to update or not Safari, OS
Thread poster: MollyRose
MollyRose
MollyRose  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:40
English to Spanish
+ ...
Dec 5, 2020

I have a Mac mini with OS X Yosemite (2014) and Safari 10.1.2 (10603.3.8) 2003-2017. I never updated the OS because I had read there were bugs with the next one, but now I am wondering if I should. Surely they have ironed out all the problematic ones by now.

Lately I have been coming across error messages saying that Safari cannot open xxx page because it cannot connect to their server. I am wondering if it is because Safari needs to be updated. If so, maybe I have to update the
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I have a Mac mini with OS X Yosemite (2014) and Safari 10.1.2 (10603.3.8) 2003-2017. I never updated the OS because I had read there were bugs with the next one, but now I am wondering if I should. Surely they have ironed out all the problematic ones by now.

Lately I have been coming across error messages saying that Safari cannot open xxx page because it cannot connect to their server. I am wondering if it is because Safari needs to be updated. If so, maybe I have to update the OS in order to be able to update Safari.

I had checked a long time ago and I would only be able to update to the one after Yosemite (High Sierra, I think) because of the hardware (2.5 GHz, Intel Core i5)--it cannot update the operating system to anything more recent than that one. I'm not sure if they even support and allow us to update to High Sierra now. When I click on Updates, it says there aren't any available.

Could it be that Safari cannot connect to certain website servers because it is not up to date enough? If this is the reason, what do you recommend about updating? I remember reading a post by someone in ProZ that they were using an older OS and had no reason to update it, that the later version was worse than what they are using. I'm not sure, but I think Yosemite is what they are using.

If you think it is some other reason, I would appreciate hearing from you, too, and any suggestions as to what I should do. Maybe add a different browser, and if so, which one and why?

I will appreciate any suggestions you give.
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Hans Lenting
Hans Lenting
Netherlands
Member (2006)
German to Dutch
To upgrade or not to upgrade ... Dec 5, 2020

Although I always upgrade my back-up computer to the newest version of the OS (for testing purposes), I keep my work computer always at the previous version (currently Catalina 10.15). But, if you don't have two systems, it's indeed taking the plunge, or not.

I'm not going to say that you'll have to update from 10.10 to maybe 10.14. Note that 10.15 broke with support for 32-bit apps. So if you're relying on those, you shouldn't upgrade to Catalina.

I'm not sure w
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Although I always upgrade my back-up computer to the newest version of the OS (for testing purposes), I keep my work computer always at the previous version (currently Catalina 10.15). But, if you don't have two systems, it's indeed taking the plunge, or not.

I'm not going to say that you'll have to update from 10.10 to maybe 10.14. Note that 10.15 broke with support for 32-bit apps. So if you're relying on those, you shouldn't upgrade to Catalina.

I'm not sure whether the newest Safari can be installed on 10.10. You'll just have to try that.

I have Firefox and Chrome installed on my Macs. Since Microsoft adopted the Chromium code in MS Edge, Chrome is the de facto standard (like Microsoft Explorer was once).

I notice that some sites cannot be opened in Safari, probably because of more rigid security mechanisms. For them, I use Chrome. (On a side note: I use Firefox exclusively for Facebook, and make sure that all cookies are deleted on every exit.)
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P.L.F. Persio
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:40
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Happy with El Cap Dec 5, 2020

I'm happily continuing with El Capitan on a late 2009 MacMini. This does everything I need to do - including being able to run a number of very old applications that won't run on any later versions of the OS. And I don't use Safari at all; Firefox is much better and keeps itself constantly updated.

I gave Catalina a try, a while ago. It added nothing to my computing experience and it wouldn't run my legacy software, so I stayed with El Cap.

In any case it is always ad
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I'm happily continuing with El Capitan on a late 2009 MacMini. This does everything I need to do - including being able to run a number of very old applications that won't run on any later versions of the OS. And I don't use Safari at all; Firefox is much better and keeps itself constantly updated.

I gave Catalina a try, a while ago. It added nothing to my computing experience and it wouldn't run my legacy software, so I stayed with El Cap.

In any case it is always advisable never to jump right in when Apple releases a new version of the Mac OS. It will require at least 3 revisions before it become reliable. I would wait for 6 months at least.

SO if Safari is causing you problems, use Firefox and make it your default browser. You won't be sorry.


