Snow lepord upgrade to???

[Patth9]

Need help. My husband's Mac Mini is as follows:
Question: He is now on Snow Leopard, what is the highest he can upgrade?

Model Name: Mac Mini
Model Identifier Macmin4.1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed 2.4 GHZ
Number Of Processors 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3MB
Memory: 16 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version MM41.0042.800
SMC Version (system): 1.6212

I've tried looking this up on Google, and it totally confuses me.

As always, I return to folks who know how to help.

Patt

 

[jpietrzak8]

Question: He is now on Snow Leopard, what is the highest he can upgrade?

Ah, he can upgrade all the way to the latest version! I'm actually typing this on a "Macmini4.1" (2010) Mini right now, running El Capitan (OS X 10.11). You should be able to upgrade directly to El Capitan via the Apple App Store (available under the Apple menu in the menu bar). Or, follow this link from Apple. (You will need to have Snow Leopard upgraded to 10.6.8 in order to access the App Store.)

With 16 GB of RAM, that Mac should have no trouble at all running El Capitan.

 

[r6mile]

You can go up the latest, OSX El Capitán. How come you have not upgraded until now? The computer certainly has enough RAM and Snow Leopard is certainly getting on now.

 

[Patth9]

Well, the reason is my dear husband doesn't want to give up AppleWorks or Eudora (both still work). I bought us Pages and I keep telling him he simply MUST start learning Pages. Eudora will have to become Thunderbird, I guess, which I am still trying to figure out myself at times. I take care our computer needs along with you fine folks' of Macrumors helping . I've been using a Mac since 1995, when live was good and Apple needed loyal users. I've found a review site for El Capitan, and it looks pretty good.

BTW, if I wasn't able to upgrade Snow Leopard, what would become of the mini max? Would it just be an extra non-bootable storage place? If so, could one treat it as such via some special connection together with a newer mac mini?

Thank you SO much for your info.
Patt

 

[drewsof07]

I believe you need a license to 10.7 Lion before you can upgrade to El Capitan, but there may be an alternate path by now.

 

[MarkC426]

If you have a spare external drive you can clone your system using Superduper or Carbon Copy Clone.
Then if you don't like El Cap or some software doesn't work you can restore it.
Also check out Roaring Apps for compatibility of any software you have.

 

[jpietrzak8]

Well, the reason is my dear husband doesn't want to give up AppleWorks or Eudora (both still work).

Ah, I still remember Eudora from way back when. But yeah, I've long since switched to Thunderbird myself. Thunderbird may not be the most user-friendly e-mail client, but it has every feature I can think of, and runs on practically everything.

BTW, if I wasn't able to upgrade Snow Leopard, what would become of the mini max? Would it just be an extra non-bootable storage place? If so, could one treat it as such via some special connection together with a newer mac mini?

Hmm. You could probably pull the hard drive out and put it into an external enclosure, if you wanted to do that. I myself am using my older 2007 Mini (which cannot support OS X more recent than 10.7) as my "home theater PC" and as a file server. There's really no reason that you have to upgrade; everything that worked on Snow Leopard yesterday will still work tomorrow.
[doublepost=1459965707][/doublepost]

I believe you need a license to 10.7 Lion before you can upgrade to El Capitan, but there may be an alternate path by now.

Actually, I just checked Apple's page on how to upgrade OS X to El Capitan, and it says:

"If your Mac is running Snow Leopard (v10.6.8) or later, you can upgrade directly to El Capitan."

 

[treekram]

If your computer is officially supported by El Capitan, it's free. http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/

I have a 2009 Mini running Snow Leopard and even with the HDD, it's pretty responsive. I have other computers so it isn't used very often. El Capitan requires more resources and on my 2014 Mini with an HDD, the overall user interface is about as responsive as the 2009 Mini. Obviously the USB3 vs USB2 makes a difference and processor-intensive programs like Handbrake run significantly faster but there are some OS programs that open and run faster on my 2009 Mini (System Preferences, in particular, for some reason). If you don't have a SSD, you may find an upgrade desirable.

