To update or not to update? It’s a question some folks waffle on. There are two schools of thought, and I subscribe to both of them:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. In other words: don’t update if everything is working.
Always update! Developers work hard to fix bugs and patch security holes, if you’re not updating, you’re being lazy and setting yourself up for disaster. if you’re giving a PowerPoint presentation in front of many people, just click the button to update now on that little Microsoft Windows Auto Update notification window that keeps coming up every 15 minutes, and let your machine go into an updating frenzy that’ll probably still be going when everyone you were presenting to is back home. It’s inconvenient and embarrassing, but at least you’re up to date!
There are software updates and there are hardware updates. There are changes, advantages, and compatibility issues that arise when new technologies come out, and (usually) solutions to all of these. The updates we all face most frequently are software updates, and that’s where the views above are most relevant.
In the realm of software updates there are many types of updates. You have major updates, like going from Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks to Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite. There is a tremendous difference in the visual experience alone, and the insides of the OS is equally different. While the visual changes are most apparent, some of those internal changes to the coding make some software unable to work. It’s that possibility that scares me away from updating recklessly. I take some measures before any major updates, because I know from experience that some of my programs might not work as I expect them to. Sometimes that measure might be to not update to the latest version of Mac OS X. But the measure to always take is back up your data!
There are also minor updates. These are the security patches and minor incremental changes. I’m much less conservative with these. While there is a possibility that things will stop working or there will be some disorienting changes, in most cases there’s much less room for software to stop working. These incremental changes are liking going from Mac OS X 10.10 to Mac OS 10.10.1. Most of the changes are under the hood: they’re bug fixes, security patches, and just programmers working hard to keep my Mac working the way I know it’s supposed to and not being glitchy and buggy. But sometimes these incremental updates are a little more significant.
Back to the original question of “should you update?” My opinion is to start with a good solid backup, meaning multiple places where your data is stored. If you know you can get to them when your computer isn’t working, that’s a great starting point. The next step is to ask if it’s an incremental update or a major update. I personally jump without looking when it’s an incremental update or says security in the description. When the update has a different name and number, like you’re on 10.9 Mavericks and the new one is called 10.10 Yosemite and has a different picture it might be worth researching a little before downloading and installing.