MacBook (late 2009)

[solarguy17]

Anyone install Mavericks on a MacBook (late 2009). When I upgraded from SL to Lion it seemed slower but not to bad. Then from Lion to ML seemed to really big down and battery life started to suck. Should I even bother updating to Mav?
I was actually think about resetting the whole computer and restoring back to SL. And maybe installing a new battery.
But what I have heard in some reports of older MBPs getting better battery life and slightly more responsive.
Anyone have any standards MacBook experience?

 

[brdeveloper]

Anyone install Mavericks on a MacBook (late 2009). When I upgraded from SL to Lion it seemed slower but not to bad. Then from Lion to ML seemed to really big down and battery life started to suck. Should I even bother updating to Mav?
I was actually think about resetting the whole computer and restoring back to SL. And maybe installing a new battery.
But what I have heard in some reports of older MBPs getting better battery life and slightly more responsive.
Anyone have any standards MacBook experience?

I just upgraded to Mavericks. No big changes in performance at all (but note that I'm using a SSD so some performance slowness may be "hidden" by the I/O boost). It seems a bit slower than Snow Leopard because of transition effects but this is barely noticeable. Also, for some stuff it respond faster. No big conclusions yet.

I did a clean install of Snow Leopard last week so the system was mostly "clean" when I installed Mavericks. I had MacPorts installed and some of my ports are broken. I'll install XCode and check if I can get the things back to work (like Gimp and Wine).

The overall impressions after 1-hour from the upgrade process is I have the same system. Boot takes a little longer even with SSD but not very long. I'll keep the topic updated if I find any problems...

 

[solarguy17]

Ok. Thanks for the info. I'm really interested in battery life. My battery is down to only about and hour before it dies. I'm thinking about having apple replace the battery. But it might depend on how useable this computer can be for the future.

 

[Jschultz]

I've got a late 2009 Macbook as well.

I *do not* have an SSD, but for whatever reason, things seem to be faster. Safari is noticeably faster, as is navigating around the OS.

As far as battery life, I can't say I notice any large improvement; however, like you, my battery is getting pretty near the end of its useful life. Per a couple of battery health programs, I'm near 78% health with about 900 cycles. So yeah, a new battery is likely in my future.