If you want to use the current version of Pages, you need El Capitan. If you continue to use Snow Leopard, you shouldn't use Safari as there hasn't been security updates for the SL version for some time. Other programs that haven't been updated and can pose security issues should also be avoided. (It sounds like you will upgrade but I'm just mentioning it for others who may read the thread.)

 

[Patth9]

jpietrzak8,

So true, but is Snow Leopard protected from hackers, or is Snow Leopard so far down on the importance level that hackers just thumb their noses?

MarkC426,

Good idea about saving the entire hard drive onto a backup. I have a PassPort T which isn't to pricey as a backup for my Mac Mini and of course it is boot able. He has been using a flash drive. I just got a look at what has been backed up, not really liking saving method.

drewsof07,

Will look further into that needing a license between SL and EL.
The current snow leopard has mainly data in the form of pdf, appleworks, and a few pages. There are no pictures, music, videos, etc. Wouldn't it be better to install El Capetian fresh without involving SL?

As
MarkC426 suggested, find out which applications/programs will and won't work on El Capetian firstly.

Please forgive my computer lingo, I rarely speak face to face with other computer using people, so my computer language
is somewhat weird.

Patt

 

[jpietrzak8]

So true, but is Snow Leopard protected from hackers, or is Snow Leopard so far down on the importance level that hackers just thumb their noses?

Absolutely, staying with the latest version of the OS is the best way to remain as secure as possible. But you might not need perfect security; if, for example, you've got a decent firewall protecting your local network, and you don't face issues from folks trying to hack into your machines via wifi, you probably don't need to worry too much. And yeah, even today, OS X is still not as popular a target as Windows...

 

[drewsof07]

Actually, I just checked Apple's page on how to upgrade OS X to El Capitan, and it says:

"If your Mac is running Snow Leopard (v10.6.8) or later, you can upgrade directly to El Capitan."

Apple must've softened up on this. I remember having to "acquire" 10.7 when the free updates first started. There were all kinds of version checks before you could upgrade via the App Store.

OP, there is certainly nothing preventing you from creating a USB installer and starting from scratch. Since you are upgrading several versions, this would probably be the best path to prevent old bits of software from slowing your machine down. With a solid backup, a fresh install will usually net the best performance.

 

[Patth9]

drewsof07, You beat me to the answer, but why not share what I found. Kappy wrights.
I just found a Toshiba Canvio Basics 1 TB from $52.99 free shipping Amazon. Think I will order ASAP and get this show on the road.

Now to find tutorials for Pages and Thunderbird. Wish me luck trying to smoothly teach my DH how to do what I have only barely figured out.


Consider this link a bookmarked!
Thanks SO much,

If your computer is officially supported by El Capitan, it's free. http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/

I have a 2009 Mini running Snow Leopard and even with the HDD, it's pretty responsive. I have other computers so it isn't used very often. El Capitan requires more resources and on my 2014 Mini with an HDD, the overall user interface is about as responsive as the 2009 Mini. Obviously the USB3 vs USB2 makes a difference and processor-intensive programs like Handbrake run significantly faster but there are some OS programs that open and run faster on my 2009 Mini (System Preferences, in particular, for some reason). If you don't have a SSD, you may find an upgrade desirable.

If you want to use the current version of Pages, you need El Capitan. If you continue to use Snow Leopard, you shouldn't use Safari as there hasn't been security updates for the SL version for some time. Other programs that haven't been updated and can pose security issues should also be avoided. (It sounds like you will upgrade but I'm just mentioning it for others who may read the thread.)

Almost missed this reply! Thank Treekram. Good stop and think you presented. Will the Mac Mini Desktop MC270LL/A (mid 2010) be able to drive the EL Cap? Using Appleworks and Eudora really slows down the Mac Mini even with the new 16 GB memory. So, maybe I'm not finished with my quest just yet.


