Dispelling a myth
Upon planning the move to Leopard, some people wonder whether they should do an upgrade or a complete fresh install. The myth-spreaders usually say that you should never — ever — do an upgrade.
Let’s vanish this assumption. Unless Apple has done something terribly wrong, there’s no particular reason why it can’t be upgraded. UNIX-based operating systems like Linux or *BSD were always upgradable. Considering that Mac OS X is a UNIX-based using a FreeBSD userland why wouldn’t it be able to do so?
So, rest assured, you can safely upgrade from the latest minus one version to the latest version. I wouldn’t hold my breath to upgrading from older versions, but doing it from Tiger to Leopard should be perfectly fine. Just make sure you uninstall the software that may conflict with Leopard.
Another myth bites the dust.
While you can upgrade a Debian system or a BSD without introducing weird problems along the way, one cannot say the same about other systems. SUSE has historically had problems with upgrades, and so has Red Hat/Fedora, and lets not talk about Windows…
But even if you can do an upgrade, the question is: do you really want to?
The problem with upgrades is that, in order to avoid problems, they usually don’t touch existing configurations. This means you cannot make use of new defaults.
I don’t do upgrades (between major versions) because I want to take the chance to clean things up.
In order to dispell a myth you should make a thorough comparison between a freshly installed system and an upgraded one.
Just saying there won’t be problems doesn’t make it so.
Carlos,
I don’t have the time to do a fresh install every time a new version comes up. Although this task is simplified with Mac OS X (you don’t fine-tune the system that much — defaults are pretty good) you still have to install applications and configure them on your own way. I’d rather not waste time doing such a wasteful and meaningless task as long as the system is stable and fast enough.
Nuno Inácio,
This is the kind of stuff that you simply don’t assert with math. It’s though experience and anecdotal evidence.
I’ve been updating several Linux (Debian, Ubuntu), FreeBSD and Mac OS X machines and I’ve never had a problem — lest the fact that I actually read the release notes and incompatibility issues, making sure incompatible software was previously pruned.
I’ve updated Panther to Tiger, Tiger to Leopard with no problems whatsoever, including Intel and PPC machines. So this task is not discouraged, you just need to make sure you read the compatibility notes and you should be fine.
Why upgrade when you can “Archive and Install” with Mac OS X?
A fresh install with all your old stuff where you left it before the process.
The best of both worlds, IMHO.
It all depends on what you are after and the conditions of your Mac:
1) If you have a recent installation of Tiger, an upgrade will be enough, since you haven’t “messed” with the system for long. It’s the fastest procedure and maintains all your user personalization of the system.
2) If your installation is older, most experts recommend an archive + install or erase + install. In this case:
2.1) Archive + install = if you have enought space for that. It takes less time to re-install your user docs and preferences.
2.2) Erase + install = if your space is limited and/or you want to clean your Mac completely. However, it takes longer to personalize.
(I’ll be going for the 2.2 — because I want a clean installation and my free HD space is quite limited.)
In any case the keyword here is BACKUP! Backup your system before the upgrade and make sure it works.