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Snow Leopard on iMac, am I in trouble?

2012Tony2012

2012Tony2012

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 2, 2012
741
3
I have an old 2007 iMac and only Snow Leopard runs smooth and fast on it.... anything else it slows down and is sluggish. So my question is.... how can I protect myself on Snow Leopard so it doesn't get security issues that places me at risk doing online banking etc?
 
I'm pretty sure all you have to do is turn off "set date and time automatically" in system prefs. That's very likely the only NTP process a "normal" user is running.
 
If you like your Snow Leopard, you can keep your Snow Leopard... ;)

Is yours a "white" iMac or the first of the aluminum ones?

The white models can go as far as 10.7 "Lion" (and no further).

The aluminum models will at least run 10.8 "Mountain Lion".
If you're no longer pleased with 10.6, you might consider going to 10.8.5 and "staying there".

I predict you will be considerably unhappy after trying either Mavericks or Yosemite, both of which will run sluggishly on an older iMac with a platter-based hard disk drive.
 
I have a mid-2007 iMac (2.4GHz C2D, 8GB) running Yosemite and it works just fine, no real noticeable difference from my newer, faster machine. It's not a primary computer though so I don't tax it that much which could be why it's okay for me.
 
Fishrrman said:
If you like your Snow Leopard, you can keep your Snow Leopard... ;)

Is yours a "white" iMac or the first of the aluminum ones?

The white models can go as far as 10.7 "Lion" (and no further).

The aluminum models will at least run 10.8 "Mountain Lion".
If you're no longer pleased with 10.6, you might consider going to 10.8.5 and "staying there".

I predict you will be considerably unhappy after trying either Mavericks or Yosemite, both of which will run sluggishly on an older iMac with a platter-based hard disk drive.
Click to expand...

White iMac. But when I run Mountain Lion it does slow down, it is noticeable, and as you suggested, yes, Mav or Yos, forget it....runs so slow it's unbearable...so I decided to stay on Snow leopard.

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JPM said:
I have a mid-2007 iMac (2.4GHz C2D, 8GB) running Yosemite and it works just fine, no real noticeable difference from my newer, faster machine. It's not a primary computer though so I don't tax it that much which could be why it's okay for me.
Click to expand...

Mine only has 4GB and that's all the RAM it will get.
 
Mr. Retrofire said:
Or use only trusted ntp servers.
Click to expand...

Is that valid advice? The ntpd process on the Mac would still be active and will have poked through the firewall in its quest for time updates; some of my reading warns that even advanced firewalls don't do a reliable job of checking packet origins for this service.

From what little I know about this latest vulnerability, exposure of an unmatched ntpd port to the public Internet is risky. ICS-CERT says:

  • Minimize network exposure for all control system devices and/or systems, and ensure that they are not accessible from the Internet.
  • Locate control system networks and remote devices behind firewalls, and isolate them from the business network.
  • When remote access is required, use secure methods, such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), recognizing that VPNs may have vulnerabilities and should be updated to the most current version available. Also recognize that VPN is only as secure as the connected devices.

(I note from Activity Monitor on my rMBP running 10.10.2 Yosemite that ntpd runs as root. Uh-oh. That appears to be common in Linux as well, but multiple references state it is unnecessary.)

All in all, an older machine for which no patches are available should probably have its NTP clock-updater disabled. Fortunately this is something you can do in System Preferences.
 
2012Tony2012 said:
White iMac. But when I run Mountain Lion it does slow down, it is noticeable, and as you suggested, yes, Mav or Yos, forget it....runs so slow it's unbearable...so I decided to stay on Snow leopard..
Click to expand...

According to Everymac http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_year/macs-released-in-2007.html there were no White iMacs released in 2007, only the first of the Aluminum ones. And the last of the White ones, http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-2-duo-2.33-24-inch-specs.html, will not run anything past Lion - due to the fact that there are some devices that have only 32-bit drivers, and ML and up require all 64-bit.

I have a mid-2007 Aluminum model, replaced the HDD with an SSD, and it's running Yosemite fine. Not as fast as current models do, but it's quite usable. Definitely faster than the last of the white iMacs ran Lion.

If it's capable of running ML, put an SSD in it, and you'll see quite a difference.
 
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