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I am completely against upgrading the OS on existing hardware. My experience with doing so is there are always issues. So I have stuck with my 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' Mac OS Snow Leopard 10.6.8 despite all the offers to upgrade it for free. I am starting to get messages now that existing software won't work or be updated unless I upgrade, so I fear I may eventually have to bite the bullet and upgrade (or buy a newer Mac). For those who have upgraded to El Capitan, what issues have you had and would you recommend doing the upgrade?

If you do recommend the upgrade, are there things I should be made aware of before I proceed? Hardware information: Mac Pro (circa 2009) 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 8GB ram --Submitted by: Gary C. Aka lawfirmgwc Note: Updated with hardware information. It could really be that your current Mac just does not have the legs to carry EL Capitan easily but, FWIW, I have a 2012 iMac which has 16GB of RAM and which runs EL Capitan fairly comfortably. Only drawback that I have come across has been the loss of functionality on my Saitek Cyborg Joystick. The system see's it but does not allow it to function at all. In Yosemite, it worked flawlessly.

Other than that, no problems. Bear in mind that a Google search for EL Capitan problems will produce a lot of hits, mainly because those millions of people who did not have a problem did not post to the forums. If you don't do time machine backups, get a drive that will hold all your data, then back it up. If you already back up using time machine, clone the backup drive. If after upgrading you realize it isn't what you wanted, you should be able to restore to the original using the cloned backup drive. However, I think for 10.6.8, you need the original DVD! Make sure you have that.

Newer macs can restore over the network. I'm not 100% sure of this, I'm new to macs as of 2011, so I started with Lion, but a friend's computer I restored (dead HD) needed to use the disc. I can tell you that my upgrade to El Capitan has been fine, but my computer is so much newer I'm not sure it's relevant. After upgrading to El Capitan on my iMac I began to have issues I've never encountered in OS X. One notable new 'feature' is my Finder crashing between 2 and 4 times a day. Free obd2 software for mac.

Startup is longer, Shutdown is longer. There have been issues with window views not conforming to the list (by Date Added and By Size, sometimes, simply do not work). My laptop is still running Yosemite and I'm happy about it.

Apple seems to be getting sloppy again with their premature OS releases. In your place, I'd hold onto Yosemite as long as is feasible. I have a mid-2010 MacMini which is running on El Capitan OS X 10.11.4, just upgraded this afternoon. I used to support a lot of Macs at work years ago, lurked around the old MacFixit Forum at work and found that MANY of the problems with people upgrading the OS were due to OPERATOR ERROR of all things. People tend to do stupid things at the worst possible time while their systems are running upgrades.