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How many people have gone 'off the grid' in terms of ignoring new osx versions?

Philocetes

Philocetes

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 23, 2016
106
36
Just curious how many folks have decided to sit tight with a back-level version of osx, having determined that the computer meets their needs as is and don't want to hassle with upgrade issues. This would include those who are stuck at a level due to hardware not supporting newer releases. Curious as to what release you are on as well. I'll bet there are folks still using powerpc based macs.

I am thinking of taking this route and staying at el capitan. Or at least seeing how long I can hold out. I have noted each release makes itunes and iphoto worse to use, and when the new os comes, sometimes I need to buy upgrades to other software to make it work.

Also, I am interested in folks opining on how many more years my cMP 2010 can go before it breaks and cannot be repaired--and what part may be expected to go first. There are people still selling (or trying to sell) powerpc mac pros--admittedly at ridiculously high prices. So we know these things can endure.

Thanks.
 
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I'm a retired scientist and have a PowerMac G5 with Leopard and Tiger partitions, Mac Pros with El Capitan, Maverick, and Mountain Lion, and a retina MacBook Pro with Yosemite. Several modeling softwares I have developed compile and run fine on all of them.

Al
 
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[I'm a retired scientist and have a PowerMac G5 with Leopard and Tiger partitions, Mac Pros with El Capitan, Maverick, and Mountain Lion, and a Retina Macbook Pro with Yosemite. Several modeling softwares I have developed compile and run just fine on all of them.]

and I have no plans to update any of them.
 
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I usually stay 6-12 months behind except in rare cases like Snow Leopard which was just better in every way right off the bat.

I will also test the newer OS on its own drive first to make sure its suitable, and keep the older OS on its drive as a backup for a while just in case.
 
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ActionableMango said:
I usually stay 6-12 months behind except in rare cases like Snow Leopard which was just better in every way right off the bat.

I will also test the newer OS on its own drive first to make sure its suitable, and keep the older OS on its drive as a backup for a while just in case.
Click to expand...

Haha, no it wasn't, 10.6 broke pretty much everything at the time. Was a solid OS by 10.6.4 though.

In my experience;

10.4 was solid, and fast.
10.5 brought good features (and nearly ZFS!) but was sloooow.
10.6 was solid, brought great refinements.
10.7 was a pig.
10.8 was solid.
10.9 improved on that, though was also a little flaky to begin with.
10.10 had some interesting ideas executed poorly.
10.11 was pretty solid.
10.12 will only really be interesting when APFS goes live.

I always liked to keep my machines up to date, though recently I grew tired of dealing with poor GPU performance under OS X, so migrated totally over to Windows 10 on the MacPro5,1. There are a few things I miss, but more things I like, for now at least.
 
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Draeconis said:
10.4 was solid, and fast.
10.5 brought good features (and nearly ZFS!) but was sloooow.
10.6 was solid, brought great refinements.
10.7 was a pig.
10.8 was solid.
10.9 improved on that, though was also a little flaky to begin with.
10.10 had some interesting ideas executed poorly.
10.11 was pretty solid.
10.12 will only really be interesting when APFS goes live.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more with this assessment.
 
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I am torn on this topic. On one hand I love technology and want to try the latest and greatest. However I've reached a point in my life where the mindset of "If it's not broke don't fix it" tends to apply. For my Macintosh systems I think the latest version I am running is 10.9 despite the fact the systems running it can run macOS Sierra.

Sadly the newest things in operating systems appear to be social media integration. Things I'm not very interested in. The new filesystem in Sierra is interesting but it's command line only. Until it becomes production worthy it's not a compelling reason to upgrade. This is not to say the only features in newer operating systems is social media but there's just not that much interesting to someone like me. I think operating systems because meh once PM, PMT, large memory, etc became common (around the release of OS X and Windows XP).

At this stage in my life an operating system (or any piece of software for that matter) needs to offer a compelling reason to upgrade (even if made available for free). I do not see that in modern operating systems. While I don't have any reason to avoid any particular OS I don't see the reason to move to them either.

At some point I may upgrade to macOS Sierra but I have no immediate, or even medium term, plans to do so.
 
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Philocetes said:
Just curious how many folks have decided to sit tight with a back-level version of osx, having determined that the computer meets their needs as is and don't want to hassle with upgrade issues. This would include those who are stuck at a level due to hardware not supporting newer releases. Curious as to what release you are on as well. I'll bet there are folks still using powerpc based macs.

I am thinking of taking this route and staying at el capitan. Or at least seeing how long I can hold out. I have noted each release makes itunes and iphoto worse to use, and when the new os comes, sometimes I need to buy upgrades to other software to make it work.

Also, I am interested in folks opining on how many more years my cMP 2010 can go before it breaks and cannot be repaired--and what part may be expected to go first. There are people still selling (or trying to sell) powerpc mac pros--admittedly at ridiculously high prices. So we know these things can endure.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
That would be me.... Mavericks works just fine.... I have tried el cap and it works about the same but I see no need to update unless I'm forced to.... I also have no need for iOs integration with macOS which seems to be Apple's goal.
 
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Philocetes said:
Just curious how many folks have decided to sit tight with a back-level version of osx, having determined that the computer meets their needs as is and don't want to hassle with upgrade issues. This would include those who are stuck at a level due to hardware not supporting newer releases. Curious as to what release you are on as well. I'll bet there are folks still using powerpc based macs.

I am thinking of taking this route and staying at el capitan. Or at least seeing how long I can hold out. I have noted each release makes itunes and iphoto worse to use, and when the new os comes, sometimes I need to buy upgrades to other software to make it work.