I bought Pages 9 thinking it was the latest, but it turned out to be 4.3. Any suggestion? Can one upgrade?

Patt

 

[treekram]

I bought Pages 9 thinking it was the latest, but it turned out to be 4.3. Any suggestion? Can one upgrade?

Patt

This is actually more complicated than it seems. I'm guessing that upgrades have not shown up in the App Store for any of the iWorks programs for you. If not, you can be official and pay for an upgrade (don't know how much it costs). But you can also do a free upgrade to 9.3 which will allow you to get a free upgrade to the latest version.

Check out: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1563?locale=en_US

As always, make sure your backups are current before doing the upgrade. After the upgrade, see if there is a free upgrade available in the App Store for you. On one site, somebody said you have to make sure the folder in Applications for iWorks (should be iWork '09) has not been renamed.

I had iWork 08 and I can't remember if this is how I got the free upgrade or not. I do remember it wasn't as easy for me as others but I can't remember why that was - maybe because I had the 08 version or some other version where I had to reinstall from the original disks before doing the upgrade to the latest 09 version? There are some changes so some things will be different in the new version. I mainly use Numbers vs. Pages. I do know that in Numbers in the the version previous to the current one, it couldn't read the older (09, 08?) formats so you had to convert to Excel and then import in that version. In the current version, you can directly read the older formats. Hopefully that's the case with Pages now.

Unless you have graphics-intensive applications, the 2010 Mini should be fine for what you say you want to do except again, the responsiveness may not be as good due to the HDD. So try it out and see how it is - if it's laggy, you might want to try a SSD. If you already have an SSD, you should be fine.

 

[adam9c1]

I updated recently 10.6.8 MacBook Pro for a coworker to el capital. It was a free download for her (new purchase). - ie she did not buy any previous operating systems...

So in a way your options are limited by what you have in your Apple ID.

 

[adam9c1]

2010 MacBook Pro booted to 10.6.8 in 29 sec, cloned to ssd and cut it down by half. Updated to latest OS, now boots in 24.

I highly suggest SSD.

 

[mildocjr]

Be careful with that Core 2 Duo, you might go from Snow Leopard to Slow Leopard. To be honest, you'll be just fine on Snow Leopard unless there is some core functionality that you want or need in one of the later distributions. A lot of people that I've talked to have wanted to go back to 10.6.

 

[ActionableMango]

Using Appleworks and Eudora really slows down the Mac Mini even with the new 16 GB memory. So, maybe I'm not finished with my quest just yet.

16GB is a very high amount of memory for an old Core 2 Duo computer. I doubt Appleworks and Eudora are slow due to lack of RAM. I suspect it is far more likely to do with using a slow rotational hard drive instead of an SSD.

You can use Activity Monitor to determine how much RAM you are using and how much is free. You can also see CPU utilization there, which would tell you whether or not the CPU is the bottleneck.

But I doubt it is the RAM unless one of those applications has a bug such as a memory leak.

 

[rigormortis]

the only thing i have to contribute is watch out for photos. snow leopard uses iphoto . newer versions have photos. when i updated from my time machine on a new computer , the pictures would not import. i had to export them all and import them .. time machine wouldn't put the photos in the new app.

make sure to export them with gps coordinates and at their native resolution

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Well, the reason is my dear husband doesn't want to give up AppleWorks or Eudora (both still work). I bought us Pages and I keep telling him he simply MUST start learning Pages. Eudora will have to become Thunderbird, I guess, which I am still trying to figure out myself at times."

FIshrrman's simple solution to preserve marital harmony in your home:
Leave the husband with the old computer and the old software he likes.
Get yourself something newer, with a newer OS.

---------

Hmmm..... I believe someone suggest another way to do it, that will be cheaper:
Get yourself an external hard drive -- I'd suggest a USB3 SSD (yes, I know you don't have USB3 on the old Mac, but the drive will be backward-compatible).
One of these would do you well:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00ZTRY532?tag=delt-20

Then... install a clean copy of the newer OS of your choice onto the external, and move your account (but NOT your husband's account) over to it.

