I have been busy and kind of lazy since Mountain Lion came out and never got around to installing it on my three Macs. I downloaded Mountain Lion right after it was released, btw. With Mavericks just around the corner, I wonder if I should bother. All of my Macs have Lion right now. Thanks for any help.
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Should I install Mountain Lion or wait for Mavericks at this point in time?
- Thread starter TazExprez
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Unless you run in to something you need Mountain Lion for you may as well wait. Do note there are some applications that do require Mountain Lion to run or for certain features of the application to work.
I'll be a rebel and suggest something different 
. There's no real need to upgrade BUT since you already have it you might as well upgrade if you ever find the time. I found Mountain Lion to be a huge improvement in performance over Lion on my 2010 iMac, better than Snow Leopard even, and several annoyances found in Lion are fixed.
. There's no real need to upgrade BUT since you already have it you might as well upgrade if you ever find the time. I found Mountain Lion to be a huge improvement in performance over Lion on my 2010 iMac, better than Snow Leopard even, and several annoyances found in Lion are fixed.
just wait, 10.9 has alot of cool features plus its almost like you never need to charge your mac when you are running it very cool
Pardon? Care to elaborate...
That's interesting. I have two iMac's, one running Mountain Lion and the other running Lion. In my experience with them, I haven't been able to notice any performance differences or have had any issues with Lion that were better in Mountain Lion. For me, both are performing like champs.
At this moment, Mountain Lion is a more mature, refined OS, having a .4 update, and .5 coming soon. Whereas Mavericks is still in beta. Now, I realise, when you read these forums, people are saying that Mavericks, even in beta, is very stable. But to put that in perspective, on these same forums you'll find similar comments on the stability of Mountain Lion's betas - whereas, when Mountain Lion shipped, there were bugs.
Since I use my Macs for business, I like them to be as trouble-free as possible. I've used the recent OSX Macs - Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion. I say, you cannot go wrong waiting till each OS has reached at least .4. I used to say till it reached .6 (since, in some earlier iterations, some major bugs weren't fixed until .6), but with Apple's fast tracking of new OS's, it's getting to the point where .4 is rather mature, whereas years ago, .4 was mid-life rather than old age.
So my recommendation would be to install Mountain Lion now at 10.8.4 - and wait till Mavericks .4 update some time middle of 2014. You cannot go wrong.
And always do a clean install, rather than an upgrade.
And if you do upgrade, download the Combo file from Apple's website, i.e. do not use the App Store software updater.
Since I use my Macs for business, I like them to be as trouble-free as possible. I've used the recent OSX Macs - Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion. I say, you cannot go wrong waiting till each OS has reached at least .4. I used to say till it reached .6 (since, in some earlier iterations, some major bugs weren't fixed until .6), but with Apple's fast tracking of new OS's, it's getting to the point where .4 is rather mature, whereas years ago, .4 was mid-life rather than old age.
So my recommendation would be to install Mountain Lion now at 10.8.4 - and wait till Mavericks .4 update some time middle of 2014. You cannot go wrong.
And always do a clean install, rather than an upgrade.
And if you do upgrade, download the Combo file from Apple's website, i.e. do not use the App Store software updater.
That is some sound advice right there, especially for a business environment.
This I think, regarding OS X, comes down to personal preference based on user experience. Like you, I've been using OS X since Tiger and to date, have never done a clean install and haven't had any issues.
Regarding combo updates, I normally just run Software Update and things are fine. I think only once that didn't work out well and I downloaded the combo update and it installed and fixed things properly.
With that said, I think YMMV. That is not to discredit your opinion of course, as there isn't anything wrong with doing a clean install, it's just a little bit more effort involved.
Now with regards to Windows, I always do clean installs of that, and for good reason!
I'm scared to upgrade
I got a 2011 MacBook Pro, running an i7 at 2.2GHz. It came with Snow Leopard and ran super fast. Then, I upgraded to Lion when it was released. Golly! The thing slowed way down. Now, I frequently get the spinning ball (which I never got with Snow Leopard), and my apps in the dock bounce up and down a long time before they start up (although, this behavior is not consistent).
I'm scared to upgrade to Mountain Lion because I'm afraid it will slow my machine down even further. If it will speed it back up, then I'd get it.
I have no clue how to do a clean install anyway.
I got a 2011 MacBook Pro, running an i7 at 2.2GHz. It came with Snow Leopard and ran super fast. Then, I upgraded to Lion when it was released. Golly! The thing slowed way down. Now, I frequently get the spinning ball (which I never got with Snow Leopard), and my apps in the dock bounce up and down a long time before they start up (although, this behavior is not consistent).
I'm scared to upgrade to Mountain Lion because I'm afraid it will slow my machine down even further. If it will speed it back up, then I'd get it.
I have no clue how to do a clean install anyway.
combo update over clean install
I think I'm ready to take the plunge with ML. I've had the installer sitting in my apps folder for a little while. Hoping the upgrade, at a mature level will increase performance instead of hindering it. I use FCPX for my business along with some other apps so I'm hoping after I get them all updated and ready to go, I have a smooth install.
Someone mentioned a combo file from apple, would that just be one of the upgrade packs, which will essentially get me to 10.8.5?
Thanks
I think I'm ready to take the plunge with ML. I've had the installer sitting in my apps folder for a little while. Hoping the upgrade, at a mature level will increase performance instead of hindering it. I use FCPX for my business along with some other apps so I'm hoping after I get them all updated and ready to go, I have a smooth install.
Someone mentioned a combo file from apple, would that just be one of the upgrade packs, which will essentially get me to 10.8.5?
Thanks
Hey Tugboat
I'm in the same boat as you ....
I have SnowLeopard on my laptop and it's been great but it's becoming dated.
iCloud and itunes don't work as well as they do with Lion and some of my other apps won't let me upgrade.
As you may know SnowLeopard was a big improvement of Leopard.
From what I hear , MountainLion is an improvement over Lion.
I'll probably be upgrading to ML on both before Mavericks comes out.