What is your favorite version of OS X?

[JoeRito]

Given that El Capitan is arriving soon, I'd like to ask what your favorite OS X version is RIGHT NOW, what you still prefer to use today. Know doubt many responses will relate to hardware so let us know what Mac you are running please. Mine is a MBP mid-2011 and I prefer MAvericks. Yosemite is too sluggish and looks too much like iOS for my preference. Thanks!

 

[Traverse]

Though I'm not running it for app support reasons, my favorite version of OS X was Mavericks. It was refined and smooth. Unfortunately, Apple didn't finish fixing all the bugs in Mavericks before they moved to Yosemite.

 

[BrettApple]

Most of our mission critical Macs are on Mavericks due to continued stability issues with Yosemite that I still see. It's gotten better but the bad feeling is still there. Hopefully El Capitan fixes that for me. Most of the issues deal with WiFi/Bluetooth/Networking bugs rather than actual crashes though. So if El Cap refines that I'll be cool with it.

My personal favorite is still Snow Leopard though. That probably won't ever change since I spent the most time on it by far. My families iMac shipped with Tiger but Leopard came out later that year so I spent 2007-2012 using Leopard/SL. Ill be upgrading to 10.11 when it releases and it's currently on Mavericks since I went back from Yosemite due to annoying frame drops and blurry text issues. But still, Tiger to El Capitan on the same machine is impressive for Apple's standards.

I also like Tiger since it's still quick on my old iBook and I kind of miss the brushed metal/aqua look, but that's not really relevant now.

Edit: I forgot to say what Macs I'm (primarily) using.

Personal: Late 2013 13" rMBP - Yosemite as of last month, was on Mavericks
Work: Early 2015 13" MBA - Shipped with Yosemite
Home desk: Mid 2007 20" iMac - Mavericks as of yesterday, was on Yosemite

And lots more I maintain at work (42 Macs 2009-2015) or for family members/friends.

For family: Mid 2007 iMac, Early 2008 iMac, Late 2008 MacBook, Early 2009 MacBook, Mid 2009 13" MBP, Mid 2010 15" MBP, 2x Mid 2012 13" MBP.

ALL SSD equipped because of me. Haha.

 

[Xenomorph]

10.4 Tiger

The last one that supported Classic mode, and the last one that ran well on pre-G5 systems.

 

[dugbug]

nah you gotta include el cap. its so nicely refined.

 

[0000757]

Yosemite.

I've always been the person to embrace the "new" though.

 

[abhibeckert]

Most of our mission critical Macs are on Mavericks due to continued stability issues with Yosemite that I still see. It's gotten better but the bad feeling is still there. Hopefully El Capitan fixes that for me. Most of the issues deal with WiFi/Bluetooth/Networking bugs rather than actual crashes though. So if El Cap refines that I'll be cool with it.

You should give Yosemite another try with 10.10.4.

Chances are all the issues you had are fixed.

 

[Dark Void]

How is Snow Leopard not on here?

Snow Leopard!

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Yosemite, with ML trailing behind closely. My cMBP reacted well to ML and Yosemite. Despite people saying Yosemite was sluggish, etc, it feels much more smoother on my cMBP vs. Mavericks (which was very sluggish and choppy, with weird bugs here and there such as TM not working properly, lags, settings not retaining properly, etc.). ML was also rock solid, but lacked a cohesive iCloud integrated feel.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

On the other hand, the most nasty flavored versions of OS X were 10.7 and 10.9. Lion was just plain slow, while Mavericks was very buggy and had very odd behavior here and there. I'd probably have to add 10.2 for bugginess as well, and 10.5 for sloppy graphics performance.

 

[JoeRito]

Surprised no one mentioned the UI flattening that occurred with Yosemite, making it more iOS like. Many of the old Mac guys (and gals) talk about missing the dimension and metalic finishes etc. I agree with them personally.

 

[ActionableMango]

How is Snow Leopard not on here?

Snow Leopard!

Yes, Snow Leopard was my favorite release. They focused on improving performance, making the install smaller, and fixing bugs. Hardly any new features at all.

And on top of all that, Rosetta was an option, so those not needing it could save the space but those who wanted it could continue to use their PPC applications.

But that being said, I use Yosemite now. It's not my favorite, but it's a necessity in order to have video drivers for my GTX 980 video card.

 

[maflynn]

Tiger was my favorite - it was a nice balance of speed, power, features and leanness. After that imo, OS X got bloated and slow.

Going to Mavericks and more so to Yosemite, I'm liking OS X less and less. While I think OS X is still better then windows for a lot of tasks, I'm finding the direction of windows feature/design wise is better. I'm still holding out hope on 10.11, though I hate the name, the threads in the 10.11 forum seems to show an OS that is stable and fast.