Now, you can boot and run something newer, and when your husband wants to use the computer, let him "boot back to" the internal drive and its older OS.

He could also experiment with newer apps "on your side" (set him up with a new account there for testing purposes).

Because you bought a USB3 SSD, at some point in the future, when you move to something newer, you can "take it with you", and it will then run at full speed.

 

[Ebenezum]

OP:

While your Mac is compatible with El Capitan I think in this case you should first make list of + and - to see if the upgrade is worthwhile for you.

As for speed there is no way El Capitan is going to be as fast as 10.6.8 on old Mac. I'm not saying it will be too slow, just keep in mind it will likely be slower than 10.6.8 is now.

Biggest problem is likely the software you use, most of it likely won't work on newer OS due to lack of Rosetta. iWork 09 will work on El Capitan and it has more features than the latest Mac App Store versions.

If 10.6.8 works for your well enough for your needs it might be better to keep using it. If you are worried about security make sure you have good firewall, don't install Flash etc. and use newer browser instead of old Safari.

 

[Patth9]

the only thing i have to contribute is watch out for photos. snow leopard uses iphoto . newer versions have photos. when i updated from my time machine on a new computer , the pictures would not import. i had to export them all and import them .. time machine wouldn't put the photos in the new app.

make sure to export them with gps coordinates and at their native resolution

rigormortis, I'm lucky there, he doesn't collect photos, movies, etc., mostly written data. But thanks for the head's up.
I'm the collected of such items.
Patt
[doublepost=1460090518][/doublepost]

OP:

While your Mac is compatible with El Capitan I think in this case you should first make list of + and - to see if the upgrade is worthwhile for you.

As for speed there is no way El Capitan is going to be as fast as 10.6.8 on old Mac. I'm not saying it will be too slow, just keep in mind it will likely be slower than 10.6.8 is now.

Biggest problem is likely the software you use, most of it likely won't work on newer OS due to lack of Rosetta. iWork 09 will work on El Capitan and it has more features than the latest Mac App Store versions.

If 10.6.8 works for your well enough for your needs it might be better to keep using it. If you are worried about security make sure you have good firewall, don't install Flash etc. and use newer browser instead of old Safari.

For a long while Hubby used only 4 total memory rams; very, very slow. Then I learned it could handled as much as 16 rams and I was sure it would be a speed demon; for a while it was, then slowed down again. I agree, it is the AppleWorks that he uses mostly and Eudora. Trying to get him into Pages, but is hard to push a chain up a hill. No abut the lack of Rosetta, still miss it. Never liked Safari, using FireFox.
[doublepost=1460090805][/doublepost]

OP:

While your Mac is compatible with El Capitan I think in this case you should first make list of + and - to see if the upgrade is worthwhile for you.

As for speed there is no way El Capitan is going to be as fast as 10.6.8 on old Mac. I'm not saying it will be too slow, just keep in mind it will likely be slower than 10.6.8 is now.

Biggest problem is likely the software you use, most of it likely won't work on newer OS due to lack of Rosetta. iWork 09 will work on El Capitan and it has more features than the latest Mac App Store versions.

If 10.6.8 works for your well enough for your needs it might be better to keep using it. If you are worried about security make sure you have good firewall, don't install Flash etc. and use newer browser instead of old Safari.

zEbenezum. Well, can one still get the older OS? I'm using Mountain Lion and really have NO desire to upgrade to ElCapitan. If it isn't broken...
[doublepost=1460092945][/doublepost]

OP wrote:
"Well, the reason is my dear husband doesn't want to give up AppleWorks or Eudora (both still work). I bought us Pages and I keep telling him he simply MUST start learning Pages. Eudora will have to become Thunderbird, I guess, which I am still trying to figure out myself at times."

