Here we go; but first. . .

[beacher]

OK guys, I picked up the MacBook on Tuesday evening, and got my mail set up.  No problems worth mentioning, but here comes a question:  It's loaded with 10.8.5 and I'm wondering if I should go ahead and update to Mavericks before I do some installations of some new programs, and start bringing over files.  I intend to keep the G5 Quad up and running because, believe it or not, I'm still using some of the old OS9 apps, and I've got AppleWorks on 10.5.8, which I still use a lot, so I'm not going to be bringing over much except my iPhoto and Aperture folders.

Another question that I'm interested in, since I've been watching to see what's happening with Mavericks, is: Is everybody now happy with how it's working, or does it still have some drawbacks (other than Pages, which I'm not much interested in anyway!) and glitches that they still need to deal with?

I punched "Mavericks" into the search function, and am now reading through a couple of pages of posts; hopefully, I will find most of my answers there and wont have to bother you guys too much, but'cha never know!

Man, that retina screen is beautiful!  As far as the speed, we'll have to see how impressed I am when I start working with the photo processing, since the Quad was a 2.5 ghz, and the MacBook is 2.7; my watch just wont break the time down into that small of increments!  

[rgray]

QUOTE(beacher @ Dec 12 2013, 04:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK guys, I picked up the MacBook on Tuesday evening, and got my mail set up.  No problems worth mentioning, but here comes a question:  It's loaded with 10.8.5 and I'm wondering if I should go ahead and update to Mavericks before I do some installations of some new programs, and start bringing over files.  I intend to keep the G5 Quad up and running because, believe it or not, I'm still using some of the old OS9 apps, and I've got AppleWorks on 10.5.8, which I still use a lot, so I'm not going to be bringing over much except my iPhoto and Aperture folders.

Another question that I'm interested in, since I've been watching to see what's happening with Mavericks, is: Is everybody now happy with how it's working, or does it still have some drawbacks (other than Pages, which I'm not much interested in anyway!) and glitches that they still need to deal with?

I punched "Mavericks" into the search function, and am now reading through a couple of pages of posts; hopefully, I will find most of my answers there and wont have to bother you guys too much, but'cha never know!

Man, that retina screen is beautiful!  As far as the speed, we'll have to see how impressed I am when I start working with the photo processing, since the Quad was a 2.5 ghz, and the MacBook is 2.7; my watch just wont break the time down into that small of increments!  

Absolutely!  There is no sense getting used to an outdated OS version on a new computer.  If you can upgrade to Mavericks very shortly after getting the machine then I would definitely suggest doing so before installing all the other stuff.  It will keep the OS files closer together on the hard drive and will appear marginally if not practically faster.

Mavericks has been problem free after a complete nuke 'n' pave clean install like I always try to do with a new OS.  There have been some issues around gmail which were mostly resolved with an early update to Mail.  Typically 10.9.1 is already rumoured to be going the rounds of the developers.  Battery life seems to be better on my Late 2009 MacBook and that's with a 4 year old battery.  Memory allocation is reputedly more efficient.  Mavericks seems to be really happy with the 8gig of RAM I put in for 10.8.*.

[Xairbusdriver]

I've not experienced any Mavericks specific OS problems. OTOH, some of the app "updates" are plain insane (iWorks Suite, specifically). With the improvements in memory and battery life management, I'd think an update to Mavericks is just made for you.

However, there's not much of a change in the GUI between Mountain Lion and Mavericks, so you might not see much difference if you delay. Either way, it's past time getting those Appleworks files into new apps/formats... Don't wait till the G5 doesn't start up one day.

[beacher]

Ah Jim. . . C'mon. . .  Have a little faith!  And Appleworks is wonderful, at least for writing letters; if it ain't broke, why quit using it?  And, I still haven't gotten rid of the old G4 733, either. . .

A question, though:  I have my iWorks '09 install disk, so if I go ahead & update the OS to Mavericks and then install iWorks, will it still run it?

[rgray]

QUOTE(beacher @ Dec 12 2013, 08:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah Jim. . . C'mon. . .  Have a little faith!  And Appleworks is wonderful, at least for writing letters; if it ain't broke, why quit using it?  And, I still haven't gotten rid of the old G4 733, either. . .

AW is still wonderful after all these years....  I have it quietly running on my pristine Key Lime toilet seat iBook (all original except maxed ram. NewerTech battery).  I still use it to bash out some stuff.  

QUOTE(beacher @ Dec 12 2013, 08:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A question, though:  I have my iWorks '09 install disk, so if I go ahead & update the OS to Mavericks and then install iWorks, will it still run it?

Absolutely '09 installs fine and runs fine under Mavericks.

[Xairbusdriver]

Yep, the '09 version runs just fine. Howsome ever, Mavericks will install the 'new and improved' versions which will automagically open any file you double-click or command-O on. I solve this problem by simply deleting the new versions. If you prefer not to delete them, just us control/right-click to pick the "correct" version to have it open the file. The only problem, remaining, is that the App Store will continuously beg/notify/cajole/plead with you to make any updates that come along. You can always just ignore that, physically, anyway.

Which does remind me of one important and easy mistake to make: One of the features of Mountain Lion was a notification system (rather a crippled copy of Growl, of course). Almost all Notifications have two buttons. One is usually 'Close/Ignore/I Acknowledge the powerful capabilities of the OS but I don't want to see any more about this right now' or some such label. The other button is usually something like "OH! I Simply Can't Wait to See the New Possibilities!" which will then open whatever app is trying to get your attention.

One of the changes in Mavericks is that the notification of an available update has those two buttons that need to be read very closely! The one that normally would say "Fergitit!" is now labeled "Install"! I think you can still stop the App Store from actually installing something... if you are fast enough! But that's just not very polite, IMHO. And, to make matters worse, the "Ignore" button actually requires you to select how long to wait before you get another "Watch me trick this user into installing this update" notification! You have a choice of 1 Minute, 1 Hour or 1 Day. Wow! I can wait a whole day?! Thanks so much!!! At least there is not a "1 Second" option. How about a 1 week or 1 month or, as we could in ML, "No thanks, I call you later and we can do lunch"!

It's little details like this that have created a lot of the negative comments you might see about Mavericks. Nothing big, just little changes that didn't seem to get much thought. And some of them are being re-thought... I hope, anyway. And that, my friend, is really why everyone wants you to update! Misery loves company!!!