Advise on best OS X version for my Macbook Pro

[nazanin.g]

I have a Macbook Pro 13 inch (mid 2009) that is running on OS X 10.5.8 and I would like to upgrade to a later software. I have tried Yosemite as I noticed my macbook has the required specs as specified on the site, however after download the installation did not occur due to "this software is not supported for this architecture". Would appreciate some help to know what is the best version of the OS X software that I could install on my "old" mac! thanks all

Here is some extra info:
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,5
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP55.00AC.B03

 

[LiveM]

Mavericks.

 

[Ries]

El Capitain

System Requirements

Apple notes that OS X El Capitan runs on the following Mac categories:

• iMac (Mid-2007 or newer)
• MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, Early 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
• Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

 

[Zwhaler]

Mavericks... don't put Yosemite or newer unless you want your Mac to be as sluggish as ever...

 

[PKBeam]

install 10.11 and revert if it sucks balls.
4 GB RAM would definitely help either way.

 

[throAU]

Stick an SSD in it (make any performance problems go away and upgrade performance at the same time) and upgrade to El Capitan.

Staying on old versions of OS X beyond their end of support is only putting you at risk security wise.


edit:
SSD + 4 GB would be best, but SSD will help more than the RAM upgrade I suspect.

 

[Zwhaler]

2GB of RAM and dual core with anything newer than Mavericks isn't going to go well. Just saying... as for the other concerns, I wouldn't worry about it, my Mac Pro is on Mavericks and it runs great. My 2010 MBP 2.66 i7 with hyperthreading and 8GB RAM has Chrome, iTunes, and Mail open and is using about 5.5GB RAM.

 

[ron1004]

My 2010 and 2011 MBP's are running El Capitan with SSD's and extra RAM - They are speed demons, although the 2010 not being SATA 3 it's not as fast as the 2011.

 

[glenthompson]

Your memory is going to be a big bottleneck with any recent version of OS X. You need to upgrade to at least 4 or preferably 8gb. With 2 and any significant apps you will be swapping to disk and the slow drive will kill you.

If you want to stay on that machine for any length of time get a SSD. Prices have come down and it's worth the upgrade. Both are quite easy to do yourself.
[doublepost=1457757348][/doublepost]Installing any recent version of OS X requires that you have at least 10.6.8 - Snow Leopard. That's because of the Mac App Store became supported in that version and you need access to the App Store to install the "free" versions of OS X. You can perform a clean install of OS X on a bare drive, just not an upgrade.