To me if you actually like OSX Mavericks, stay with it. I
really don’t like it as I have
never been able to completely eliminate the problem of the WiFi connection cutting out. I even considered downgrading — and going back to OSX Mountain Lion. If I had two laptops, I would keep one permanently on that system as it is the stablest OS ever created by Apple
— and the last to fully support Final Cut Studio.
There is a poll on this forum where the least preferred OS was Yosemite. So if you are going to upgrade, I would advise NOT upgrading to that OS. Regrettably, I must upgrade again because of TurboTax — which
requires El Capitan or above for the latest tax year.
What’s funny is a friend who already did her taxes told me
AVOID High Sierra as TurboTax 2017 would
only run on Sierra or below for her!
So for me, I am choosing El Capitan — simply because most feedback for older Macbook Pros is negative for anything above OSX Mountain Lion.
In terms of Microsoft Office 2011, I would append TC_Goldrush’s comment to state that it DOES matter if you upgrade if you are doing a “clean install.” If so, you will be needing your “registration key,” so make sure you write it down, as well as any other software program keys. If you are
not going to wipe your drive, then the upgrade will take longer but not affect Office 2011 in any way.
When I read a review about a new OS that says “far more stable than any OS put out by Mac recently” —
THAT is when I upgrade to the “latest.” Failure
to even acknowledge how horrible previous releases have been on certain Macbooks — is cause to question the integrity of the review.
It is not in dispute that there is a significant variance in software-hardware compatibility — from one machine to the next. Any way you slice, best practice is go for the final release of any given version (10.x.5 or 10.x.6).
