How many people have gone 'off the grid' in terms of ignoring new osx versions?

[ribbo1939]

I have to admit I upgraded the day "Sierra" was released. For various reasons I felt it wasn't for me.
eg. simple action of on double clicking on a file in a folder failed to open - right click and select which app to use!!. Thinking it was my mouse (Magic mouse 2), I tried two other Bluetooth mice and the problem remained even an old Logitec wired usb mouse was the same.

In the end I downgraded back to El Capitan and all is well. Much happier where I am.

 

[tomvos]

I'm always running the latest OS on all devices. I see no reason to stay in the past. The world is moving forward, and sure sometimes you get hurt when moving forward. But with all those publicised security issues, I would not want to use an outdated OS as my daily driver.

Besides, Apple constantly fixes bugs in their newer releases. On one hand there are the big new features that everybody seems to talk about when a new macOS is released. But on the other hand, there are lots of smaller bugfixes that never make it into the keynote slides or the macOS webpage. Personally, I appreciate the smaller bugfixes, like fixing the PDF font rendering on non retina displays.

 

[ITguy2016]

I'm always running the latest OS on all devices. I see no reason to stay in the past. The world is moving forward, and sure sometimes you get hurt when moving forward. But with all those publicised security issues, I would not want to use an outdated OS as my daily driver.

It all depends. Many (most?) people use their computer as a tool to do something and they don't view them as interesting (like we do). If the current tool meets their needs then there needs to be a compelling reason for them to upgrade. Upgrading for the sake of upgrading isn't worth their time, hassle, and potential cost. There has to be a reason for them to upgrade. It's not so much living in the past as it is their continued use of a tool which meets their needs.

Security is a good reason however, despite statements to the contrary, security is not very high on people's priority list. If it comes down to security versus cost / productivity most people will choose the latter two over the former almost all the time.

 

[lowendlinux]

I'm always running the latest OS on all devices. I see no reason to stay in the past. The world is moving forward, and sure sometimes you get hurt when moving forward. But with all those publicised security issues, I would not want to use an outdated OS as my daily driver.

Besides, Apple constantly fixes bugs in their newer releases. On one hand there are the big new features that everybody seems to talk about when a new macOS is released. But on the other hand, there are lots of smaller bugfixes that never make it into the keynote slides or the macOS webpage. Personally, I appreciate the smaller bugfixes, like fixing the PDF font rendering on non retina displays.

Generally I agree but my work Mac's are rarely on the internet and my print drivers have declined in quality greatly so the MP in particular will stay on Snow.

 

[vkd]

Mavericks 10.9.5 on the iMac and Snow Leopard 10.6.7 on the Asus 1005HA netbook (hacked). Incidentally that was the last 32bit-compatible version of Mac OS and thus the last that will run on the Intel Atom N280 processor in that particular computer. Not missing anything though, it runs like a dream and as mentioned above by Xde:

I simply don't need all the gimmicks,
what we get in every new system.
To name some I don't need:
Appstore, Lauchpad, Dashboard, Resume, Autosave, Dictation, Facebook and Twitter integration, GameCenter,
iCloud, Notification center, Maps, Receive/make calls with Mac via iPhone, Handoff, Fullscreen,
Photos.app install not optional, Mail Drop, iCloud Drive, Siri, Apple Pay, Unlock by Apple Watch,
Spotlight Web integration, Universal iCloud Clipboard, such a poor Preview.app...

 

[Draeconis]

Snow Leopard 10.6.7 on the Asus 1005HA netbook (hacked). Incidentally that was the last 32bit-compatible version of Mac OS

That's not strictly true. 10.6.8 supported 32-bit CPUs, as did early builds of 10.7 This was later stripped out before the 10.7 GM.

 

[Xenious]

Stuck on a 3,1 pro waiting on a new pro model to buy. Depending on what I see this month I may just drop more memory and a new GPU in it and sit tight for another year.

 

[visegripmikey]

Haha, no it wasn't, 10.6 broke pretty much everything at the time. Was a solid OS by 10.6.4 though.
10.4 was solid, and fast.
10.6 was solid, brought great refinements.
10.8 was solid.
10.11 was pretty solid.

