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Development Tools

Erica Goldsmith
PLUS
Erica Goldsmith
Courses Plus Student 305 Points

Software Upgrades

Hi! I'm sadly still running off Mac OS X Tiger and have managed to get a little far with classes but now I am desp in need of an upgrade to continue progress. What level do I need at the minimum for the courses? ie snow leopard, mavericks or Yosemite and what is my best and cheapest option to do said upgrade. Thanks in advance!

2 Answers

Well, unfortunately, it looks like you're one year out from an inexpensive upgrade. This support article I found says you need to have Snow Leopard (at a minimum) to upgrade to Mavericks, but it doesn't list Mavericks supporting the MacBook 2006, although the iMac 2007 is supported all the way to Yosemite.

After doing a little more searching, I found out that the latest OS supported by your Mac appears to be Lion (three generations out from Yosemite, two from Mavericks). I don't think Lion is sold or supported anymore, and it costs $30. Additionally, I'm almost positive that it doesn't support Swift.

Sorry to bum you out, but it looks like you'll need a new Mac to use Swift. :(

An upgrade to Snow Leopard would probably do your computer some good though. It would almost certainly get the App Store onto your Mac, though I doubt it'd do you much good. Just make sure that the supplier of those disks is legitimate; I cannot emphasize that enough.

Erica Goldsmith
Erica Goldsmith
Courses Plus Student 305 Points

Ok. That's what I thought given its so old but figured it was worth asking before making a major purchase. I'll most likely search for a used '10 or '11 with mavericks to save a few hundred but that might not be as easy as it sounds. Thanks again!! Extremely helpful!!

Good news: Yosemite is a free upgrade.

Bad news: You need the Mac App Store, and to get it, you'll need need Snow Leopard at a minimum IIRC, and that's not sold or even officially supported anymore.

I think there is a way around the App Store. Let me do some digging for you, and I'll reply back when I have more.

Also, can you post your Mac's specs here? Like, what kind of Mac it is (MBA, MBP, MB, iMac, etc.) and what model it is (2007, 2008, etc.)? Yosemite runs on the newer Macs, but I'm not sure if it does on the older ones (which is why I need to know your specs). I know Apple was big with Mavericks on "getting this to run for everybody," so Mavericks might be an option if Yosemite doesn't work out.

Also, retagging this as Dev Tools. :)

Erica Goldsmith
Erica Goldsmith
Courses Plus Student 305 Points

Its a Macbook 2006 model A1181, pretty old. I've been hearing Mavericks from others as well. I found snow leopard online for $20 and they mail a disk but if my system is so old that even after that I can't do the free upgrades I think I'm stuck. Thx for your help so far! The main goal is to be able to take the swift courses so anyway to get the app store on my laptop is what I need.