The growing pains of upgrading
I wish I had Photoshop. I had it on my iMac, but alas…my poor iMac. (I still need to take it to an expert. I am pretty sure its irreplaceable graphics card is fried but it would be nice to salvage the hard drive and use it externally.) I obviously do not need the full $2,000 version of Photoshop, so I have been eying Photoshop Elements for a while. Last week I was on the verge of purchasing Elements 12 when I made an unexpected and unfortunate discovery: the program requires Mac OS 10.7 and later. My MacBook was running 10.6.
Oh, obsolescence. We were bound to meet again.
An upgrade was, I guess, long overdue. The current version of Mac OS X is 10.9, so my trusty MacBook was three versions behind. (I have no clue why Apple continues to use the “X” brand. It is still technically correct since “X” is the Roman numeral for ten, but at this point it seems excessive and unnecessary.) My early-2008 MacBook is unable to use 10.9 or even 10.8, so my only upgrade option was 10.7.
That’s right. To use Photoshop I needed to upgrade my still-very-useful-but-older computer to an outdated operating system.
“Outdated” is misleading. It is not like 10.7 and its two or three predecessors are useless. I could do everything I wanted with the most recent version of “Snow Leopard” (10.6.8); I was perfectly content and oblivious to the impending obsolescence of my computer (until I started checking into Elements). Of course, I would someday be forced to get a new computer, but that day is hopefully not for another year or more. Until that point — when my MacBook is so out of date that I need to view alternate versions of websites (as I did with my G3) and have software that can no longer be updated — I thought it would be a good idea to upgrade. Previous versions of OS X are available online so I spent the $20 and change for “Lion.”
Long story short: it took six hours to download last night (I eventually went to bed), I installed it this morning, and had thoughts of downgrading after a half hour. This morning my MacBook was running a 4.5 forty. By lunch it was a step behind at 4.8.
I have never really had good luck with Mac OS upgrades, or at least liked the results at first. Around 1995, my mom upgraded our Performa 600 to OS 7.5 and I was pissed! The concept of upgrading the operating system was completely new to me and my mom had to explain that, despite the differences, the upgrade was an improvement and I was stuck with it. Mac OS 9 used so much more RAM that it slowed my PowerMac G3 to a crawl until I tripled the memory. Upgrading my iMac and MacBook to 10.6 before I left California was mostly painless, but I did notice that my iMac lost a step.
That is the consequence of upgrading hardware that is four or five years old. The newest OS is tailored to computers with faster processors and more memory and storage to spare. Despite compatibility, performance is slightly compromised on outdated models. (It also may be a built-in enticement to make one think about that shiny new iMac or MacBook Pro.) It happened to my iMac and it has now happened to my MacBook.
I should have known better than to expect anything different, to expect my MacBook to continue running at top speed (or at least the speed I became accustomed to). Granted, my computer is still fast, but that missed step is annoying enough to get under my fingernails.
My knee-jerk reaction after a few hours was to consider downgrading, but that would require me to erase my hard drive. I could do that, but that seems like a drastic overstep. My other thought was doubling my RAM, which I do not need to do. [Sigh.] I guess I am just experiencing the growing pains of upgrading. I suppose it comes with the territory of maintaining an older computer.
Since I have gone to all the trouble already, and have spent $20, I may as well give it a shot. I may be stuck with 10.7 as I was 7.5. Upgrading, as my mom said, is an improvement. (Performance my also improve as the system continues to cache data.) And there is an added perk, of course: I can now get Elements. Maybe that RAM upgrade would not be such a bad idea after all.
Oh, obsolescence. We were bound to meet again.
An upgrade was, I guess, long overdue. The current version of Mac OS X is 10.9, so my trusty MacBook was three versions behind. (I have no clue why Apple continues to use the “X” brand. It is still technically correct since “X” is the Roman numeral for ten, but at this point it seems excessive and unnecessary.) My early-2008 MacBook is unable to use 10.9 or even 10.8, so my only upgrade option was 10.7.
That’s right. To use Photoshop I needed to upgrade my still-very-useful-but-older computer to an outdated operating system.
“Outdated” is misleading. It is not like 10.7 and its two or three predecessors are useless. I could do everything I wanted with the most recent version of “Snow Leopard” (10.6.8); I was perfectly content and oblivious to the impending obsolescence of my computer (until I started checking into Elements). Of course, I would someday be forced to get a new computer, but that day is hopefully not for another year or more. Until that point — when my MacBook is so out of date that I need to view alternate versions of websites (as I did with my G3) and have software that can no longer be updated — I thought it would be a good idea to upgrade. Previous versions of OS X are available online so I spent the $20 and change for “Lion.”
Long story short: it took six hours to download last night (I eventually went to bed), I installed it this morning, and had thoughts of downgrading after a half hour. This morning my MacBook was running a 4.5 forty. By lunch it was a step behind at 4.8.
I have never really had good luck with Mac OS upgrades, or at least liked the results at first. Around 1995, my mom upgraded our Performa 600 to OS 7.5 and I was pissed! The concept of upgrading the operating system was completely new to me and my mom had to explain that, despite the differences, the upgrade was an improvement and I was stuck with it. Mac OS 9 used so much more RAM that it slowed my PowerMac G3 to a crawl until I tripled the memory. Upgrading my iMac and MacBook to 10.6 before I left California was mostly painless, but I did notice that my iMac lost a step.
That is the consequence of upgrading hardware that is four or five years old. The newest OS is tailored to computers with faster processors and more memory and storage to spare. Despite compatibility, performance is slightly compromised on outdated models. (It also may be a built-in enticement to make one think about that shiny new iMac or MacBook Pro.) It happened to my iMac and it has now happened to my MacBook.
I should have known better than to expect anything different, to expect my MacBook to continue running at top speed (or at least the speed I became accustomed to). Granted, my computer is still fast, but that missed step is annoying enough to get under my fingernails.
My knee-jerk reaction after a few hours was to consider downgrading, but that would require me to erase my hard drive. I could do that, but that seems like a drastic overstep. My other thought was doubling my RAM, which I do not need to do. [Sigh.] I guess I am just experiencing the growing pains of upgrading. I suppose it comes with the territory of maintaining an older computer.
Since I have gone to all the trouble already, and have spent $20, I may as well give it a shot. I may be stuck with 10.7 as I was 7.5. Upgrading, as my mom said, is an improvement. (Performance my also improve as the system continues to cache data.) And there is an added perk, of course: I can now get Elements. Maybe that RAM upgrade would not be such a bad idea after all.
