Yosemite on MacBook Air 2011, 4GB?

[Alameda]

Now that Yosemite's been out a while, what's the consensus on running it on a 4 GB MacBook Air? Mine runs Mavericks like a champ, no problems. But I read that new security updates require Yosemite, and I don't want an insecure system.



My MacBook Air has a 1.7 GHz i5 CPU and 4 GB of RAM. Will it work well with Yosemite, or will my system turn to mush? My backups are on a pair of Time Machine drives, so I think I could restore from Time Machine if there's a problem.



Thanks in advance, MacRumor people!

 

[SRLMJ23]

I run Yosemite on my Late-2010 MacBook Air with an Intel Core 2 Duo clocked at 1.4ghz and only 2GB RAM and it runs absolutely fine!

I currently have 7 tabs open in Safari, iTunes playing music, and Mail open. Now if I open much more than that the system might get a little sluggish but I am amazed on how well OS X Yosemite manages RAM. Also, having a SSD helps immensely. I sometimes have to open up Terminal and run the "Purge" command but I do not have to do that much at all.

So with your system, which has an i5, 4GB RAM, and a SSD you will be absolutely fine. Update and enjoy how great Yosemite is!! Just remember, for the first few hours when Yosemite is doing its housekeeping and setting things up the system might be a little sluggish but after that everything will run nice and smooth. What I mean by "housekeeping" is for example on a fresh install of Yosemite, Spotlight will be indexing and that can slow things down until it is finished.

So bottomline, install Yosemite. It will run fine on your system!

 

[simonsi]

Now that Yosemite's been out a while, what's the consensus on running it on a 4 GB MacBook Air?

My 2012 MBA 4GB runs it fine.

 

[jermy4]

Now that Yosemite's been out a while, what's the consensus on running it on a 4 GB MacBook Air? Mine runs Mavericks like a champ, no problems. But I read that new security updates require Yosemite, and I don't want an insecure system.



My MacBook Air has a 1.7 GHz i5 CPU and 4 GB of RAM. Will it work well with Yosemite, or will my system turn to mush? My backups are on a pair of Time Machine drives, so I think I could restore from Time Machine if there's a problem.



Thanks in advance, MacRumor people!

I have the exact same machine and it works fine.

 

[Pushpaw]

I have a mid-2010 13" air running Yosemite with no issues at all, so to chime in with the rest here, yeah you should be fine.

 

[vista980622]

Now that Yosemite's been out a while, what's the consensus on running it on a 4 GB MacBook Air? Mine runs Mavericks like a champ, no problems. But I read that new security updates require Yosemite, and I don't want an insecure system.



My MacBook Air has a 1.7 GHz i5 CPU and 4 GB of RAM. Will it work well with Yosemite, or will my system turn to mush? My backups are on a pair of Time Machine drives, so I think I could restore from Time Machine if there's a problem.



Thanks in advance, MacRumor people!

2014 MacBook Air, clean install of Yosemite. Spotlight index already finished.
Runs OK. But definitely not great.

 

[SmOgER]

Runs great on my end.

It's not slower than 2015 rMB (minus the overkill RAM and synthetic SSD performance).

 

[brdeveloper]

My Late-2009 (8GB, SSD) runs fine, although I have the impression that Mavericks runs faster.

 

[AriGold]

I run Yosemite on my Late-2010 MacBook Air with an Intel Core 2 Duo clocked at 1.4ghz and only 2GB RAM and it runs absolutely fine!

I currently have 7 tabs open in Safari, iTunes playing music, and Mail open. Now if I open much more than that the system might get a little sluggish but I am amazed on how well OS X Yosemite manages RAM. Also, having a SSD helps immensely. I sometimes have to open up Terminal and run the "Purge" command but I do not have to do that much at all.

So with your system, which has an i5, 4GB RAM, and a SSD you will be absolutely fine. Update and enjoy how great Yosemite is!! Just remember, for the first few hours when Yosemite is doing its housekeeping and setting things up the system might be a little sluggish but after that everything will run nice and smooth. What I mean by "housekeeping" is for example on a fresh install of Yosemite, Spotlight will be indexing and that can slow things down until it is finished.

So bottomline, install Yosemite. It will run fine on your system!

What did you do before installing? And did you just update via the app store or wipe your air first then do a fresh install?

I am tempted to update my 2010 MBP and wondering what is best.

 

[robo456]

I have a mid-2010 13" air running Yosemite with no issues at all, so to chime in with the rest here, yeah you should be fine.