 

[cambookpro]

Yosemite - I really like the design and haven't encountered too many bugs.

My favourite update, however, was Tiger. Things like Dashboard and Spotlight were (and still are) years ahead of Windows and were real ground breaking features that made OS X much nicer to use. It also included myriad of other useful bits and pieces, like the Grapher app which I use daily, RSS feeds in Safari, built in Dictionary, and Automator.

Unfortunately, we're seeing less and less of these larger updates as the OS matures (and since Apple has jumped to a yearly release cycle). The only other major feature I now want is Siri.

 

[iUseMacBooks]

Hey everyone,

I was just looking for some opinions on what the best (or your favorite) version of Mac OS X is? I've heard great things about Mac OS X Snow Leopard, but I didn't have a Mac during Snow Leopard's run. At some point, I'd like to get an older iMac or white macbook just to have and use sparingly, not like a primary machine, but just for nostalgia I guess. If it's in the 2007-2010 range, I'd like to run Snow Leopard, but I just wanted to get some opinions on older versions of OS X since I'm not the most familiar with them.

Happy New Year to you all.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Hey everyone,

I was just looking for some opinions on what the best (or your favorite) version of Mac OS X is? I've heard great things about Mac OS X Snow Leopard, but I didn't have a Mac during Snow Leopard's run. At some point, I'd like to get an older iMac or white macbook just to have and use sparingly, not like a primary machine, but just for nostalgia I guess. If it's in the 2007-2010 range, I'd like to run Snow Leopard, but I just wanted to get some opinions on older versions of OS X since I'm not the most familiar with them.

Happy New Year to you all.

Tiger is my personal favorite. It introduced Spotlight (live search) to the masses. It's what impressed me so much that I left Windows XP and the Windows world for good. You think Macs are expensive these days? I paid over $2K for a 12" PowerBook back in 2005.

Snow Leopard was, indeed, great though. Super fast, rock solid, and Spaces was fantastic.

 

[chscag]

Hey everyone,

I was just looking for some opinions on what the best (or your favorite) version of Mac OS X is? I've heard great things about Mac OS X Snow Leopard, but I didn't have a Mac during Snow Leopard's run. At some point, I'd like to get an older iMac or white macbook just to have and use sparingly, not like a primary machine, but just for nostalgia I guess. If it's in the 2007-2010 range, I'd like to run Snow Leopard, but I just wanted to get some opinions on older versions of OS X since I'm not the most familiar with them.

Happy New Year to you all.

Without a doubt, Snow Leopard which was the last version of OS X with built in Rosetta to support PowerPC machines and apps. And the last version of OS X that did not hide the user library.

 

[iUseMacBooks]

Tiger is my personal favorite. It introduced Spotlight (live search) to the masses. It's what impressed me so much that I left Windows XP and the Windows world for good. You think Macs are expensive these days? I paid over $2K for a 12" PowerBook back in 2005.

Snow Leopard was, indeed, great though. Super fast, rock solid, and Spaces was fantastic.

Thanks for the response. I've never used Tiger, but I have seen videos of it on Youtube. It's pretty crazy to think that things like Spotlight have been around for a decade already. Its a feature I still use daily.

 

[loby]

Hey everyone,

I was just looking for some opinions on what the best (or your favorite) version of Mac OS X is? I've heard great things about Mac OS X Snow Leopard, but I didn't have a Mac during Snow Leopard's run. At some point, I'd like to get an older iMac or white macbook just to have and use sparingly, not like a primary machine, but just for nostalgia I guess. If it's in the 2007-2010 range, I'd like to run Snow Leopard, but I just wanted to get some opinions on older versions of OS X since I'm not the most familiar with them.

Happy New Year to you all.

I agree with many OS X comments on this topic that I have read over the last few years: OS X Snow Leopard is probably the best OS X overall, especially for its time. Of course there are newer features added in the newer OS X's, but for stability and usage equally overall, OS X Snow Leopard is my favorite. Unfortunately, Apple does not allow backward compatability, so unless we have older systems, we are forced to use whatever system OS X year we purchase. Virtual software is an option, but does not always provide all of the features. OS X El Capitan MAY be a preferred OS X once they work out all of the bugs. OS X El Capitan works on many older systems and may prove to be ranked well ONCE the bugs are killed....

 

[Gregg2]

Missed this thread back in June. I would vote for Snow Leopard, but it seems the poll is closed, and that was not one of the choices anyway.

 

[Joseph1989]

10.8.5
now i run the 10.10.5

 

[vista980622]

Tiger. Snow Leopard. Mavericks. El Capitan.
Love those four.

 

[Chloec]

10.10.5, yosemite

 

[colourfastt]

10.5, 10.6 .... 10.9 wasn't unreasonable