Is Mavericks better than Yosemite for MBA 13" 2009

[markeeinsik]

Im currently running MAC OS Yosemite 10.10.1 on my MBA 13" 1.86ghz 2009 2GB RAM. its laggy at times and the fans is noisy and my mac is heating up.

do you think this is MAC OS is just too much for my mac?

my daily routine in my mac are:
-browsing the web, safari, 2-4 tabs with use of flash
-utorrent
-microsft word
-skype
-check speed using activity monitor

my RAM use is at 1.80 to 1.99
although my memory pressure is at green level.

hope you can advise my the better and latest OS for my MBA.
My MBA came with MAC OS Lion but i wanted a higher OS.

thank you very much, hope to hear from you guys soon.
by the way, im a newbie at this.

 

[chabig]

El Capitan will run great on your machine. If it seems slow to you, that's because the hardware could stand to be upgraded. The number one best thing you could do would be to replace the hard drive with an SSD. Number two--bump up the RAM, but as you said, memory pressure is green. Start with an SSD.

 

[markeeinsik]

thanks.. i still have yet to get my hands of an sdd. in my country (Philippines) its hard to get one. ive seen one site providing good quality SSD but its in the US. i might get it replaced once im in New Zealand.

i cannot upgrade my RAM.. im stuck with the 2GB ram in my Macbook Air.

will the El capitan run smoothly even with a 2GB ram? i doubt it will work.. Yosemite is having a hard time running.

 

[chabig]

Sorry. I completely missed that it's an Air. Get an SSD if you can, and try EL Capitan. It's a more polished version of Yosemite, much like Snow Leopard was a polished version of Leopard. If you're still not happy after upgrading, you can can try going back to an earlier OS.

 

[prisstratton]

Based on my personal experience installing both Yosemite and El Capitan on my MBP, I would suggest that the best thing for you would be to install Mavericks.

I installed Yosemite on my MBP and the UI was very laggy and Safari + WiFi was just awful. I later installed El Cap. and although it was an improvement it did not compare to the snappy response that I get from my Mavericks installation.

I am now happily back with Mavericks and I will be staying here for the foreseeable future.

 

[markeeinsik]

thank you for you advises.. i will try to find a good quality SSD, but it would still take more time for me as its hard to find one here in the Philippines.

i just hope that mavericks will pull this off. i just wan the best for my MBA.

 

[markeeinsik]

i updated my mac os yosemite 10.10.1 to 10.10.5, it made a significant improvement. my ram usage is better now, and the fan is silent. but my issue right now it boot time, it does boot slower than the prev os but its a better trade off. my mac runs a bit faster now.