Upgrading OS on Mac Pro Early 2008- 10.8 vs 10.11

[jfilm]

Hi all,

I need to update my system to use software that requires at least Mountain Lion 10.8 to work. I currently have Lion 10.7. I was thinking of getting El Capitan, which is the latest OS my system will support (Mac Pro early 2008). However, I've read that some people had issues with the installation. Is it safer to just try to install Mountain Lion? I've read some people trying to install 10.11 and it taking all day or longer, or getting stuck in the process, and that maybe older Macs such as mine might struggle with this update, particularly since I've skipped the other upgrades. Any thoughts? Thanks for your input!

 

[sirfaliq]

The 2008 Mac Pro I'm using is running el capitan, installation was smooth. I used a usb drive, made the installer using Diskmaker X on another Mac.
It was a clean install on an SSD though.
Previously I was on 10.5.8, LOL
Still have the old disk just in case I have to open some old projects done on FCP6.

 

[StrawberryX]

Also a 2008 Mac Pro running El Capitan.

It's probably the best way to go for future compatibility.
Changing OS'es is a drag and waste of time.
Support drops pretty quick in these days, even Mavericks is getting obsolete for some programs/updates ...

I've read about problems between mountain lion and big TB disks.

 

[sevichenko]

running el capitan on a 2008 mac pro and everything going well

 

[BrianBaughn]

El Capitan, being the dead end for a slew of Mac models, will likely have decent support by Apple and app developers for a while...whatever a "while" is! Go for it.

 

[dblairw]

jfilm - I provided "dual boot" capability on my own 2008 MacPro 3,1 with OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion and OSX 10.10 Yosemite, each on a separate dedicated 500GB SSD. Both Mountain Lion and Yosemite run strong on the MP3,1 and I haven't run into any showstopper issues with either. I do startup 98+% on the SSD with 10.10 Yosemite - - multiple software developers have moved to 10.10 or later for compatibility. I have a definite preference for the fresh / modern interface elements of Yosemite. It's also worth noting 10.8 Mountain Lion on my MP typically consumes close to 2GB of RAM in routine ops, while 10.10 Yosemite is happy with just over 1GB of RAM -- shows the progress Apple Software Engineering made in optimizing Yosemite as OSX development continued.

 

[jfilm]

Thanks for the replies! I ended up upgrading to El Capitan. I let it run while I went to work, and it was ready to go when I came home. So I don't know how long it took to install, but I didn't run into any problems. Everything seems to be working great. And I also have dual boot capabilities, with Snow Leopard on my other drive. New interface is great, and everything is just a bit faster than it was in Lion, which is nice.