mid 2009 macbook pro 13'': Mavericks or El Capitan?

[Ravich]

I am upgrading from my early 2008 macbook pro to my mom's old laptop (mid 2009) and I'm trying to transfer stuff and set up.

Apple, of course, makes it difficult to stick with an old operating system, but there are ways around that, so I thought I'd ask whether it's worth sticking with mavericks, or whether El Capitan would be fine. Not interesting in trading the limited speed I have for flashy tricks.

 

[Sirolway]

IMHO you should run the latest OS you can, just for the bug fixes & better security ..

 

[brdeveloper]

I have a late-2009 Macbook with 8GB RAM and SSD. Mavericks ran fine, Yosemite not so fine and El Capitan seems to be a improvement over Yosemite. In short: El Capitan

 

[Primejimbo]

I have a late 2008 aluMB with an SSD and 8GB of RAM and El Capitan runs great on it.

 

[BarcelonaPaul]

Ei Capitan definitely. I have a late 2009 MacBook. Mavericks absolutely ruined it, yet Yosemite brought it back to life. El Capitan not so good as I get the beach ball appearing every day on things. Much better than Mavericks though!