Yep, I always upgrade on the "tock" cycle.

To reply to the OP, I just upgraded my 2008 iMac 8,1 with El Capitan (plus 6 GB RAM). Hopefully El Capitan lasts 6-7 more years (by lasts, I mean gets the security and browser updates, since that was the reason to move off Snow Leopard for me).

 

[294307]

Yep, I always upgrade on the "tock" cycle.

To reply to the OP, I just upgraded my 2008 iMac 8,1 with El Capitan (plus 6 GB RAM). Hopefully El Capitan lasts 6-7 more years (by lasts, I mean gets the security and browser updates, since that was the reason to move off Snow Leopard for me).

I doubt Apple will issue security updates for El Capitan that long. Perhaps another couple of years I hope, since some Macs can no longer (officially) upgrade past it.

I don't upgrade OS X versions as soon as they are released, and the same goes for Windows. I am not a particular fan of Apple's new annual release cycle because I like stability more than shiny new features, and whenever I upgrade operating system versions I always perform clean installs to make sure no residual files or settings cause any odd bugs. It's not a particularly unique problem to Windows - it can and does happen to OS X too. I remember several years ago encountering more bugs upgrading 'in-place' from OS X Mavericks to OS X Yosemite rather than performing a fresh install, so it's made me a lot more cautious about upgrading.

Regardless, I'm not particularly keen doing a fresh install every year, so I'm hoping Apple will continue to issue security updates for OS X El Capitan for a couple of years more.

 

[grahamperrin]

… luddites …

With respect: that's not an incentive to respond.

 

[someoldguy]

10.9.5 on my laptops and desktops . No use for the add-ons in later versions , plus 10.9.5 is rock solid for me . Can't stand the 'flat' look of the later U.I. either . Covering my back by downloading the later versions and saving them on a usb drive and a portable HDD , though .

 

[vkd]

That's not strictly true. 10.6.8 supported 32-bit CPUs, as did early builds of 10.7 This was later stripped out before the 10.7 GM.

Perhaps you will be able to explain why 10.6.8 and above will not run on the 32bit Atom N280 then?

 

[blesscheese]

I upgrade within the first few days of availability of every new version of OS X/macOS.

I'm sort of the opposite...I let everybody else beta test the new OS x (no pun intended) and hang on to the x-1 version. When they release the x+1 version, then I'll download & use the x version.

Except, I'm still on Mavericks, everything just works...

 

[Poncho]

Still on Mountain Lion on one machine and Mavericks on main machine.

Have two applications that won't run on later OS so put upgrading aside at the time. But have never got round it as everything works fine as it is.

 

[MacStu09]

I use Mavericks on almost all of my machines, but honestly, I'd still use Snow Leopard if it could keep up with the times. I have El Cap on a separate drive in my Mac Pro for the rare instances in which it's needed, but I struggle to find more than 1 or 2 benefits, could care less about most of the new worthless "features", and the amount of hangups I've had on the newer OS versions is unacceptable. Granted, it's not a lot, but when you're used to none, even 2-3 a month is very annoying. I'm also in the boat that the design is pretty bad, not horrible...but just not what I want my professional workstations to look like. I don't need a "fun" or "trendy" look for a workstation.

 

[ivoruest]

Haha, no it wasn't, 10.6 broke pretty much everything at the time. Was a solid OS by 10.6.4 though.

In my experience;

10.4 was solid, and fast.
10.5 brought good features (and nearly ZFS!) but was sloooow.
10.6 was solid, brought great refinements.
10.7 was a pig.
10.8 was solid.
10.9 improved on that, though was also a little flaky to begin with.
10.10 had some interesting ideas executed poorly.
10.11 was pretty solid.
10.12 will only really be interesting when APFS goes live.

I always liked to keep my machines up to date, though recently I grew tired of dealing with poor GPU performance under OS X, so migrated totally over to Windows 10 on the MacPro5,1. There are a few things I miss, but more things I like, for now at least.

