is Maverick still available or do I have to go to Yosemite? (late 2009 iMac)

Z

zeppo2

macrumors regular
21.5-inch, Late 2009 iMac
Memory 12 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB
Software OS X 10.8.5 (12F45)

I was thinking of upgrading from Mountain Lion, because around October I started getting recurring Safari crash issues, even after using time Machine to revert back to clean install of Mountain Lion. I have yet to get a diagnosis of the crashes on the apple support board, but I'm still hopeful.

In the meantime, I'm thinking maybe I just need to finally upgrade the OS. I figured I wouldn't push it since I have an older iMac, but I am curious if it would resolve the Safari issues.

Problem is, if I were hesitant before to go to Maverick, I am even more hesitant to leap to Yosemite.

Is Maverick still available?*
Can my system handle Yosemite?*



*Right now I have reverted back to clean install of Mountain Lion (well, actually it reverts back to a saved clean install of Snow Leopard that was immediately upgraded to Mountain Lion). I haven't even added Adobe Flash back yet as I try to figure out the Safari issue. But I hope to run:

Office 2011 (namely Excel and Word).
Mental Case flashcard app
ScanSnap scanner
Spotify
possibly Anki
presumably MS Silverlight for Netflix, though I can get by without Netflix

That's all that comes to mind that I'd be using.
 
You can download 10.9 by contacting Apple Support. They will provide you with a download code with which you can use to download 10.9 from the App Store.
 
Thanks!

Is there any consensus yet on which system is better for an iMac with my system resources, Maverick or Yosemite?

I suppose I could load Maverick, wait enough days so that I am sure time machine has a permanent storage of it while I try it out, and then try Yosemite.
 
Hey Zeppo2,

Don't count on that Mavericks download from Apple Support. I tried a couple of different times to get that download code and was never sucessful in getting Apple Support to give me that code. If you did not download Mavericks previously, then you are more than likely, not going to be able to upgrade to it through iTunes or Apple Care.

Thankfully I had a MacBook that I had downloaded a version of Mavericks on and was able to copy that to a flash drive and create an install from that.
 
zeppo2 said:
21.5-inch, Late 2009 iMac
Memory 12 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB
Software OS X 10.8.5 (12F45)

I was thinking of upgrading from Mountain Lion, because around October I started getting recurring Safari crash issues, even after using time Machine to revert back to clean install of Mountain Lion. I have yet to get a diagnosis of the crashes on the apple support board, but I'm still hopeful.

In the meantime, I'm thinking maybe I just need to finally upgrade the OS. I figured I wouldn't push it since I have an older iMac, but I am curious if it would resolve the Safari issues.

Problem is, if I were hesitant before to go to Maverick, I am even more hesitant to leap to Yosemite.

Is Maverick still available?*
Can my system handle Yosemite?*



*Right now I have reverted back to clean install of Mountain Lion (well, actually it reverts back to a saved clean install of Snow Leopard that was immediately upgraded to Mountain Lion). I haven't even added Adobe Flash back yet as I try to figure out the Safari issue. But I hope to run:

Office 2011 (namely Excel and Word).
Mental Case flashcard app
ScanSnap scanner
Spotify
possibly Anki
presumably MS Silverlight for Netflix, though I can get by without Netflix

That's all that comes to mind that I'd be using.
Click to expand...

Any Late 2009 iMac is within the minimum system requirements for OS X Yosemite (which has the same minimum system requirements that OS X Mavericks and OS X Mountain Lion both had). Similarly, Apple is still issuing the same under-the-hood updates to Safari for Mountain Lion (in the form of updates to Safari 6.2.x), for Mavericks (in the form of updates to Safari 7.1.x) and for Yosemite (currently in the form of updates to Safari 8.0.x). So, any update that makes critical viewability/compatibility changes to one of these versions ought to be the same for all of them.

This being said, I've found that Mavericks was worse than Mountain Lion in a lot of ways, but that Yosemite remedies a lot of them. My only frustrations with Yosemite so far are as a technician and not an end user. Though I've found that Yosemite on a non-retina display is an eye-sore; but judging it solely on functionality, as an end user, I do like it much better than Mavericks.

Given all of that, it sounds like you're probably in need of a clean installation of whatever OS you want to be using for the time being as all of that reversion/upgrading all of that can't be all that clean or smooth running after a while. If you purchased OS X Mountain Lion or "purchased" OS X Mavericks, you can re-download them via the "Purchased" tab of the Mac App Store, provided you're signed into your account via your AppleID. If you haven't purchased either of those OSes, you can do so with Mountain Lion here: http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion

I'm not sure about OS X Mavericks, seeing as I "bought" it and have never had to contend with this problem myself. You MAY be able to get AppleCare to get you a code (I'd insist that you are a pro user and you ABSOLUTELY HAVE to have Mavericks and that no other OS X version will do [as that expedites the stupid bureaucratic nonsense that is likely entailed on their end]), though I wouldn't count on it. Honestly though, if you're going to go past Mountain Lion, I'd go straight to Yosemite. It's uglier (on a non-retina screen) for sure, it is less operationally stupid than Mavericks was, for sure.
 
thanks, everybody.

Yebubbleman, when you say that Yosemite looks okay on a Retina but not on a non-retina, is this indicating that my fonts won't be as crisp on Yosemite as they are with Mountain Lion? -- because I want things as easy on my eyes as possible when it comes to reading.
 
zeppo2 said:
thanks, everybody.

Yebubbleman, when you say that Yosemite looks okay on a Retina but not on a non-retina, is this indicating that my fonts won't be as crisp on Yosemite as they are with Mountain Lion? -- because I want things as easy on my eyes as possible when it comes to reading.
Click to expand...

I find Yosemite to be fine on non-Retina displays. Remember that Apple is still shipping classic MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and iMacs all without Retina displays.
 
Personally, Yosemite is easier on the eyes when it comes to viewability, but not as "pretty" as Mavericks. I'd rather take the first option over the second, though.
 
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