2009 White Macbook (256gb ssd/4gb) checking in... use ableton, garageband, and rocksmith 2014 on Yosemite with no issues/latency!

--rob

 

[SRLMJ23]

What did you do before installing? And did you just update via the app store or wipe your air first then do a fresh install?

I am tempted to update my 2010 MBP and wondering what is best.

I didn't do anything before installing.

I did do a fresh or "clean" install, as most members here will tell you that is best practice when installing a new OS, instead of installing Yosemite over whatever your previous OS was. I highly discourage doing an update from whatever OS you are coming from to Yosemite.

I have always followed this rule, even with my Windows machines in the past.

As I said in an earlier post in this thread, just remember that when Spotlight is indexing you might get a performance hit at first, but once that is done and the OS X is done doing its setup tasks you will be fine. Enjoy Yosemite!

 

[simonsi]

I highly discourage doing an update from whatever OS you are coming from to Yosemite.

LOL - I have applied updates and OS "over the top" since Lion on 4 Macs...without any problems.

 

[Ampidire]

I've got my mid-2011 i7/4gb/256 loaded with Yosemite since it was in beta. Been happy with it. Memory usage is similar to Mavericks.

I am however soon to be in the market for a new machine with a lot more power as my needs have changed.

 

[SRLMJ23]

It is just a preference that a lot people like myself have to do a clean install instead of upgrading over your old OS. He asked my opinion so I gave it to him, it was not to diminish your preference of upgrading.

 

[simonsi]

It is just a preference that a lot people like myself have to do a clean install instead of upgrading over your old OS. He asked my opinion so I gave it to him, it was not to diminish your preference of upgrading.

I understand, I was smiling more at the variety of experiences that we users have...

 

[617660]

i have the same machine, it works fine except for this:https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1862887/

 

[AriGold]

Any recommendations on the best way to do a clean install?

I have tried to make a boot disk using diskmaker X but keep getting an error message (Below) during the process. any other recommendations?

sh: /volumes/yosemite install disk - 10.10.3/.LionDiskMaker_OSVersion: No such file or directory

 

[asoksevil]

My Late-2009 (8GB, SSD) runs fine, although I have the impression that Mavericks runs faster.

Same here, Mavericks for me works better than Yosemite.

 

[mich070]

Same here, Mavericks for me works better than Yosemite.

To be honest it's true what they are stating. Mavericks runs much better.
On the other hand the transition of Yosemite from 10.10.2 to 10.10.3 chaaanged a lot for me. on 10.10.2 my Macbook Pro (lately 2011) was sooooo ****ing slow and sluggish, thank god that 10.10.3 fixed it... Does anybody noticed it?

 

[brdeveloper]

To be honest it's true what they are stating. Mavericks runs much better.
On the other hand the transition of Yosemite from 10.10.2 to 10.10.3 chaaanged a lot for me. on 10.10.2 my Macbook Pro (lately 2011) was sooooo ****ing slow and sluggish, thank god that 10.10.3 fixed it... Does anybody noticed it?

The only thing I noted about Yosemite performance was the effect of disabling translucency in Accessibility preferences. It helps a little to make the UI feels smoother.

 

[SRLMJ23]

Any recommendations on the best way to do a clean install?

I have tried to make a boot disk using diskmaker X but keep getting an error message (Below) during the process. any other recommendations?

sh: /volumes/yosemite install disk - 10.10.3/.LionDiskMaker_OSVersion: No such file or directory

Here is the best way to do it, from OS X Daily. Great website for tips and stuff, you should check it out if you have not already.

http://osxdaily.com/2014/10/16/make-os-x-yosemite-boot-install-drive/

If you can use Terminal (it is not hard, just follow their instructions) it will create the bootable USB for you. It is the easiest way, but if you are uncomfortable with Terminal, they have other ways to create a bootable USB. Do not be afraid to try Terminal, if you never use it you will never learn how to! Let me know how it went! Good Luck!

 

[AriGold]

Here is the best way to do it, from OS X Daily. Great website for tips and stuff, you should check it out if you have not already.

http://osxdaily.com/2014/10/16/make-os-x-yosemite-boot-install-drive/

If you can use Terminal (it is not hard, just follow their instructions) it will create the bootable USB for you. It is the easiest way, but if you are uncomfortable with Terminal, they have other ways to create a bootable USB. Do not be afraid to try Terminal, if you never use it you will never learn how to! Let me know how it went! Good Luck!

it ended up working in the end and did a fresh install and running well now on yosemite. Just having trouble with my external HD being read only.