When Is the "Best" Time to Upgrade to the Latest OS X?

[zachlegomaniac]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 2011 iMac and MBP with Lion 10.7.0, and recently noticed a thread mentioning some people's difficulty with video/streaming with 2011 iMacs running Lion. I have an ATV 2 and have had a lot of problems after the display sleeps on my iMac (or tries to). It has me feeling like maybe I should have stuck with Snow Leopard until the bugs were worked out of the new OS.

My question is: do savvy mac users not usually switch to the latest OS X until the x.x.2 version? Is running a brand new OS X a foolish idea?

Thanks for your feedback!

Zach

 

[saxon48]

It's not necessarily a "foolish" idea to immediately upgrade. But if you want the initial bugs to be ironed out and whatnot, it would never hurt to wait a version or two. Me, I like to live life on the wild side.

 

[chrono1081]

I personally love being an early adopter. That being said you will run in to bugs. Its not possible to ship software without initial bugs since many bugs are only found after the public gets their hands on the program.

If you have important work to do on your computer, I'd suggest holding off for a revision or two. I cannot update my Mac Pro for this reason, some of my software isn't compatible yet.

My Macbook Air on the other hand has Lion and its running beautifully.

 

[old-wiz]

I updated my spare 13" MBP to Lion, and so far it's running fine. I also have a Mini, another 13" MBP from June 2011, and a 24" iMac, but they are all running 10.6.8 and I plan to hold off updating them until 10.7.2 or 10.7.3.

I don't want to find out that something I depend on doesn't work under Lion, so I'm waiting.

 

[gorskiegangsta]

I usually wait until the first or second update until completely switching. However, Lion has been surprisingly stable to me thus far.

 

[wegster]

It depends on what you use your computer for. If it's mostly web, email, and basic documents, upgrade at will. If you require special software, whether expensive or free, in order to get your work/tasks done, it's always a good idea to ensure compatibility and no 'glitches' first.

I'm not too worried about things like openoffice, safari, chrome, but I absolutely need eclipse, vmware fusion, freemind, things and a handful of Adobe apps to be working - I would expect at least most of those to work without issues, but I also use a lot of software via macports, and rely on Skype as well. If any of those pieces of software didn't work reliably under Lion, I can't work, and would have to revert to a Windows or Linux system almost the same day.

By now, I don't expect many incompatibilities with the above nor on most of the rest of the software I use, but I'm also not convinced that Lion offers me anything that I want, let alone need. People reporting worse performance, more networking issues etc. under Lion aren't making me hurry it up any, either. I'll likely be waiting for the next update and see what's reported on it, and then check for compatibility with every one of my have to have apps, then will probably 'upgrade' the non work system first, play with it for a while and use it to confirm no software compatibility issues by using it for a week or so as my work system, before upgrading my primary system.

If someone else already confirmed their apps have no issues under Lion, then that may be the right decision for them; I just don't see a reason for me to move to it quickly. I have been an Apple beta tester, and moved pretty quickly to SL, actually pre-release and fully in that case..didn't have any time at all to 'play' with Lion due to work and life this time through, so it may be just a matter of my being overly cautious, YMMV.

 

[fhall1]

I usually wait until the .3 release.....by then most of the software I use will have released of couple of compatibility updates, and hardware drivers (printers, scanners) will be available.

 

[zachlegomaniac]

Thanks for the feedback. I should probably stick with Snow Leopard on my iMac (used for business), but it sounds like keeping it on my MBP will be fine. It's running well, and Quickbooks 2011 came out with an update already for Lion. Just a few bugs here and there.

Best,
Zach