I also agree with you on this post. Tiger, Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion and El Capitan they were all very good. Now I have Sierra but haven't used it much. We'll see how it behaves later on.

 

[666sheep]

My Intel way was/is (as main OS):
– 10.4
– 10.6
– 10.8
– 10.12 (I lost my mind I guess)

 

[Ph.D.]

At present, I can boot into everything (that I'm interested in) from Snow Leopard to El Capitan on the same machine. I skipped a few of the more awful versions such as Lion.

Snow Leopard is a sentimental favorite of mine. However, I can't use my 280X with it. I have to revert to my official 5770, and swapping cards is a pain. Maybe one day my ancient 3,1 will be a strictly legacy machine used to boot Snow Leopard on occasion.

Mountain Lion was great aside from the loss of legacy software. That hurt, but I managed and it served me well for a long time.

Maverics is OK and has been a workhorse for a while now.

El Capitan is just plain annoying. I've recently reverted to Maverics. Indeed, El Capitan was so annoying that I happily reverted to Maverics on a spinning disk vs. the fast SSD that I had put El Capitan on.

I have not tried Sierra yet. Maybe it's better?

It's increasingly clear that Apple has abandoned the high ground in favor of OS-X acting in a transitional or supporting role for iOS. In turn, I am increasingly feeling that I should abandon Apple.

It's nearing the point where it's an abusive relationship. You hang on because of the good old memories, but sooner or later one has to acknowledge that things have changed, and move on. Windows is a non-starter for me, and so Linux is feeling more and more like the path forward (and I'm typing this on it now).

 

[now i see it]

Here's a not so up to date pie. Everyone likes pie.

 

[grahamperrin]

There's discussion of alternatives to Mac OS X in this topic, so @Philocetes please see posts 89, 111 and others under the earler topic (with poll): How many people in this forum stayed with Apple or left?

 

[kimmen]

I have a Mac Mini late 2012 that I have reinstalled the original 10.8.5 on, du to a few apps that stopped working when upgrading to Yosemite.
The experience was so positive, that I've just stuck to it! It's fast and smooth, so I'm thinking: why mess any more with it!

 

[wickedpapercut]

No interest in Sierra. I'm running a 2012 mini and it's just fine with El Cap. None of the updates that I've read about in Sierra would help my computing experience even a trace. Perhaps one of the dot-releases in the next few months will add a reason but for now it's all risk and no reward.

My impression is that OSX is becoming bloat-ware much the same as almost all MS apps. Adding dozens of obscure features that require special configurations or that allow one product to behave as if it were another product don't really interest me. These bloat additions usually make things run more slowly and add nothing useful.

Just give me a clean, fast OS that is amazingly better than any other option. That's my $.02.

 

[slughead]

I have noted each release makes itunes and iphoto worse to use, and when the new os comes, sometimes I need to buy upgrades to other software to make it work.

I have noticed this as well. I have hated iTunes for so many years I literally bought a Spotify account instead of messing with it, though I have absurd amounts of music on my hard drive. iPhoto was perfectly fine before they messed with it. I am utterly baffled as to why they made it look like a tablet when I have a mouse. Maybe they think the fact that I'm punching my computer screen every time I use it makes it a touch screen ??

 

[Philocetes]

There's discussion of alternatives to Mac OS X in this topic, so @Philocetes please see posts 89, 111 and others under the earler topic (with poll): How many people in this forum stayed with Apple or left?

Thank you, I will do that!

 

[LorenK]

Well, I can't say I left the grid because Apple has kicked me off the grid. I have a Mac Pro 3,1 as my primary computer and Sierra does not even load without a few modifications. I understand Apple's desire to makes things more convenient, but I also wonder why the software can't be made to make adding certain features elective. What seems to be the primary reason why Sierra won't work on a 3,1 is the sharing feature, enabling you to share documents across devices seamlessly. Do I need this? No, but Apple decided that that being available to me was more important than keeping me in up-to-date software for a convenience feature. It wouldn't be so annoying if they had updated the Mac Pro in the last couple years or the Mac Mini. It makes me think that Apple inherited Steve Jobs obstinancy more than it inherited his desire for innovation.