Macbook Pro Upgrade

October 11, 2013 — I should make this disclaimer up front — I have a Windows bias. I've been using Microsoft Windows almost exclusively as long as it's been in existence. Four years ago, mainly out of curiosity, I ordered a refurbished 17" Macbook Pro. I found it attractive, appealing, fun, with some neat features like iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD which allowed me to exercise my creativity more than anything in Windows. It has a superior monitor which displays my photos and videos better than my much newer Windows PC. However, I still do all my serious work in Windows.

That 4-year-old refurbished Macbook is still running trouble-free and does everything I demand of it. I have it networked wirelessly with my PC and can exchange files between the two, but it was still running OS X 10.4, also known as Tiger, that it came with. That OS was so outdated no new software could be installed on it, so I looked into upgrading it. The two main things I learned were that there's no upgrade path from Tiger to Mountain Lion, Mac's latest OS. I would have to install Snow Leopard first. But I couldn't download Snow Leopard from the App Store because my OS was too old to access the store. I learned I could go to the Apple website and order Snow Leopard on a DVD for $19.99, which I did.

Upon receiving the Snow Leopard DVD, I installed it successfully. There was little difference from the old OS. All my software and settings were preserved except the wireless connection to Windows and I couldn't figure out how to restore it. I posted the question on an Apple forum and got an answer later the same day with a solution. Otherwise, I couldn't see that I had gained anything except the ability to install new software, and it had one annoying feature. Every time I copied, moved or deleted a file or folder, it prompted me for a password. There may be a way to disable that, but I haven't found it. Back to the forum, I guess.

After a couple of weeks, Snow Leopard seemed solid, so I took the next step and downloaded Mountain Lion for another $19.99. Mountain Lion also installed successfully, everything was preserved, and once again I noticed little difference except some very minor cosmetic changes. It offers something called iCloud which I chose not to enable because I don't know how secure it is. I still have to enter my password every time I copy, move or delete. It's somewhat slower. It placed an icon for one of my videos on the margin of the finder and I don't know how to get rid of it.

I have since downloaded and installed the latest iPhoto and iMovie, $14.99 each, but haven't begun to test them yet. Overall, my Macbook still looks and feels the same and it's still fun, except for the couple of annoying features I mentioned.