Can you keep your Macbook Air on Mountain Lion forever?

[waa1futs]

So many times I see the negative nancy's say:

"4GB of RAM just isn't enough for future OS X versions"

Not that I really believe this, but IF this were true, couldn't one just keep your Macbook Air on Mountain Lion for as long as you keep it so it remains blistering fast?

Say I upgrade to the next OS but 4GB of RAM isn't enough and my 2012 MBA starts to be sluggish, can I just revert back to Mountain Lion that I purchased it with? or does Apple not allow this?

Thanks for your input

[Comeagain?]

Yep. You can use ML for forever if you want. And if you have backups, you can always go back to that version if OS X.

[urkel]

Yes, 4GB is plenty for most people BUT I think it's a bit unfair to blame end users for being "negative" when it's Apple who is setting the specs. After all, these are premium priced product with incredibly high profit margins and an unupgradable chassis so what exactly is the excuse for NOT including a $30 8GB memory as standard?

[waa1futs]

Originally Posted by Comeagain?

Yep. You can use ML for forever if you want. And if you have backups, you can always go back to that version if OS X.

Thank you Comeagain?

That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Now for me to find out how to make backups of mountain lion since I'm such a newbie to mac

Originally Posted by urkel

Yes, 4GB is plenty for most people BUT I think it's a bit unfair to blame end users for being "negative" when it's Apple who is setting the specs. After all, these are premium priced product with incredibly high profit margins and an unupgradable chassis so what exactly is the excuse for NOT including a $30 8GB memory as standard?

Oh I agree, I wish it were upgradeable as well

Most likely a capitalistic profit move on Apple's part. Negative nancy was too harsh a term and I apologize since I understand the frustration.

Just wanted to make sure that I can keep Mountain Lion on here so that it remains as blazing fast as it is right now. Unlike my iPhone where if I upgrade to the next iOS there is no going back grrrrr

[Mrbobb]

Originally Posted by waa1futs

Can you keep your Macbook Air on Mountain Lion forever?

Absolutemundo.

Some people let themselves buy into the-lastest is always the greatest - NOT.

Lots of well meaning users, specially the non-tech inclined, when they ask for help, either from Apple or from the community, will often get the reply "well, update your OS maybe that will fix your problem, without knowing for sure whether that's actually the case." These users have to be strong to resist this suggestion. At least have a backup of the previous so one can "Go Back" as needed.

No need to call it capitalism. Vendors upgrade their OS with new features, whether the user need it or not really, and they HAVE to do that, they are in the business of selling users "new features." Again, you have be mature enough to know, OK those new features they selling me I don't need. Thank you. Lots of users automatically go Newer = Better, or because they are simply tired of the old OS's face and want something fresh. Well, more features invariably asks more horsepower from your hardware, it's RARE new software run more efficiently than the old one. You upgrade, you are helping your hardware to go obsolete sooner.

Now for sure sometimes you NEED the new features, so you gotta know what you NEED vs the other stuff.

This apply to Apps as well as OS BTW.

[coldjeanzzz]

ML is pretty amazing. I have 8 GB RAM on my 2012 MBA but I don't know even know if I would bother upgrading to the next release unless I saw something significantly better about it.

[medi.freak]

I am enjoying Mountain Lion as well on my MBA, which only has 2Gb of RAM. Sometimes I do notice a lag, eypecially with spotify and many days without turning it off. But since this machine is only a taking notes and surf the web device for me, it is enough. For now.

I feel like Apple will always find something to put in the new OS for us to feel like we NEED to upgrade if we can...

[Frosties]

Of course, BUT Apple and others likes to stop updating older software for bugs and security so sometime it will be better to upgrade. The hard part is to know when it is not safe to be still using the older software if no update is pushed out.

[glhiii]

I got a 4gb RAM 11" 2012 64gb SSD MBA open-box at Best Buy for $800 but found it was very slow running Parallels. Upgraded to a refurbished 8gb 256GB ssd from Apple and find it's much faster. But for most things, 4mb was enough, and the price was much less. Since then I found an open-box 4gb 128 gb ssd open-box at Best Buy for a little over $800 (with the 10% discount they've just started on open-box items), but I wanted the more powerful machine, which does everything I want.

[TouchMint.com]

Originally Posted by coldjeanzzz

ML is pretty amazing. I have 8 GB RAM on my 2012 MBA but I don't know even know if I would bother upgrading to the next release unless I saw something significantly better about it.

Yea I have 8gb on mine and up until last week when I got a new highend 27inch imac I had done all development and design on the air with no problems at all. Honestly the air seems a bit faster still because the 27inch iMac only has the standard 7200rpm drive and not flash like the air. I gotta say the gaming is a bit better on the 680mx tho

[mrsir2009]

You can use it for as long as you like, but it will probably be unsupported in terms of security and applications in three years or so.

[JHUFrank]

Forever? That's a mighty long time...
I use ML on a 2010 MBA with 4gigs ram and a 256gig hard drive. Works great. Plan to use it "forever=whenever my MBA dies"

[rezwits]

Originally Posted by waa1futs

Thank you Comeagain?

That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Now for me to find out how to make backups of mountain lion since I'm such a newbie to mac



Oh I agree, I wish it were upgradeable as well

Most likely a capitalistic profit move on Apple's part. Negative nancy was too harsh a term and I apologize since I understand the frustration.

Just wanted to make sure that I can keep Mountain Lion on here so that it remains as blazing fast as it is right now. Unlike my iPhone where if I upgrade to the next iOS there is no going back grrrrr

Backing up Mountain Lion

1) Buy a 16GB flash drive (or smaller depending what you want)

2) Put flash drive in USB2/3 port

2a) Goto Utilities in Applications in the Finder and Format the
Flash Drive to [Mac OS Extended] using Disk Utility call it "Backup" (or whatever)

3) Download Carbon Copy Cloner (<3.5 equals free, >3.5 ML savvy)

4) Launch Carbon Copy Cloner

5) Goto Menu Item Window->Disk Center->Recovery HD (Tab)

6) Select the Flash Drive "Backup"

7) Click on [Create Recovery HD on Backup]

8) I do re-clone the recovery HD volume on this disk, because it allows me to select mountain lion, and it states that it is from "Macintosh HD", I don't know if he includes a Recovery Image somewhere in the App (Doubt it)

You have a different option if you want, you can re-install the OS from the Recovery Partition holding down option, and then finding the install image you can clone it over to a 8GB flash drive and have an installer, but you would have to re-install the OS to get the install file, downloaded while in Recovery mode.

What I like to do when I get a new MacBook is clone the Recovery to a 16GB flash drive and then Carbon Copy over the HD to the Flash takes about 2 hours USB2, haven't done USB3 yet. But I usually use an external to boot off of before I ever use the COmputer.

So two options:

A) Re-install from Recovery Part (wiping the drive basically) to get the Mountain Lion Image (Look for those instructions they are everywhere)

B) Clone the Recovery Partition to a 2GB 4GB 8GB 16GB etc Flash Drive

If you just clone the Recovery Partition you end up with a bootable flash drive that you can insert at anytime and reformat the internal drive and re-install Mountain Lion by downloading it from APple. Not to mention reformat your drive in any way (partitions) you want for more added fun down the road

Laters...

[Pakaku]

People still use Snow Leopard, and consider it even better than Mountain Lion. I only upgraded to ML because it natively supports new Nvidia graphics cards (the Mac Pro's only saving grace until Apple bothers to update the line), and it has iMessage support. Apart from that, and in general, there is no real reason that you absolutely must upgrade. It's not like your computer will stop working if your OS is a bit outdated.