Can I update OS on Macbook 4,1 (Early 2008)

[dmeek]

Hi all,

Have a Macbook 4,1 (Early 2008), 10.5.6 (Leopard), 4 gb RAM, and I'm wondering if it's possible to upgrade the OS to something more modern and supported, i.e. mountain lion.

If so, thoughts on how to obtain the new OS, and install it?
thanks
d

 

[justperry]

Your Max is 10.7.4.

SNow Leopard would be nice, Lion isn't that good, plenty of people complaining.

SL is available in the Apple store for $19.99

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You can at least upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard via the 19 USD Upgrade DVD from the Apple Online Store.

But as far as I know, Mac OS X 10.7.5 Lion was the last supported Mac OS X version on that machine: http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...duo-2.1-white-13-early-2008-penryn-specs.html

But then there is always this: [GUIDE] SUCCESS! Install 10.8 on OLD unsupported Mac

Software update, upgrade--what's the difference?

Key differences

A software update is usually downloadable free of charge; a software upgrade usually is not.
A software upgrade usually increments the first "dot" number of a product (for example Mac OS X v10.6, Mac OS X v10.5); a downloadable software update usually increments second "dot" number (for example, Mac OS X v10.6.8, Mac OS X v10.5.8).

Anyway, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard offers a simple upgrade process, by just inserting the DVD and following the install process. Make sure to backup before doing so, in case, something goes wrong.

 

[dmeek]

Thanks for the suggestions; Checking the "About this Mac" it says I'm running 10.5.6

My "end objective" here is to be able to run Parallels and some heavy-ish PC programs (ArcGIS). Does it make sense to upgrade to SL? Will it increase the speed of the system at all, or simply add a few more bells and whistles? I'm about to install 4 gb of ram (from the current 1) and so maybe that would be enough without upgrading the OS? Any thoughts?

 

[justperry]

Thanks for the suggestions; Checking the "About this Mac" it says I'm running 10.5.6

My "end objective" here is to be able to run Parallels and some heavy-ish PC programs (ArcGIS). Does it make sense to upgrade to SL? Will it increase the speed of the system at all, or simply add a few more bells and whistles? I'm about to install 4 gb of ram (from the current 1) and so maybe that would be enough without upgrading the OS? Any thoughts?

SL is slimmed down a lot, they stripped all the PPC code from the system and is greatly optimized, it should run quite a bit faster than Leopard, although Leopard was pretty fast as well.
So, my opinion upgrade to SL, you won't regret it.

 

[peglegjack]

I honestly never understood people hating on Lion. Maybe initially because it was a little different and jarring. And I know Mountain Lion runs a good bit faster, but c'mon it's not THAT bad.

For instance I'm typing on a 2006 Macbook w/ 3GB of Ram running Lion and personally don't notice much difference from Snow Leopard. Just know your limitations, as in w/ 3GB of Ram you probably shouldn't run 50 programs at once. In addition, I can also use the latest iPhoto and iCloud so that helps the cause. To me it's fine.

Really, all this stuff is apples and oranges. But at least you should know your options.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I honestly never understood people hating on Lion. Maybe initially because it was a little different and jarring. And I know Mountain Lion runs a good bit faster, but c'mon it's not THAT bad.

For many it was a departure from Mac OS X and letting Mac OS X (now only OS X, the Mac has been taken away be more like iOS, which in itself is understandable from Apple's POV (iOS devices sell rather good, why not get some of the "good" stuff from iOS to Mac OS X and see, if it helps selling even more), but leaves many people, that came to a Mac long before the iPhone was released or even thought of, and probably many others, in the unknown.
Where will OS X go next, or what will be taken away next, is a constant question for those, me included. They already took away proper Spaces for me, and since then, I have tried Mac OS X 10.7 Lion twice and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion twice, but always reverted back to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, even with TotalSpaces, which is still not as good as Spaces.
There are many other things like Facebook and Twitter integration, I do not care about those, but currently those are in fashion and enjoyed by many people, and do not seem to go away that quickly (hopefully only another decade) and so on.

Imagine going from Spaces in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, looking like this

to Mission Control in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, looking like this

Of course, not everyone uses that many Spaces, but Mission Control seriously hampers the usefulness of more than four virtual desktops.