FIshrrman's simple solution to preserve marital harmony in your home:
Leave the husband with the old computer and the old software he likes.
Get yourself something newer, with a newer OS.

---------

Hmmm..... I believe someone suggest another way to do it, that will be cheaper:
Get yourself an external hard drive -- I'd suggest a USB3 SSD (yes, I know you don't have USB3 on the old Mac, but the drive will be backward-compatible).
One of these would do you well:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00ZTRY532?tag=delt-20

Then... install a clean copy of the newer OS of your choice onto the external, and move your account (but NOT your husband's account) over to it.

Now, you can boot and run something newer, and when your husband wants to use the computer, let him "boot back to" the internal drive and its older OS.

He could also experiment with newer apps "on your side" (set him up with a new account there for testing purposes).

Because you bought a USB3 SSD, at some point in the future, when you move to something newer, you can "take it with you", and it will then run at full speed.

Sorry Fishrrman, I got backlogged and just now saw your suggestion. humorous as it is. This hunt has turned into a overwhelming search. At first it was about protecting our Macs from hackers based on the Digital Goddes's suggestion. This let to the fact that what was being offered on her website was only for El Capitan, and we were told to upgrade our operating systems. Hubby's computer really is super slow and I'm thinking perhaps I best hunt for a USB3 SSD etc. The Mac Min mid 2010, would this work? (crucial M500)

If I know one thing, when a man is retired, it's a wife's job to keep him busy if she wants him to keep him healthy.

 

[Patth9]

the only thing i have to contribute is watch out for photos. snow leopard uses iphoto . newer versions have photos. when i updated from my time machine on a new computer , the pictures would not import. i had to export them all and import them .. time machine wouldn't put the photos in the new app.

make sure to export them with gps coordinates and at their native resolution

Thanks rigormortis, for the heads-up. I am probably one of in a hundred that does not like iphoto or photo by Apple. Guess it is because when I started with Apple in 1995 these didn't exist. I hate it when I am confined to certain restrictions. But, never the less, thanks for your input.
[doublepost=1460094260][/doublepost]

16GB is a very high amount of memory for an old Core 2 Duo computer. I doubt Appleworks and Eudora are slow due to lack of RAM. I suspect it is far more likely to do with using a slow rotational hard drive instead of an SSD.

You can use Activity Monitor to determine how much RAM you are using and how much is free. You can also see CPU utilization there, which would tell you whether or not the CPU is the bottleneck.

But I doubt it is the RAM unless one of those applications has a bug such as a memory leak.

Thanks ActionableMango, I knew about this a while back, but lost track of it. I will certainly give this a try and see what is going on under the hood.
[doublepost=1460094441][/doublepost]

Be careful with that Core 2 Duo, you might go from Snow Leopard to Slow Leopard. To be honest, you'll be just fine on Snow Leopard unless there is some core functionality that you want or need in one of the later distributions. A lot of people that I've talked to have wanted to go back to 10.6.

mildocir, I think he would be happy with Snow Leopard and perhaps a faster hard drive, as noted in other posts. Thanks for jumping in to help, much appreciated.

 

[adam9c1]

If you do not need ANY newer apps not supported by SL and you do not surf the web, I would keep it that way.
I do suggest you download (purchase) / redeem current OS as it is supported by your machine.

When Apple releases new OS it MAY NOT be compatible with your device, and you would not be able to purchase El Capitan.

 

[Ebenezum]

Well, can one still get the older OS? I'm using Mountain Lion and really have NO desire to upgrade to ElCapitan. If it isn't broken...

Check Mac App Store purchases tab, Mountain Lion should be there. (Assuming you purchased it at some point and it didn't come with another Mac.)

 

[Patth9]

Check Mac App Store purchases tab, Mountain Lion should be there. (Assuming you purchased it at some point and it didn't come with another Mac.)

Nope, my new mac mini came installed with the Mac. Hubby's was purchased E bay along with Snow Leopard. He does use the internet quite a bit.