eek, what to do with lion on a 2011 mba

[ayres]

Hey all, so I'm doing the obligatory maintenance on my sister's 2011 mba while she's visiting me in hawaii.

She's still running lion, and I figured I would update the os, but I'm iffy about putting el cap on this machine.

I'd rather try an older OS X version - mountain lion or mavericks, first.

Where might i go to update her mba only to mountain lion or mavericks?

cheers!!!

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

You can't, unless you have access to an AppleID where either of them has been bought already.

 

[lagwagon]

If it were me I would just go ahead and go right to El Capitan. I've ran it on even older (09 27" iMac and 09 17" MacBook Pro) machines than the 2011 MBA you mention. They have ran great and can only imagine a 2011 would run even better. Plus it would take out the need for a lot of maintenance you would have to do on visits due to SIP (System Integrity Protection) all sorts of things are kept protected like permissions and such. Plus not to mention all the latest security updates, which is pretty important for any computer.

 

[CoastalOR]

Your only legal choices are Mountain Lion ($19.99 at Apple) or El Capitan (free from the App Store). Mavericks and Yosemite were removed from the Apple App Store as new OS were released. So as T'hain Esh Kelch said, you can only download Mavericks and Yosemite if previously purchased from the App Store by going the the Purchased tab.

 

[chrfr]

Hey all, so I'm doing the obligatory maintenance on my sister's 2011 mba while she's visiting me in hawaii.

She's still running lion, and I figured I would update the os, but I'm iffy about putting el cap on this machine.

I'd rather try an older OS X version - mountain lion or mavericks, first.

Where might i go to update her mba only to mountain lion or mavericks?

cheers!!!

El Capitan won't be worse than Lion. I'd go ahead and update it.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd go to 10.8.5 "Mountain Lion" and leave it there.

Unless she puts an SSD into it.
Then El Capitan might be ok -- but NOT without an SSD.

 

[ayres]

thanks all! i had noticed the $20 mountain lion from apple, so it was either that or el cap. good to know. yeah, i'll go ahead and put el cap on her computer. it can't be that bad - given the incramental differences between mba iterations. i use a 2013 mba with el cap, and i have no qualms. cheers

 

[chrfr]

I'd go to 10.8.5 "Mountain Lion" and leave it there.

Unless she puts an SSD into it.
Then El Capitan might be ok -- but NOT without an SSD.

It's a 2011 Macbook Air. Those only had SSDs, fortunately.

 

[cincygolfgrrl]

My mid-2011 MBA has never run better than it does today on El Cap osx 10.11.3.