Upgrading MacOS From 10.9.5 To 10.13 - MacPorts Implications

[Ulrich Wienands]

Hmm... per EveryMac.com <http://everymac.com/>, the 2009 MacBook Air only goes up to 10.11. This agrees with my experience; my 2009 MBP also tops out at 10.11.

If the machine really only runs shell scripts, why would you bother upgrading? The newer macOS versions are quite resource-intensive, and I'd expect they will slow down your poor old Air to a crawl, esp. with only 2 GB. 

Personally, I run 10.6 on my 2009 MBP. Makes for one zippy machine. Yes, it is limited in the software it can run; so this may not work for everyone. MacPorts support for that platform is actually still quite good (in the sense of finding packages that will install and of having binaries. MacPorts itself of course runs flawlessly).

Just my $0.02.

Uli

> On Jun 18, 2019, at 5:41 AM, Michael Newman via macports-users <macports-users at lists.macports.org> wrote:
> 
> I have an old 2009 MacBook Air (2GB RAM) which is running MacOS 10.9.5 (Mavericks). I’m now getting warnings from Apple, Google (Remote Desktop) and DropBox (among others) that this version of the OS will no longer be supported "real soon now".
> 
> I have an installer for High Sierra (10.13) which Apple downloaded to my machine and attempted but failed to install. (All this was done without my permission.)
> 
> This machine doesn’t do too much except run a bunch of shell scripts that power a webcam and some other shell scripts that keep me connected to a captive portal Internet connection. These shell scripts depend on many MacPorts installations.
> 
> I have a couple of questions:
> 
> Will this old machine actually run 10.13 without blowing up?
> If I install 10.13 over 10.9, will I have to uninstall and reinstall MacPorts?
> 
> I have been diligent about keeping MacPorts updated. I visit the location where this machine is located only a few days per month, but always do an upgrade soon after arriving.
> 
> TIA
> 
> Mike Newman
> Korat, Thailand

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