Do we really need an updated OS?

[aespana]

Hello guys! First of all, my english isn't as good as i would like to be but here i go:

Do we really need an updated OS to live with our Macs?

I have a Macbook 12" 2017 8GB/256GB. All owner of this little machine knows that the perfomance is not her strong but the portability, screen, little size, sound yes. This specific model is compatible with the latest OS, Mac OS Ventura but.. it has a big, really big impact in the general performance of the machine so that why i ask, do we really need an updated OS to live with our machine in the current times?

I recently installed High Sierra (the Macbook is compatible with Sierra and newer) and wow, it flies with this OS. Snappy, very good battery life, performance is good, no pressure to RAM, etc. I also have an old Macbook Pro 2012 which runs very very well with High Sierra too. (it runs good with Mojave but i don't know why i prefer High Sierra.. it just feel better for me).

Obviously i know that this old OS comes with bad things: no security updates, no good compability with new software (a lot of apps are 11+ compatible), no Safari, and many more but i think that the general performance is the best pro that we can have for our machines.

Edge, Firefox, iTunes (works with Apple Music just fine), Photos app, Office 365 (the suscription one), Chrome, and many many apps works really nice in this version so, why a new one? Be careful with your web navigation and that's all. Of course, i can use this old OS since my requeriments are just normal browsing, light office, music, movies, etc.

What do you think guys? Should we sacrifice performance for new updates? Can we live with an old but better perfomance OS?

 

[Juicy Box]

I run older OS versions on all my Macs, with the exception of my main Mac, which came with Ventura.

My experience on older Macs, things almost always run better with the MacOS versions that were released within a few years of the Mac launching, and I typically don't upgrade the OS unless I need to for SW compatibility reasons.

Security could be an issue on older MacOS versions, but there are things that you can do to mitigate potential problems, such as using a web browser that still gets security updates.

 

[Warped9]

Lots of people use older Macs that are using old OS. Mind you many, myself included, have little choice in some respects. I have a mid 2011 21.5 iMac and with upgrades, the machine runs better than when it was new. But I am stuck at Mac OS High Sierra. So far it’s not a problem, but there are now no more updates for this OS.

I’ve met some people who never seem to update their OS, and they have issues. But I suspect their performance issues have more to do with hardware than software.

As long as it works and you’re happy thats all that matters. Unfortunately, for some, you can’t seem to reinstall an older OS.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

Well, you still need security updates. So there's that.

 

[apostolosdt]

An MP 2012 runs Mojave and the MP 2013 runs Monterey, but yes I am concerned about security. The rule “careful what websites you are visiting” is not faultless.

 

[russell_314]

Do we really need an updated OS to live with our Macs?

This is impossible to answer because everyone needs different things. If you're doing anything linked to finance/ personal information then yes but if you're just playing around and it's not connected to any of your accounts to include your Apple ID then maybe not.

It's possible that it just being on the network is a risk but there are ways to isolate it so that shouldn't be a problem.

People use older computers all the time for nostalgia and playing retro games.