Posted on 05/19/2015 7:50:57 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Mac laggards signal difficulty of matching PC upgrade results with mobile's homogenization
Although Apple has done a better job of moving its Mac users along with each new operating system than has rival Microsoft, the Cupertino, Calif. company has been unable to eradicate fragmentation as it accelerated upgrades to an annual cadence.
According to data from analytics firm Net Applications, three OS X editions that were three years or older retained five or more percentage points of user share last month. Those three editions -- 2009's Snow Leopard, 2011's Lion and 2012's Mountain Lion -- powered 20% of all Macs in April. When 2007's Leopard was included, the number climbed to 21.3%.
There's no question that Apple's policy of giving away its OS X upgrades -- a practice begun in 2013 with Mavericks -- has reduced fragmentation by pulling Mac owners onto the newest edition faster than did versions that carried a price tag. The current OS X Yosemite, for example, accounted for 57.5% of all Macs in April, 23 percentage points higher than where Mountain Lion stood at the same point in its post-launch timeline. Mountain Lion was the last upgrade that cost customers money.
But the annual upgrades, even free, have been unable to eliminate laggards. While Yosemite powered the majority of Macs last month, Mavericks accounted for 21%, Mountain Lion and Lion for 6% each, Snow Leopard for 8%, and Leopard for nearly 2%. More than four in every 10 Macs ran an aged OS in April.
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
There will always be laggards. Many people have no idea how to update their computer. People like my wife resist any significant change to the computer, and view anything the husband wants to do to it with a wary eye.
They’re much more agressive about dropping support for old OS, which I think works to their advantage.
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The days of putting out quality software that JUST WORKS are apparently completely over. Between Windows, browsers, Adobe, and other miscellaneous software, I interact more with “updates available!” windows than I do with anything else.
I’d wager that a big reason for the laggards is that they make hardware that won’t die. I know many with 7 or 8 or 9 year old macs who see no reason to upgrade; email and internet work fine on their old machines.
Some of those older Macs don’t support the latest versions of OS X. If Apple would put out a 64 bit EFI for the Mac Pro 1,1 2,1 and 3,1 plus the iMacs and Mac Minis that could support it, they might pull as many as half of the users up to Yosemite.
Why should they replace a machine that still functions well for them, especially when you consider the high cost of Apple Macs?
For instance my wife and her 2006 Macbook. It's maxed at OSX 10.7.5 Lion, can't go higher. She's fine with it as is, except for not being able to access iCloud streaming photos from family; she runs to my Mac Mini running with Yosemite. I was worried about upgrading my Mini after hearing grumbling from some, as I didn't want to lose use of my Adobe Photoshop suite, but they work fine on Yosemite and I haven't encountered any problems. I have a number of older Macs with varying OS versions. The hardware works fine, no reason to stop using it unless you need newer hardware for newer apps and speed.
Reason for some laggards is because you can't put newer OS versions on them due to hardware limitations.
And vintage hardware will not support newer OSX upgrades
I have an original MB Air that is now stuck at 10.7.5
Just a piece of anectdotal evidence, here. No intent to unfairly bash Macs. I work and play on a Mac exclusively. Just noting a group of users I know...
I work in at a place with a couple dozen Macs in an company that is 95% PC/Windows-centric. Everyone that gives support to them would love it if they all had the same model computer running the same level of OS and software. As it is, nearly every one one thinks they’re a precious snowflake and _needs_ to be different from everyone else. (By way of example, I know one who _locks their laptop into their desk drawer_ when they go home at night, ISYN.)
Researching upgrades for these folks is no mean feat. Sometimes a failure forces change. Sometimes an upgrade in a critical software suite compels an upgrade in the OS, too. Rarely are the stars are right and an OS upgrade is just that.
That’s the other shoe dropping, for sure. The Macs have at least double the half-life of the PCs in that company.
Mrs. Fierro, too.
She doesn't know it yet but she's getting a maxed-out 13" A1425 Macbook Pro for our wedding anniversary in a few weeks.
l a g g i n g
Speed-up tips appreciated
IOW, 21% of MacOS users and 64% of Windows users like what they’re using and don’t like the bleeding edge. :’)
Lady Bender got one like that last week.
Unfortunately that is true. Good thing that's a pretty good OS.
On the other hand, the current retail value of the MacBook Air is $550 to $650 and it might behoove you to sell it an upgrade to a brand new one which you can buy for just $899. . . and get a Hollywood reboot like they did for Star Trek. You can also get a Refurbished 2014 model for (Oh, MY! I just looked!) $679.00 which has 1.4GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5 with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD which will probably beat that old one all hollow, and comes with OS X.10 Yosemite and a brand new warranty.
Heck, with tax and all after selling your old one on eBay, that might only cost you around $100. You can't beat that with your gavel!
If you have a lot of icons, documents, etc., on your desktop, clean it up. OS X treats each and everyone of them as an application. Put them into a folder on your home folder on your hard drive labeled as Desktop stuff and then make Aliases of the stuff you really want on your desktop. Aliases are not treated as applications. You will be surprised at how much this will speed things up.
Repair permissions. That's in Applictions/Utilities/Disk Utility and click on the Hard drive and then select Repair Permissions. It will do it automatically. It may take a few minutes up to a half an hour. . . but that can speed up things also.
Go into console also in Utilities and check the various error messages. . . see if something is wrong there. Clear the messages.
Check your Activity monitor also in Utilities and click on the CPU % and see if anything is taking an inordinate amount of your CPU attention. See what it is. . . and if you really think it is something you recognize.
Plus it is the issue of waiting until all the bugs are removed.
Im still using mavericks because apple locked down their ssd trim drivers. It was a really assholish thing to do forcing you to use their ssd’s. After 4 years Im going back to windows at the end of the year. Apple is giving me the creeps.
Wouldn’t a new vacuum cleaner be more to her liking?
So true that the words could have come from my keyboard.
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