Jun 22, 2020. Aug 27, 2020.

Last Thursday, Nancy Caroll Gravly shared her opinion on The Mac Observer, essentially saying that there is no legitimate reason not to be running the latest version of OS X on your Mac. Here at Low End Mac, that caught our attention. Our thesis is that you often don’t need the latest hardware and/or operating system and/or software to get the job done, and many of us are still using PowerPC Macs (or recently left them for Intel) that can’t even run the two most recent versions of Mac OS X.

Gravly uses the example of five people she knows who are still using Mac OS X 10.3 Panther on their ancient Macs.

Panther, which was released in October 2003 and updated to its last version, 10.3.9, in April 2005. Panther, which was replaced by OS X 10.4 Tiger in April 2005. Panther, which only runs on PowerPC Macs, meaning Macs that will never be able to run Mountain Lion, or Lion, or Snow Leopard. And G3 Macs, which could run Panther and can usually run Tiger, cannot run OS X 10.5 Leopard at all.

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While we applaud Gravly for trying to keep Mac users (especially senior Mac users, her target audience) up to date, we do believe that there are legitimate reasons for using older Macs that can’t run the latest version of OS X, and for running older versions of OS X even if your Mac supports the latest version.

Brian Gray (Fruitful Editing): I wonder, is Nancy Gravly “trolling” the low-end community? Probably not, but it almost reads that way.

My Core Duo MacBook Pro only goes as high as Snow Leopard, and it zips along so nicely I doubt I would upgrade it if I could. For about a year, I had reverted from Leopard to Tiger on it simply because I loved the speed of 10.4. I only went to Snow Leopard for compatibility.

My iMac G5 is still running OS X 10.4, and I have no reason to install 10.5. Leopard was installed briefly on it, but it was so sluggish to me that I went back to Tiger, and I don’t regret it at all. It runs all of my software just fine, and doesn’t use up the meager RAM I have installed (768 MB – I just never got around to getting more).

And when I want to play games, I turn on my Xbox.

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Dan Knight (Mac Musings): When I bought my first Intel Mac, I made sure it could run OS X 10.7 Lion if I ever wanted to. Now it appears that Lion will be the last version of OS X my 2007 Mac mini can run, as the developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion won’t install on a Mac with Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics.

Frankly, that’s no great loss for me, as I don’t expect to ever install Lion on it. It runs Leopard decently with just 1 GB of system memory, but Snow Leopard really bogged down until I could afford a RAM upgrade. With 3 GB installed, it runs like a dream – and I plan to keep running it with 10.6 for a long time, as I love AppleWorks and don’t want to learn another spreadsheet app. It also runs Microsoft Office 2004, which I keep for compatibility reasons only – I do not use it except to open files others have sent. These two apps plus Photoshop Elements 3 are older, PowerPC only programs that will not run in Lion.

I also have legitimate reasons for running a pair of G4 Power Macs. One has OS X 10.4 Tiger installed, the last version to include Classic Mode, which lets me continue to use Claris Home Page 15 years after its development ended. The second Power Mac runs OS X 10.5 Leopard and is used primarily as a Teleport hub. This great little freeware app lets you use the mouse and keyboard on one Mac to control other Macs and can even transfer your clipboard between them, but the versions compatible with 10.4 and 10.6 don’t work with each other. By running Teleport on a 10.5 Mac, I can control both of my other Macs from my favorite keyboard and mouse. (It’s also a great machine for browsing, keeping a copy of Facebook open, etc.)

I have installed Tiger on G3 iMacs up to 500 MHz, and while it works, I wouldn’t call it fast. If someone is comfortably using an old Mac with Panther and sees no reason to switch, I say more power to them.

Dan Bashur (Apple, Tech, and Gaming): “Run the latest Mac OS or not?” I say get the best of both worlds when you can. There will always be new applications and features that take advantage of the latest version of OS X, and there are plenty of apps that only run on older versions of Mac OS/OS X that are not being developed or supported any longer, making a good case for using older versions of Mac OS. AppleWorks 6 and Adobe (Aldus) Pagemaker are prime examples for me. I’m sure that there are modern document creation tools that suffice, but as they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

I wound up deciding to get this Core i7 MacBook Pro, since it is an amazing machine in Snow Leopard, performs just fine in Lion, and is ready for the future for quite some time. It runs both Snow Leopard and Lion from equal dual partitions, although I’ve spent about 90% of my time thus far using Snow Leopard, since it’s more responsive and gives me more flexibility than Lion. I can run all of my PowerPC applications courtesy of Rosetta, but I can easily shift to Lion if I need to for something that demands nothing less (which I have yet to encounter or require).

Any dual bootable OS 9/OS X Mac is another example of a machine that allowed you to have it all and get the best of both worlds. The Mirror Door Drive G4s (pre-2003, plus the 2003 single 1.25 GHz) and upgraded Quicksilvers at 1 GHz or higher – especially dual processor models – are pretty much the cream of the crop in a dual boot OS 9/OS X desktop, while a 1 GHz Titanium PowerBook is the king of the hill in a portable form factor. You can run Mac OS 9 and various versions of OS X up to Leopard 10.5.8 on these Macs. The great benefit of dual bootable OS 9/OS X G4 Macs that have the muscle to handle Leopard without much trouble is that you can run Leopard on one partition and not worry about losing the ability to use OS 9 by having it on another bootable partition, keeping your PowerPC as modernized as it can be for a PowerPC while having full access to legacy applications at full native speed. There’s also the possibility of boosting performance of these machines further with processor upgrades, but they are becoming increasingly rare and hard to find.

Speaking of Leopard, it’s also worth mentioning a case for whether or not to upgrade to it vs. Tiger. Although you can still dual boot OS 9 and Leopard on Macs that are capable of doing so, it’s worth thinking about the pros and cons. As mentioned, you lose Classic Mode, which should not be a problem for dual bootable Macs, but with Macs that can’t dual boot this could be a big issue if you have older OS 9 software you still use and would require partitioning the drive with both Tiger (including classic) and Leopard. Performance on Leopard is much more demanding on the system, requires more RAM, will slow down lower-end G4s, and it breaks many printers. At the same time though, you gain Time Machine and compatibility with the latest version of iTunes, which you will certainly need if you have an iOS device. You will also find that many more applications and browsers are far more up to date.

I rest my case but have dodged the question a bit by saying that you should work the system and have the best of both worlds. To truly answer the question, I would say that you don’t need to run the latest version of Mac OS to get your work done or have a compelling entertainment experience on the Mac. Low-end Macs and older versions of Mac OS will work just fine as long as they suit your needs. I will likely continue to stay predominantly on Snow Leopard vs. Lion, Mountain Lion, etc. for quite some time, since it does what I need it to. As long as you have enough power and versatility to accomplish the tasks you want, there is no reason to upgrade, but if you feel compelled to upgrade just to stay with the times, pay close attention to the features you lose and the features you gain by upgrading along with compatibility and performance. Upgrading the OS is one of the most intrusive things you can do to your system, so always look before you leap and make a back up with Time Machine other utilities when Time Machine isn’t an option!

Dan Knight: I should mention one other advantage of using Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and newer: Dropbox. I honestly so rely on Dr

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