Installing OSX Yosemite - Fresh or upgrade?

[johncogan]

Hi

I currently have Mavericks installed on my Mac Mini and have several applications installed such as:
Android Studio, IntelliJ, SourceTree, Photoshop, Netbeans and most important I have VMWare Fusion 7 installed with a copy of Windows 7 that I use for testing purposes.

This is my first Mac and am fairly new to OSX (1.5 years of general usage) and have never installed OSX myself.

Is there a "best method" for installing Yosemite as a clean install and restore these applications. I want to avoid the hassle over installing everything over again if this is possible.

I have Mavericks time machined already, so I am assuming it is as simple as installing Yosemite and then restore from timemachine? Or is an update recommended instead of a clean install?

Mac Mini has 16 Gb RAM.

Any pitfalls/advice please?

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), 16 Gb RAM

 

[ISKOTB]

If you currently have no issues just upgrade. If you clean install you can't restore via TM you would have to use migration assistant.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1749233/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1782761/

 

[h9826790]

Agree that use migration assistant to recover your profile and application ONLY will give you a relatively clean OS X Yosemite.

I use this method, and the system is very smooth, apart from some application (e.g. LogMeIn server apps), most of the applications do not require any reinstallation and works perfectly.

 

[philosopherdog]

I don't see the point in clean installing. This strikes me as a Windows hangover when you needed to just start fresh with the reg file.

 

[ladytonya]

I'm thinking of doing a clean install. I had the public beta of Yosemite and the last two PBs and the general release have all made my 2011 MacBook Pro sluggish. I know it is a 3 year old machine, but it was always pretty snappy. Now, it takes forever for programs to open and I cannot seem to find any of the cool new features.

Also, for some reason even though I never had to do this before every time my computer boots up I have to choose a user and enter a password and enter my password when it wakes up. I have double checked my security settings and I do not have it set to require a password upon waking and am finding this extremely annoying.

Any experts out there think a clean install will help with these issues? I am at a loss!

 

[Bending Pixels]

The subjects been beat to death but....doing a clean install essentially means fewer potential issues. The only downside is the need to re-download/install all of your app's and put back all of your data, music, etc.

 

[jfischer]

My month-old iMac 27" came with Mavericks, and to get caught up I had to download Yosemite DP1-8, then the GM 1-3. Since I am fine with reinstalling my apps, I did a fresh wipe/reinstall of Yosemite from a USB stick just for peace of mind. Since I had 12 "beta" releases on top of Mavericks, it just seemed like a good idea.

Have no idea if it's really any better than just leaving it alone, but it didn't take that long and I know it's fresh and clean.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[dw3bb10]

I went and did a fresh install on my MBP.

 

[Allograft]

I went and did a fresh install on my MBP.

Any how is it going since your clean install?