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Older iMac/Which app versions to run?

M

magilla

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 3, 2013
223
0
i'm running a mid-2011 iMac under 10.6.8 and have Safari 4.0.5 (6531.22.7) installed. Anyone know which newer version of Safari I SHOULD be running? And If i wanted to install a version of Firefox, which one?

BTW ... what's the "(6531.22.7)" after the version # of Safari refer to?

I also use an older version of Pages 4.0.1 (746) - any update to this i should consider?

Thanks.
 
I

Idefix

macrumors 6502a
Jul 10, 2012
523
72
each MacOS comes with its own version of Safari, you can't get Safari separately. Try Chrome or Firefox. You're 2011 iMac is capable of running the latest versions.

If you want more out of Safari, skip Lion and go to Mountain Lion. Avoid Mavericks until the bugs are fixed. Also avoid Mavericks if you want local sync through iTunes of iPhone or iPad. Mavericks only allows iCloud sync.
 
M

magilla

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 3, 2013
223
0
Idefix said:
each MacOS comes with its own version of Safari, you can't get Safari separately. Try Chrome or Firefox. You're 2011 iMac is capable of running the latest versions.

If you want more out of Safari, skip Lion and go to Mountain Lion. Avoid Mavericks until the bugs are fixed. Also avoid Mavericks if you want local sync through iTunes of iPhone or iPad. Mavericks only allows iCloud sync.
Click to expand...

If that's true, then why is the respondee following you running Safarai 5.1.11 while I'm only running 4.0.5?

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OLDCODGER said:
I am running 10.6.8 and Safari 5.1.10 with no problems and, yes, you can download from Apple Software Updates.
Click to expand...

thanks for the info. BTW ... did you ever run 4.0.5 and if so, what are the differences between the two versions? I'm assuming that at least, some mods might have been done with respect to security measures.
 
B

Bear

macrumors G3
Jul 23, 2002
8,088
5
Sol III - Terra
magilla said:
i'm running a mid-2011 iMac under 10.6.8 and have Safari 4.0.5 (6531.22.7) installed. Anyone know which newer version of Safari I SHOULD be running? And If i wanted to install a version of Firefox, which one?

BTW ... what's the "(6531.22.7)" after the version # of Safari refer to?

I also use an older version of Pages 4.0.1 (746) - any update to this i should consider?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
For Safari, iLife apps and iWork Apps, you want the latest that software update will give you. Anything newer than that will not run on 10.6.8.

As for Firefox, the latest version should work.

And as for "(6531.22.7)" and "(746)" they refer to specific builds of that version. I'm not sure why Safari's is so complex.
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,343
12,461
If everything you have works well enough for you right now, there may not be a compelling reason to update.

If you are experiencing problems (such as being unable to interact properly with some web sites due to the old version of Safari), then it might be a good move to upgrade.

But -- as Idefix suggested in reply #2 above, don't go all the way to Mavericks yet -- too many folks reporting problems.

I'd suggest 10.8 -- or even 10.7.

Also -- be aware that the latest version of iWork that was released with Mavericks seems to be somewhat "stripped down" feature-wise, from the versions that preceded it. I'm using Pages 4.0.4, and will not upgrade further, because if you use anything more recent than that with the newer versions of the OS, you lose the "Save As" choice in the menus. This may not bother you, but it certainly bothered me.

Something else to be aware of: If you are currently using any older apps that are "PowerPC code" only, they are not supported past Snow Leopard. The apps must be either Intel or "Universal binary" to run under 10.7, 10.8, etc. If you have Spotlight running, you can check this by going to Apple System Profiler, clicking the "applications" choice on the left, and then examining the results on the right (tip: click by "kind" to sort everything out).

One other thing. If you have an external backup drive (you should!), before you attempt a major upgrade, use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to make a bootable clone of your main drive. That way, it's easy to "go back" if you don't like the results or encounter other problems.
 
Hirakata

Hirakata

macrumors 6502
Mar 17, 2011
314
400
Burbank, CA
I'm running a 2011 iMac with Mavericks and all of the latest software and everything runs fine. I'm not aware of any bugs, or maybe just have't encountered them during daily usage.

The above poster is correct though as far as the latest Pages being stripped down.
 
O

OLDCODGER

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2011
959
399
Lucky Country
magilla said:
If that's true, then why is the respondee following you running Safarai 5.1.11 while I'm only running 4.0.5?

----------



thanks for the info. BTW ... did you ever run 4.0.5 and if so, what are the differences between the two versions? I'm assuming that at least, some mods might have been done with respect to security measures.
Click to expand...

Because of the many changes from v4 to v5, may one suggest that a visit to http://www.apple.com/safari/ might be best for the info you need.
 
M

magilla

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 3, 2013
223
0
Fishrrman said:
If everything you have works well enough for you right now, there may not be a compelling reason to update.

If you are experiencing problems (such as being unable to interact properly with some web sites due to the old version of Safari), then it might be a good move to upgrade.

But -- as Idefix suggested in reply #2 above, don't go all the way to Mavericks yet -- too many folks reporting problems.

I'd suggest 10.8 -- or even 10.7.

Also -- be aware that the latest version of iWork that was released with Mavericks seems to be somewhat "stripped down" feature-wise, from the versions that preceded it. I'm using Pages 4.0.4, and will not upgrade further, because if you use anything more recent than that with the newer versions of the OS, you lose the "Save As" choice in the menus. This may not bother you, but it certainly bothered me.

Something else to be aware of: If you are currently using any older apps that are "PowerPC code" only, they are not supported past Snow Leopard. The apps must be either Intel or "Universal binary" to run under 10.7, 10.8, etc. If you have Spotlight running, you can check this by going to Apple System Profiler, clicking the "applications" choice on the left, and then examining the results on the right (tip: click by "kind" to sort everything out).

One other thing. If you have an external backup drive (you should!), before you attempt a major upgrade, use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to make a bootable clone of your main drive. That way, it's easy to "go back" if you don't like the results or encounter other problems.
Click to expand...

One of the first things I did was to go buy a large external backup drive (learned that way back with an old pre-Intel PPC and huge PhotoShop files).

I've heard so many stories about Mavericks that, like buying a brand new car, you NEVER want to go out and buy a new model in it's first year of production 'till they work out the bugs.

I had heard that there were some fairly significant security bugs in older (read v. 4.x) versions of Safari that were closed with newer versions.

The version of iWork that I'm using now does what I want it to do - just wondering if there were any significant updates - hadn't heard about the Maveriks-supplied version being "stripped down."



Thanks for the input!

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OLDCODGER said:
Because of the many changes from v4 to v5, may one suggest that a visit to http://www.apple.com/safari/ might be best for the info you need.
Click to expand...

Thanks much for the link. Being out in the wilds of Montana though, I have this ... uh, well ... "connection" problem (not the James Burke kind though). Cell/satellite service is intermittent @ best, nearest neighbor is 20+ miles away so utility company isn't about to run internet cabling out to the two of us so, outside of electricity and indoor plumbing, my connection with the "Cloud" is via (gasp) landline (remember THOSE?) so online software upgrades become problematic. But i can always hop on the old pony and trot off to my nearest public library with a high-speed internet connection to do some downloading.

BTW ... hard not to trust anyone with a username "OLDCODGER".

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Consultant said:
How to use software update in 10.6
http://www.apple.com/softwareupdate/
Click to expand...

Thanks for that - new to iMac world from an old PPC frame where everything was done via disk upgrades.
 
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