Updates available on Apple.com - do I need them?

[im333]

Hi,

About to receive my 1st ever Mac 🙂 this week.

Looked at the updates available on the Apple site and wondered:

- Should I install all of these?
- Coming from Windows, most of theirs are pretty useless and slow down the machine - will this be the same for Mac, and..
- Is there an equivalent "registry" in Macs and if so, can this be "cleaned up" using an app, as in Windows?
- I read somewhere that they released a new update for the new MB's even before they were shipped - do I need this?

im333

 

[yoppie]

When you get your mac set up, all you need to do is click on the apple icon in the menubar. You will see something that says software update, click on that and it will automatically fetch a list of the updates that you need (if any). If there's updates available for your machine, just click install.

 

[im333]

When you get your mac set up, all you need to do is click on the apple icon in the menubar. You will see something that says software update, click on that and it will automatically fetch a list of the updates that you need (if any). If there's updates available for your machine, just click install.

Yes thanks, I figured that would be how to do it, but, I wondered do I NEED to install all available?

Much the same as Windows Update, much of the stuff it tells you to update is rubbish and not needed.

Also, is there an equivalent of the Service Pack?

 

[rdowns]

It's a good idea to install them and keep your machine up to date. There is no registry for Macs, no need to worry about that sort of crap.

 

[reh]

Macs do not use a registry (one major selling point for OS X over Windows IMO).

Most of the updates presented in Software Update should be installed. However, if there's an iTunes update and you never use iTunes, you can safely ignore it.

The closest thing to a service pack is the OS X 10.5.X updates. They come much more frequently than Windows service packs but typically seem to alter less and not cause quite so may problems. You're getting your updates in small nibbles instead of huge bites.

 

[Str8edgepunker]

Yes thanks, I figured that would be how to do it, but, I wondered do I NEED to install all available?

Much the same as Windows Update, much of the stuff it tells you to update is rubbish and not needed.

Also, is there an equivalent of the Service Pack?

1. You should install all the available updates. In this case, it's necessary.

2. Technically we have service packs called point releases such as 10.5.5.