Should I update to Mavericks?

[MooseWeird]

I have a Late 2012 Mac Mini (i7 2.6Ghz quad, 16gb RAM, Fusion Drive) which I'm about to change both my hard drives to a 500gb SSD and a 7200rpm 1TB HDD and am now thinking of upgrading to Mavericks (from Mountain Lion). Is the OS version stable enough now? I remember from the launch that many people complained about "beachballs" and bad RAM management among other problems, which is why I never upgraded. I'm interested in the multi display function of it but will stay at Mountain Lion if this will negatively affect me in any way. Btw, I solely do audio work on this mac (Pro Tools 10/11, Ableton Live 9, Logic 9/X) and will not continue to use Fusion Drive.

Thanks!

 

[prisstratton]

Any development to Mavericks ended with the release of 10.9.5 in October 2013, so I guess you could say that it is stable.

To me, Mavericks is just as stable as Mountain Lion and I am very happy with the performance, but I never use any of the “highlight” features of the release, so I could just have easily stayed with Mountain Lion.

Strangely enough (for me) I jumped onto Mavericks when it was first released (I am usually WAY MORE cautious than that - but I did have backups), and I never experienced a single glitch or problem. But, like anything, your experiences may vary from mine.

I cannot speak to the apps. that you specifically mention, but I do not think that you would have any problems with the upgrade.

I would say, that if you are totally happy with what you have right now, then do not worry about the upgrade unless you absolutely need the functionality that you mentioned with multi displays. Particularly if this system is a production machine that you rely on.

If you do decide to make the change then I would suggest that you have multi backups using different tools, e.g. Time Machine + Carbon Copy Cloner, so that you can switch your system back if you do not like it.

The only issue you will find is that Mavericks is no longer available in the App. Store. So, you need to find a friend that upgraded to Mavericks and either (i) saved a copy of the installer, or (ii) can download a new copy for you, as it would still be in their list of purchases.

I hope it helps…….

 

[Rclark03]

I would suggest waiting for El Capitan. I run my 2009 mpb on it with no problems, enough so that I could say it runs better. Just wait for the next one. However, installing a new OS would still require the usual precautions of backing up and such.

 

[Ebenezum]

I can't comment on the software you mention but Mavericks have been very stable for me, unlike Yosemite...
Compared to Mountain Lion Mavericks 10.9.5 manages RAM much better which might be relevant on your case if you are processing large files or sound samples, etc.

If Mountain Lion works well enough then by means continue to use it!

If you decide to wait until El Capitan I suggest waiting until 10.11.2 or .3 have been released since earlier versions will likely have bugs.

I have tested 10.11 beta and at this point it isn't as stable as Mavericks, but since its only beta that isn't surprising.