The name has changed, but otherwise it's business as usual for Mac OS Mac OS X OS X macOS. It’s hard to make a sweeping judgment on which OS version is faster or more powerful. El Capitan vs Sierra: Comparison Of Features Cross-Device Syncing On iCloud. Add in the Mac’s stale, aging hardware lineup and Apple’s total lack of communication about it, and there seem to be real problems for the Mac as a platform.īut for all the Mac users already out there, Sierra happily trundles along in the operating system’s quiet and reliable groove. It has been a long time since the Mac was Apple's favorite child, and there are places in Sierra (like the Messages app) where it clearly feels like Mac users are getting a second-tier experience compared to people on iOS. My Wife will pretty much only use the computer. Everything is running great, but before I give it to my wife for her to use I was considering upgrading it to High Sierra for the newer security updates, etc. El Capitan and Sierra both designate one or two big "hero" features for Apple to plan its marketing around (window management in El Capitan, Siri in Sierra), a decent range of medium-sized changes, at least one big under-the-hood addition (System Integrity Protection in 10.11, the Gatekeeper stuff in 10.12, and APFS next year if all goes well), and a smattering of minor improvements to the core apps. Hi Everyone I just brought back to life a late 2010 11' MacBook Air with 4 GB of memory and a new install of El Capitan. Since Yosemite, things have felt more tightly controlled, more planned. (Download El Capitan from Apple’s site.) El Capitan seems to be the last release that can migrate files from Snow Leopard. Further Reading OS X 10.11 El Capitan: The Ars Technica Review Install Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan on an external drive.