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Question

Upgrade from OS X 10.6.8 ?

Mar 31, 2015 11:40PM PDT

Hello all,

I have a four and a half year old MacBook Pro running on OS X 10.6.8 - the OS it was shipped with. I recently noticed I wasn't getting any updates and realised Apple stops sending them out after 3 years. I use my computer for research work that means accessing university websites, internet, and lots of word processing in Office 2011.

I do most work on Chrome and Firefox with Safari reserved for occasional use. However, when I try to login into my university server I get an alert message about the OS being outdated. I also regularly use my computer for online banking and now I am unsure if it is a good idea to do this and other such activities on an "outdated" OS?

I am starting to wonder if there are any security implications that I need to be aware of? Do you think I need to upgrade to a newer version asap? If yes, which one?

Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Upgrading...
Apr 1, 2015 2:44AM PDT

It is recommeded to do the updates once in a while and you also should do so. But upgrading OS X I don't recommend it since it will turn your mac slow. Self experience!

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Answer
About the security angle.
Apr 1, 2015 2:49AM PDT

Most of the exploits for that system require you to help install the Trojan or such. Apple pretty much closed off the drive by downloaders so for something bad to happen you would have to help.

Example. Some web site asks you to install a viewer for their content. Just say no.
Bob

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Answer
Update!
Apr 1, 2015 8:41AM PDT

Ok, so I will be the odd man out here and tell you to update that MBP.

There were three versions of the MBP that were issued in 2010 and all are good candidates for running Yosemite.
Even the mid 2009 MBP is capable.

Bear in mind that you are 4 major iterations of OS X behind and a lot has happened since the heady days of 10.6.8.

All of the 2010 models take 8GB of RAM which is what you should aim for before upgrading to 10.10. This will alleviate any slowdown you may experience. Personally I did not see any drop in speed when I updated.

You presumably have your original disks of 10.6.x and I'm sure a person of your academic standing is undoubtedly running Time Machine as a small portion of your backup regimen. That said, with your nice new backup you can quite easily go back to 10.6 should you decide you can't get along with 10.10
Your University server may be the first one to tell you that you're running an out of date OS, but it will not be the last.

go for it.

P

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Compatibility of Time Machine
Apr 1, 2015 5:37PM PDT

But if I stay with 10.6.8 could I have security issues with the OS and with Safari?

Chrome/Firefox/MS Office 2011 are kept fully updated and they will be as good as the ones working with Yosemite.

A word about backing up. Yes, I regularly backup data on Time Machine. But could there be a compatibility issues between Time Machine versions used with OS X and Yosemite? How possible is it for me to end up with all data duly backed up on the external HD but unable to restore properly on Yosemite?

Since this is original research material you will appreciate that I am fairly edgy about the safety of my data.

Thanks!

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Safety of the data.
Apr 2, 2015 12:56AM PDT

Then you would have copies. More than 2. For me that means a set on a flash drive that is not attached to the machine. I also put some stuff up on DropBox.

That's my backup (in your case Time Machine), the usb stick and what's on DropBox.

Make your data "Hard To Kill."
Bob

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Time Machine is compatible with Snow Leopard and Yosemite
Apr 2, 2015 8:42AM PDT

As you say you do most of your work with web browsers, what data is it that you are concerned about?
I'm guessing that there is a bunch of Office stuff, that you have just mentioned, too.


You are already at the point where others are telling you that your OS is out of date and you will reach a point where there will no longer be any updates to Chrome/Firefox/Safari for Snow Leopard.

You seem to be trying to talk yourself out of changing anything so why not try this.

1. Purchase another HD the MBP. It can be external USB or Internal.
2. Install/Connect it and install Yosemite and everything that is on your Time Machine backup. The Migration Wizard is suggested during the initial setup.
3. Now you can try Yosemite and if you don't like it you can just unplug/uninstall the new drive and you are back with 10.6

P

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How to get Mountain Lion ?
Apr 24, 2015 1:11AM PDT

Okay, so I've been unsuccessfully trying to upgrade to Mountain Lion - I can't seem to find the location from where to download the install files and make the installation disk.

I know Yosemite's a free download, but I would rather go with an only slightly newer version than the latest. This is because I am worried about compatibility issues with Zotero (an extension for Firefox) and MS Office 2011.

So how get Mountain Lion as a free upgrade for OS X 10.6.8 ?

Thanks!

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I didn't find ML to be a free download.
Apr 24, 2015 1:16AM PDT
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How to get a DVD?
Apr 24, 2015 4:30AM PDT

This seems to be an OTA upgrade. My 10.6.8 came with a separate DVD which I could use to reinstall any time I needed to.

How do I make a DVD for future (re)installations of Mountain Lion? Or will I just need to download from the App Store every time I want a fresh install?

Thanks!

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For ML you need that DVD
Apr 24, 2015 4:49AM PDT

Then you can duplicate it in case of loss. There are notes here in this forum about making a Mavericks DVD but you are asking about the 20 buck ML DVD.
Bob

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PS. Macfixit just posted how to DL/MAKE a Maverick DVD
Apr 24, 2015 5:13AM PDT
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Here's how to make the ML DVD or USB
Apr 24, 2015 9:01AM PDT
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The installation of ML will create a Recovery partition on
Apr 24, 2015 8:58AM PDT

your hard drive.
If you ever need to reinstall you can either use the Recovery Drive or re-download from the App Store

There was not a DVD version of ML

P