Upgrade to Lion for my wife's iMac?

[lovespicyfood]

Hey Everyone,

My wife has a 2.4ghz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 2gb ram running OS 10.6.8.

I have an Ipad 3, an Ipad 4s and my daughter has an Ipod Touch, but no Apple desktop or laptop computer...

We just came back from a family trip and I have a ton of photos that are in my iCloud. I went to activate iCloud on my wife's desktop and just realized her current OS does not support iCloud.

Should I update her OS to take advantage of this? Will it run "slower" as it is an older desktop?

Briefly looking at the benefits, I think the email application would be a HUGE addition to her user experience on the computer. As it stands now, she only used Gmail via the web interface...

The only reason I'm hesitant is that my wife is somewhat critical of anything I do to her computer...if she does not like this upgrade, I realize that I won't be able to easily revert back...

TIA for your advice!

 

[flatfoot]

Hey Everyone,

My wife has a 2.4ghz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac with 2gb ram running OS 10.6.8.

I have an Ipad 3, an Ipad 4s and my daughter has an Ipod Touch, but no Apple desktop or laptop computer...

We just came back from a family trip and I have a ton of photos that are in my iCloud. I went to activate iCloud on my wife's desktop and just realized her current OS does not support iCloud.

Should I update her OS to take advantage of this? Will it run "slower" as it is an older desktop?

Briefly looking at the benefits, I think the email application would be a HUGE addition to her user experience on the computer. As it stands now, she only used Gmail via the web interface...

The only reason I'm hesitant is that my wife is somewhat critical of anything I do to her computer...if she does not like this upgrade, I realize that I won't be able to easily revert back...

TIA for your advice!

Lion will run just fine on that iMac. You might consider upgrading the RAM to 4GB (2x2GB), or to 6GB (2GB + 4GB), which is the maximum for that model, whether you upgrade to Lion or not.
Lion is a bit more resource hungry than SL, though.

Apple Mail (the email application) is mostly the same in SL and Lion.

There aren't many differences between SL and Lion interface-wise, so I guess your wife wouldn't mind.
You should make a backup using Carbon Copy Cloner before the upgrade, anyway. If it turns out she doesn't like Lion, you could just revert to the clone and everything's peachy again.

 

[CtotheP]

I've got a 24" iMac Core 2 Duo 2.88ghz. I just upgraded the hard drive last night due to he original one failing. All I would recommend is upgrading her ram to 4 gb and then pull the Trigger on upgrading to Lion. 4gb should be enough for what your wife does

 

[lovespicyfood]

Many thanks for the replies! I was already looking at upgrading her memory so will definitely do that first....

 

[righteye]

Make sure your wife is not using any older software or printer/scanner drivers that may no longer be supported in Lion,because of these issues i reverted back to SL.
If your wife does not like you making changes i would leave well alone apart from the RAM upgrade as others have mentioned,this would be the best thing for enhanced user experience.
Good Luck with your choice.

 

[flynz4]

The only reason I'm hesitant is that my wife is somewhat critical of anything I do to her computer...if she does not like this upgrade, I realize that I won't be able to easily revert back...

TIA for your advice!

Let the decision to upgrade be hers. I'd recommend stating the value proposition in terms that are meaningful to her. We are all different. For example:

• Me - There is a new technology that I want to try
• My wife - She could see pictures of the kids.

/Jim