[Edited at 2020-12-05 10:00 GMT]
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P.L.F. Persio
Cetacea
 
MollyRose
MollyRose  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:40
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
what about anti-bad stuff? Dec 6, 2020

Thank you, Tom and Hans. I greatly appreciate the time you took to give me good answers.

Based on your replies, I think I will stay with Yosemite, unless at some future time I need to add MS Word for Mac on there. Hopefully even then I won't have to update the OS.

I understood that Safari has protection for Macs against viruses, malware, and whatever those other bad things are called. I have also read that if you have more than one protection program on your compu
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Thank you, Tom and Hans. I greatly appreciate the time you took to give me good answers.

Based on your replies, I think I will stay with Yosemite, unless at some future time I need to add MS Word for Mac on there. Hopefully even then I won't have to update the OS.

I understood that Safari has protection for Macs against viruses, malware, and whatever those other bad things are called. I have also read that if you have more than one protection program on your computer, they could interfere with each other, so I have not added any other program for protection.

If I switch to Firefox, will I have to add something else? I use a modem and DSL fast internet, not wifi.
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Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:40
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Firefox is safe Dec 6, 2020

Firefox 83 update is its most secure build yet

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/firefox-83-update-is-its-most-secure-build-yet

...and by the way it's not advisable to install any anti-virus software on the MacOS. It won't do anything, other than slowing down the performance of your computer, and might even damage it. The MacOS is
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Firefox 83 update is its most secure build yet

https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/firefox-83-update-is-its-most-secure-build-yet

...and by the way it's not advisable to install any anti-virus software on the MacOS. It won't do anything, other than slowing down the performance of your computer, and might even damage it. The MacOS is inherently safe because it has its own internal protection; moroever if anything "bad" tries to install itself, the system detects it, checks to see if it is certified, and if not, blocks it. I moved from DOS to Mac in about 1994 and have never had a virus of any kind.

[Edited at 2020-12-06 09:32 GMT]
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P.L.F. Persio
Cetacea
 
Wolfgang Schoene
Wolfgang Schoene  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 11:40
Member
English to German
+ ...
to update or not Safari, OS Dec 6, 2020

MollyRose wrote:

I have a Mac mini with OS X Yosemite (2014) and Safari 10.1.2 (10603.3.8) 2003-2017. I never updated the OS because I had read there were bugs with the next one, but now I am wondering if I should. Surely they have ironed out all the problematic ones by now.



I will appreciate any suggestions you give.



Give Opera for Mac a try, too. It has VPN (free) and a very nice feature, Speed Dial, that is, a special page where you can group all your most visited/used web pages. Firefox has it, too, but not as neatly solved as in Opera.


P.L.F. Persio
 
MollyRose
MollyRose  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:40
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you, Tom and Wolfgang Dec 7, 2020

I already installed Firefox two days ago, but it is version 75. I just clicked on Download from the Mozilla site because I didn't see any options for different versions, and that is the one it instantly downloaded. Actually, it updated the version I already had. I read the instructions, watched a couple videos on it, took the suggested add-ons, and did the compartments, etc. It is fast and interesting.

Thank you for the suggestions and assurances, Tom. You seem to be very kno
... See more
I already installed Firefox two days ago, but it is version 75. I just clicked on Download from the Mozilla site because I didn't see any options for different versions, and that is the one it instantly downloaded. Actually, it updated the version I already had. I read the instructions, watched a couple videos on it, took the suggested add-ons, and did the compartments, etc. It is fast and interesting.

Thank you for the suggestions and assurances, Tom. You seem to be very knowledgeable about these things. The main reason I had chosen Mac years ago was for security reasons. I wasn't aware of the internal protections, though. That is nice to know.
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freezone (X)
freezone (X)
United Arab Emirates
I don't use Safari Dec 9, 2020

I don't use Safari at all; Google Chrome is much better and keeps itself constantly updated.

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:40
Member (2008)
Italian to English
George Burns Dec 9, 2020

MollyRose wrote:

....You seem to be very knowledgeable about these things.


That reminds me of something the late, great George Burns once said:

"First, get people to trust you. If you can get away with that, you can get away with anything".



If you ever have any Mac problems, the Discussion Forums are excellent. Over the years I've learned a lot from just reading them.

https://discussions.apple.com/welcome


 


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