Should I install Mavericks?

Did you download OS X Mavericks?

I did, and so far so good. A little hiccup at the beginning made me have to do a forced restart, but since then it has worked fine.

I like the design, and there are great new features. I am also very pleased by the updates to iWork and iLife, and they require 10.9.

But way way better that all of that is the improvements to battery life and performance! All of my computers feel smoother and snappier, and the battery on my MacBook Air lasts at least 10-20% longer than it did on Mountain Lion.

However…

Please read before upgrading!

As with any major upgrade, for most people — and certainly for any mission-critical machinesI recommend [read: urge, plead] holding off just a little bit to let the kinks work themselves out. At least give Apple a chance to get to 10.9.1 before you try Mavericks out on the Macs at your business.

A few clients have installed successfully, but others have encountered a few glitches in printing, scanning, and email. Some important apps might also not be compatible. You can check the software titles you use at the excellent site Roaring Apps. And some printers, especially big copiers, might not have compatible drivers yet.

(For what it’s worth, I now only rely on apps that are currently in development, buying almost everything through the Mac App Store.)

When you feel you’re ready to go, please please PLEASE make sure you have a tight backup for that computer. I have already advised a couple of people whose installations didn’t go smoothly, and their Macs were bricked. A simple restore should fix it, but if you don’t have a backup, you could be in serious trouble if your disk becomes unbootable.

Having said all of that…

Early adopters who are willing to deal with the occasional hassle to get the good stuff are encouraged to go for it! To be safe, give me a call before you hit the Install button, and we’ll go through the checklist to make sure you don’t suffer any downtime.

Author: jjmarcus

Apple Specialist, Mac Whisperer, Cloud Wrangler - Your Remote CTO

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