Should I Update?

[jparker402]

I have a MacBook Air running El Capitan, which is what it came with. I know that there is now Sierra. I decided, based on no real knowledge, that I should stick with El Capitan because that is what the machine came with. And I am additionally reluctant to switch since I bought a copy of El Capitan, The Missing Manual, for big bucks (although I admit to not using it). Just discovered that a new update to Numbers is now available, but cannot be downloaded unless I switch to Sierra. Would love to hear pros and cons on switching from El Capitan to Sierra, and whether the upgrade to Numbers if worth the effort. Thanks!!

 

[jparker402]

Did I select the wrong section of the forum to ask this question?

 

[Gregg2]

If you don't upgrade, you eventually will fall way behind. The thing that has become problematic for me first is browsing the internet. I used to wait, because the OS was not free. Now that it is, there is no good reason, IMO, to skip upgrades. When I did that in the past, I also bought books to help me make the transition. Your El Capitan book will tell you things that are different from Snow Leopard, and many of them will still work the same way in Sierra. There is no reason for "buyer's remorse" unless of course, you don't read the book.

You posted in the correct forum.

 

[jparker402]

Thank you, Gregg2! Since I am not a real power user, not sure falling behind isn't inevitable anyway. However, at the moment without Sierra, I can't upgrade Numbers nor Pages. So that is a good point.

 

[Isamilis]

My suggestion, if you have no specific needs to upgrade, then stay as is. El Capitan will be still supported for next few years. New version (Sierra) will always bring new features but with additional resources needed (i.e. memory and processor).

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:
If you're happy with El Capitan, stick with it.
There's no compelling reason to update to Sierra. In fact, it still seems to be "a work in progress".

Some folks here seem obsessed with updating to "the latest" simply because "it's there".

I just picked up a 2015 MBPro last December that came with El Cap pre-installed.
I'll probably run with that for at least the next few years, perhaps the entire life of the laptop.

It replaced a mid-2010 MacBook Pro that came with 10.6.3.
I upgraded it to 10.6.8, but never "went further".
It still boots and runs fine under Snow Leopard.

Aside:
On the other hand, I have an external "test drive" that has the Sierra 10.12.5 developer beta up-and-running, too!

 

[Gregg2]

I don't usually upgrade until the second update of the new version, just to give Apple time to work out bugs.

 

[Rok73]

New version (Sierra) will always bring new features but with additional resources needed (i.e. memory and processor).

You won't recognize ANY changes for the worse in speed when you update a Mac to Sierra which was delivered with El Capitan LOL. You might recognize that at least a couple years later.