We got an earful there and we also got an earful regarding how wonderful OS X Mavericks was supposed to be when it first came out. It may still prove out to be just that. But I have my doubts as I am old school when it comes to believing that getting anything free does not come without a catch. Perhaps in the case of Apple’s latest version of OS X, the catch is the kind of quality one can expect when receiving something as complex as an operating system, for free.
Mavericks was the best thing to happen to older versions of the Mac OS as far as I can tell, and especially on the eve of my visiting a client that wants to update their lone Mac on a mixed platform network from Snow Leopard to Apple’s latest OS offering.
I may urge this person towards Mountain Lion as I am not afraid to suggest the second to latest Apple operating system to them. This is because I know what Mountain Lion is, it works well and although it dumbed down a lot of the networking-related protocols on the Mac by limiting the amount of specificity regarding controls over its server software side, as a standalone operating system, it has proven to be among Apple’s most solid and nimble.
Mavericks, while still relatively young by OS standards, remains a work in progress. That is why I am hesitant to recommend it to people who need to upgrade from Snow Leopard or Lion. I will suggest they try Mountain Lion as Apple will provide security patches to it for at least as long as until Mavericks’ successors hit the streets sometime in the future.
Upgrades make me think of the venerable PowerPC chip and the Motorola and IBM versions of it. IBM’s G5 Power Macs still have many fans. I am a person who stood fast on their original G4 400 MHz Sawtooth. It’s been heavily upgraded to a 1.8 GHz processor and does things too well, still, to upgrade it any further than it is.
The things that PowerPC owners feel awful about is Adobe Flash. The latest versions of TenFourFox disable Flash by default. I run the last version of Flash supported on PowerPC and also run a hack that fakes sites into thinking I have a more recent version of Flash. I use Flash on the PowerPC with the wonderful OmniWeb version 5.11.2 web browser which plays my spoofed Adobe Flash version just beautifully on YouTube. Your mileage may vary on a less robust PowerPC Mac than the one I am on, but it really still just goes to show you how much life is left in these veteran, utility-conscious and able machines.
The fact I am using a now 15-year-old computer, specifically a Mac, to write this and listen to YouTube videos at the same time is a testimony to the power of the Power Mac—no pun intended. This Power Mac has allowed me to continue a career not only as a writer but as a musician, too. I recorded original music on this same G4, albeit only running a 1 GHz processor during my Griffin iMic days and recording YouTube videos as the Headless Bluesman and also in the acoustic blues duo Twisty Seconds performing songs I have written.
Who am I?

You can find Twisty Seconds songs I have written on YouTube as well as other Headless Bluesman offerings. These were all digitized on an old PowerPC Mac, and as recently as 2012. It goes to show you the relevance of these machines to this date.
I like to jam. I like to sing. I like to write songs. I like to write. I like to blog.
Mavericks may be what I end up installing on my client’s machine, but I’ll forever be someone who prefers remaining a bit behind the curve in respect to latest and greatest. The blues were around before the digital age.
There are a lot of good operating systems Macintosh-wise that will still get the job done for you. Consider them all as you ponder whether to jump onboard Mavericks or remain where you can still complete what you need to within your budget. Happy jamming and Macintoshing from the Headless Bluesman and Twisty Seconds.