Comments on: OS Upgrading: More Customer Education Needed

By: Charles W. Moore

Charles W. Moore — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:30:39 +0000

Hi Aboo;

I used a 1.33 GHz 17″ PowerBook as my main production machine running under Leopard for 16 months. It was less lively than OS 10.4 had been, but I got addicted to Spaces and QuickLook and it wasn’t that bad. I expect my friend’s G5 iMac would be significantly faster than the old PowerBook running Leopard.

Different users will draw the line in different places. For my 550 MHz G4 Pismo PowerBooks, OS 10.4.11 is as far as I will go.

Charles

By: mutuelles

mutuelles — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:42:43 +0000

I used to have this problem too, I agree that for persons who are not really used to do tech works they sometimes get lost in the OsX version they’re running.

Could be solved simply by sending emails to clients of their database and inform them that operating system has been updated and available in stores and that they should buy the new one if they wish to use upcoming Apps.
Like the each time you receive an advert mail when a new Mac is available.

But then again a conflict takes place because some applications they are using right now have the chance of not working with the new OsX.
Establishing a compatibility list for each versions of OsX would help.
An finally it would be consumer’s decision as they will be already infomed.

Alex

By: Howie Isaacks

Howie Isaacks — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:37:17 +0000

I disagree with this. Most of the non tech savvy Mac users I know understand about OS upgrades. Furthermore, Mac users tend to be more knowledgeable about their computers than their Windows using counterparts. I ask people all the time what version of Windows they’re running. Most of them don’t know which is strange considering all of the publicity surrounding Vista, and Windows 7. Older Mac users tend to be the most hesitant to upgrade to newer versions of Mac OS. However, they do get curious about new versions of iLife which gets them in the door and allows them to be told about the latest and greatest Mac OS.

By: Bas

Bas — Tue, 05 May 2009 07:20:33 +0000

It is indeed rather strange that something as basic as tax software should require the latest os version. Those “PC users” can still run everything on XP, an os released way back in 2001. Apparently if I had bought an apple in 2005 with panther, not feeling obliged to buy a service pack for 129 dollar, I’d be having a problem with something as basic as a browser or a tax program. That just sucks.

By: aboo

aboo — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:47:10 +0000

But, to add to your point, you should not forget that if you want to run a software (like your friends tax software) that just works on leopard you have to upgrade to leopard. Leopard does not run fast enough on eMac or iMac G5. It is even slower than Tiger on those machines.

It is not fair for them to ask for you to upgrade while you think (and I think) your machine is good enough for other things… If you can run debian or any other ppc version linux on your G4 machine faster than leopard thats Apple’s fault not consumers…

By: Gazoobee

Gazoobee — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:45:19 +0000

I agree completely. The same thing happened to me this week. My brother (also a University Prof.), found out he had to update his emac from Panther if he expected it to work with the new Airport.

Apple already makes it as cheap as can be to update, not sure what other incentives they can offer other than bundles. Even if it were completely free and completely automatic, I’m sure there would be a lot that wouldn’t upgrade.