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El Capitan or Sierra?

S

samcraig

macrumors P6
Original poster
Jun 22, 2009
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41,983
USA
My new MBA arrived today - 128gb/8gb memory. As I'm at work, I don't know what MacOS is on it - but given it's a 2015 machine, I'm going to guess El Capitan.

I have Sierra on my new 2015 iMac - but wondered for those using the MBA whether I should keep it on El Capitan for now/awhile or just upgrade before I start installing my software.
 
There is no reason to be running ElCap instead of Sierra on any Macbook that is compatible and has 4+ Gb of RAM.
 
sorry to say but you will probably regret it. Writing this post cost 6% of battery life on Sierra. Did not have this problem on El Cap.
 
zusing said:
sorry to say but you will probably regret it. Writing this post cost 6% of battery life on Sierra. Did not have this problem on El Cap.
Click to expand...
too right - running Sierra here on rMBP 2012 with a new battery; only has battery life when idle
considering saving all my prefs. & starting with a fresh install of El Cap? thinking 10.11.6 is more optimised vs 10.12.3
guess I'll keep waiting this last little stretch until 10.12.4 is released...

had a 2015 MBA with 8Gb and that ran the whole day or more :O enjoy that beast! occasionally 40+hrs with sleeping occasionally haha the power of 15W CPU's & no dGPU, just plug in appropriate Thunderbolt 2 EGPU & you are set :p EDIT: also had a 2012 MBA, 2015 is more efficient ^^
 
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chrfr said:
Maybe. El Capitan didn't receive security updates that correspond to what was fixed in 10.12.3 and as a result does have security exposures. We'll have to see if this changes when 10.12.4 ships.
Click to expand...

Just switched to 10.11.6 - apart from 'Security Update 2016-003' which 10.12+ didn't get (unless packaged in 10.12.2/3...
 
chrfr said:
Security update 2016-003 corresponds with 10.12.2.
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT207423
Click to expand...
Was out most of yesterday but got back home & to my amazement this popped up ;)
Seems legit - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207615
then again, should have waited 24-36 hours longer for 10.12.4 ^^ thought I'd learned patience...
[doublepost=1490689022][/doublepost]
spinergy said:
there are plenty of reasons. just because there is none for you, doesn't mean there is no reason for others...
Click to expand...
Thanks ;)

OSX Sierra only having been tested/developed on machines newer than 2012/3 it seems - regardless of 4 or 8GbRAMs it lags = less tested. Wonder how long the 2015 model will last with this new business model they seem to have :O

Makes sense though as Tim heading the ship regards the 2012 air,pro/retina,Mini,iMac etc all obsolete & antiquated :'( Sad thing is the 2012 mini is the last one with a quad core, and all the 2012 machines I had (even soldered RAM) were 8Gb!

Soon all the 2013 models will stop being catered to testing-wise
 

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derohan said:
Was out most of yesterday but got back home & to my amazement this popped up ;)
Seems legit - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207615
then again, should have waited 24-36 hours longer for 10.12.4 ^^ thought I'd learned patience...
[doublepost=1490689022][/doublepost]
Thanks ;)

OSX Sierra only having been tested/developed on machines newer than 2012/3 it seems - regardless of 4 or 8GbRAMs it lags = less tested. Wonder how long the 2015 model will last with this new business model they seem to have :O

Makes sense though as Tim heading the ship regards the 2012 air,pro/retina,Mini,iMac etc all obsolete & antiquated :'( Sad thing is the 2012 mini is the last one with a quad core, and all the 2012 machines I had (even soldered RAM) were 8Gb!

Soon all the 2013 models will stop being catered to testing-wise
Click to expand...

That's incorrect. Sierra is tested on all models it works with, which goes back several years of supported models.
 
MBA 2013 13" 4GB RAM. installed Sierra once and downgraded back to OS X 10.11.6 and never looked back. I think I'll wait for macOS 10.13. El Capitan for me is more stable and faster than Sierra. but It's for me.
 
kiwipeso1 said:
That's incorrect. Sierra is tested on all models it works with, which goes back several years of supported models.
Click to expand...
I can't imagine they tested it thoroughly though with all the UI lag here ^^
yoimrae said:
MBA 2013 13" 4GB RAM. installed Sierra once and downgraded back to OS X 10.11.6 and never looked back. I think I'll wait for macOS 10.13. El Capitan for me is more stable and faster than Sierra. but It's for me.
Click to expand...
wonder if we can solder new RAM chips haha..
 
derohan said:
I can't imagine they tested it thoroughly though with all the UI lag here ^^

wonder if we can solder new RAM chips haha..
Click to expand...

If we can upgrade then it is great, but it is Apple's strategy for us to buy a more expensive Mac. For me Sierra is stuttering on Macs with 4GB RAM or below. I think it is optimised and designed for Macs with 8GB RAM.
 
I downgraded to El Capitan because of worse battery life and because I could not purge some space on the disk.
 
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