrade. Apple does not release security patches anymore for Snow Leopard (they usually only patch 1 version back). You need to make sure you're patched, or your just a danger to yourself and others. If you don't want to patch and upgrade then fine; just unplug yourself from the network and Internet. I'm not allowing unpatched systems to connect to the enterprise network even if they are university owned.

People claim that you don't have to worry about viruses and exploits in a Mac. Apple even inferred this a few years ago; notice how they stopped? Viruses, exploits, and ransomeware are here and they are real Mac users. It's unavoidable.

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Test Drive it
Apr 23, 2016 9:15AM PDT

If you are truly concerned about whether or not the Mac can handle it (I see no reason why it should not), Back up with Time Machine, create a small usable partition on your hard drive and install El Cap to that partition with no other software.

If it works as expected, question answered. This is a technique I use with every upgrade to get the lay of the land. This way if any issues arrive you can restore with time machine.

Reasons to upgrade include enhanced security, not only for the OS But for the apps you are getting warned on. Where there are holes, there are rats!

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Go for it.
Apr 23, 2016 11:42AM PDT

Snow Leopard was a great OS, and I don't blame you for sticking with it - I still run it on my old MacBook. But I run El Cap on my iMac (2007 vintage), and once I got used to the "flat" look of the interface (as opposed to the rounded "3D" look of the Leopard/Lion interface) I was won over. There's a learning curve, but it's worth the effort to learn how to make the OS to jump through all the hoops that Apple set up for it.
One caveat: If you have a lot of purchased software, you might want to look into whether or not you need to buy newer versions. I had to get the latest/greatest VMware Fusion, for example. On the other hand, MS Office 2008 still runs nicely!

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I would say NO.. do not go to El Capitan
Apr 25, 2016 10:24AM PDT

I have a similar Mac Pro system. I was on Snow Leopard for awhile, then my software that I use required that I move up to Mountain Lion, then Mavericks, then Yosemite, then Unfortunately to El Capitan.

I am NOT very happy with El Capitan. There are a few reasons why.

Many, many of the 'improvements' have been to mess with the interface (I wouldn't even say improve) and also add things to make it easier to interact with your iphone. If that is important to you.. the I guess maybe the upgrade is a good idea.

Personally I am more interested in bug fixes, stability and performance. This things have not changed much. And actually in El Capitan they have REMOVED advanced features. For example, they re-designed the Disk Utility and dumbed it down. The removed the ability to create a RAID and also took out a few other smaller features. They added a pretty bar graph though. They also removed a simple thing.. when you 'Get Info' it used to list files and folder separately. Now they just lump those 2 together into one number. Why???

I actually did think that Mountain Lion was a good upgrade.. and Mavericks seemed good too. Not so sure about Yosemite and El Capitan. If you could upgrade to one of those other ones.. but I think they force you to the latest version (for better or worse).

I wish I could go back.. because I do NOT think El Capitan is better than the previous version (and I think it's WORSE).. but my graphics card driver had a bug.. and I had to upgrade. Sad

Hope that is helpful.
-Peter

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Get Info
Apr 25, 2016 10:45AM PDT

Is this correct? Were folders and files listed separately at one time? I still use 10.6.8 and this has always lumped the two together. Need to open the folder and select individual items for additional information.

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There is nothing to stop you going back to where you were,
Apr 26, 2016 4:40AM PDT

just use your Time Machine backup to Restore to a time when you did not have El Capitan installed.

As for the Get Info thing......, It's been like that for a long time.

P

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This was really timely for me
May 2, 2016 12:48AM PDT

I've been putting off upgrading for a long time seeing no great reason to so I've been running Snow Leopard. I read all the responses to this question and decided to take the leap secure in the knowledge that I have a time machine backup. I'm happy to report that the download and install went fine. So far - 24 hours later - everything seems to be working fine, no noticeable degrading of performance. (I have nothing other than the usual garden variety stuff on it.). The only thing is that the fan has been running at 4500rpm ever since, including with the lid closed.

Issues: I don't like the flat graphics. It seems like Jony Ives and Tim Cook are marching us inexorably back to DOS with this simplification jag they're on. I wish they would hire some designers who actually know how to design things that look good. That was always one of Apples strengths.

The new Activity Monitor doesn't make any sense to me. (Some things aren't being simplified.) I liked the disk icon in the dock so I could monitor memory usage. That's gone. I haven't figured out upgrading iPhoto. I hate iTunes - buggy buggy buggy - and nothing has been improved.

I'll give it a week and report back if any issues.