Also, I am interested in folks opining on how many more years my cMP 2010 can go before it breaks and cannot be repaired--and what part may be expected to go first. There are people still selling (or trying to sell) powerpc mac pros--admittedly at ridiculously high prices. So we know these things can endure.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I'm at 10.10.5.

I didn't see anything that would justify moving to 10.11 and I certainly have no intentions of moving to 10.12 with Sir Idiot Boy's SIP.

I am preparing to transition away from OSX entirely. I create with my mac & Timmy and Sir Idiot Boy are more concerned about watch bands.
 
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well I'm stuck on el cap on my mac pro 1.1 runs flawlessly and meets my needs. leopard and tiger on my powerbook as it is still a fun machine to play with and el cap on my 09 MacBook pro as i have;t tried the patch tools yet and am not sure if i will. sierra is nice on my 2014 mac mini but thats a test machine. all i use it for is trying out new OS releases before i try too implement it on my main rig. in all honesty mac os doesn't age like windows you can pretty well get by on everything from tiger up sure each older release has to make more and more compromises but they all can serve most modern tasks.
 
ssgbryan said:
I am preparing to transition away from OSX entirely.
Click to expand...
I dread the thought of migrating away, and then again I don't.

After a great long term run, it's a recurring thought I must deal with. Fortunately I'm already working in a cross platform environment, so the transition will be swift and easy.

ssgbryan said:
Timmy and Sir Idiot Boy are more concerned about watch bands.
Click to expand...
Yes Indeed they are....

Dolts who've ruined the Mac computing experience.
 
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Wish I had stayed on Mavericks--don't think one can put the toothpaste back in the tubee, though. Having switched from windows to mac to windows and back to mac, not looking forward to another such exercise, but it can be done--but I lose all sorts of personal data like emails and documents. I never expected a dolt would take over from Jobs and make apple look sloppy by doing a half-assed job on osx and mac pro updates.

I had a powerpc mac mini that to my knowledge worked fine. My son claimed it would freeze up from time to time (overheat?). Can't recall what ever became of it.
 
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Depending on workflow....

Work MacPro is parked on the Last ElCapitan until the Screenshot Plus developer fixes his app.
Personal MacPro was sitting parked on Yosemite. It's running 12.1 beta.
OS/X VM - VMWare Mavericks - To access legacy development tools that no longer work in the current OS.
 
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10.11 is great for me. 10.12 doesn't offer a single advantage for me on my Mac Pro, doing audio/running Logic X all day, so I'll be sticking to 10.11. It's all about Siri and iOS and watch integration... nothing for the 'pro user'.

Even my laptop will probably stay on 10.11. I don't have a very modern laptop 2010 MBP, so none of the features work anyway, they require newer wifi and bluetooth. Maybe Siri dictation would be useful for writing emails, but not a big deal to me.

10.6 and 10.8 seemed good, but 10.11 seems nice and snappy.
 
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I'm still on 10.8.

I don't care about any of the features in the newer versions. In fact, if I had a choice, I'd still be running 10.6 (though ideally with an updated toolchain and OpenGL stack).

I need to be able to rely on my machine each and every day, since I use it to make money. I have a ton of software installed and everything works fine, so I see no reason to update my operating system. In my experience, operating system updates tend to bring about a whole lot of annoying bugs, most of which don't get fixed until the next OS release... which brings it's own set of bugs. So when I find something that actually works, I tend to stick with it as long as possible.

I do netboot newer operating systems from my Mac Mini, but they've all been modified so they can't mount my local disk drives (I've got an Apple RAID card installed so I deleted those KEXTs) and therefore they can't touch or manipulate my 10.8 installation in any way.

-SC
 
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maxsix said:
I dread the thought of migrating away, and then again I don't.

After a great long term run, it's a recurring thought I must deal with. Fortunately I'm already working in a cross platform environment, so the transition will be swift and easy.


Yes Indeed they are....

Dolts who've ruined the Mac computing experience.
Click to expand...

The thing is, I don't work in the OS, I work in applications.

The reality is that in my workflow (3d Art), the windows products are better than the Mac versions. I'll more than likely start the transition when Zbrush 5 comes out. I'd have to purchase it regardless (Pixelogic doesn't do upgrade pricing on anything), and I don't see any advantage to staying with OSX.
 
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I am currently on 10.11 and it is doing absolutely everything I could ever need / want. I desperately need a new workstation as my iMac (thought an all in one would fit my needs, boy was I wrong) keeps overheating, bad GPU. As much as it pains me, having been a mac user since the apple II I think I may have to switch to a HP Z. Apple once focused on the creators the makers this new shift to consumers may be profitable now but I remember the dark years of bloated product lines and now software and it really looks like they are going that way again.

I am a documentary filmmaker and use Avid as my cutting station and lightroom for production stills and my hobby. Every time apple releases a new OS it proves catastrophic to my work flow. So thanks but no apple.
 
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Home machines are running El Cap, waiting for a few updates to Sierra before I try it out.

Recording Studio runs super solid with Digital Performer 8.07 and Mountain Lion. Although I will probably go to DP9 in the near future (waiting for a few bug fixes to the new, more efficient audio engine), no plans to change OS in the studio unless I want to go to a 4k display someday.
 
I need to have multiple partitions and OS versions for development purposes. But I'm really pissed that apple cut 10.10 from Xcode support earlier this year - this forced developers to use el crap (and pads their adoption rates).

My opinion is that quality suffered in El Crap because most of the iOS bugs I wrote also were present in El Crap - basically the churn of iOS 9 to support all of last year's new iDevices (iPad Pro/Apple TV) also infected El Crap.

But my main concern for upgrading is not knowing what apps will break - this is perhaps the biggest problem with Apple Platforms in general. Small - mid size developers (like me) are ramping down effort because developing for the platform is becoming less profitable due to Apple's increasing control of their ecosystems.
 
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