nothing is ever easy :-(

[cellio]

Dear brain trust,

I finally have a new Mac, but it came with OS 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion). I'd like to update to El Capitan. No problem, I figured; my older Mac was practically begging me to do this for a couple months, but I wasn't going to risk it on an older machine.

So -- I'm moved in, most (but not all) things work (I might need to just re-buy Pages), time to look at the OS -- and El Capitan isn't available from the Apple app store. They really want you to install Sierra.

I've heard some uncomfortable things about Sierra, particularly relating to applications that didn't come from or get blessed by Apple. It's my machine; I get to decide what I install on it, and I very much doubt that some of the obscure stuff I need has been vetted by Apple. I want El Capitan, not Sierra.

Googling leads me to a few pages on sites called things like "Tom's Downloads" where I can, allegedly, download it, but I don't know what's safe and what's not there. I should also mention that I have never, ever upgraded an OS before; I use machines with their original OSs until they die and I buy new ones. Or did before I switched teams from Windows to Mac, anyway; my Macs last a lot longer than my PCs did. Anyway, I'm just saying this to set expectations about my level of experience and knowledge here.

Where, oh brain trust, can I get a safe, easy-to-install copy of El Capitan (10.11)?

Comments

[eub.livejournal.com]

I cannot imagine that a free Internet download of OS X is anything other than six gallons of malware in a five-gallon bucket!

As far as I can see (the search is polluted by a book named "OS X El Capitan", thanks guys), there is no legit way to buy 10.11 on a DVD. On the other hand, OS X is quite nice about letting you make your own installable (even bootable) USB drive. If you have an existing copy of 10.11 that you want to move onto your now machine, you can load it into a drive like this:
(warning, auto-plays audio)
http://www.macworld.com/article/2981585/operating-systems/how-to-make-a-bootable-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-installer-drive.html

[eub.livejournal.com]

I guess I should have expected this, there are a ton of randoms on Amazon who will be happy to sell you a USB drive containing El Capitan, or for that matter Lion if you want.

There's actually so. much. of this that I'm shaken in my assumption that it's a copyright violation, because how could Amazon turn a blind enough eye? But legality aside, I don't see you could really trust it not to be packed full of spyware and botnet clients.

[cellio]

Apple was pushing El Capitan, and is pushing Sierra, as a free upgrade, so "free" doesn't trigger alarm bells for me -- but sites not clearly known to be reliable do. As you said, who knows what I'd be bringing onto my machine?

Thanks for the tip about the installable USB drive. Dani has El Capitan on his machine, so I'll see if we can use that to get it onto mine. (Hmm, I suppose it's possible he even still has the download, though I doubt it. I'll check; that would make things easier, and I hadn't thought of it before you mentioned the USB route!)

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

USB drives are inherently untrustworthy, even if the software on them is fine.

Perhaps it is the best you can do...

Locally, there's a town mailing list, and people make copies of Apple OS disks and share them all the time.

You might want to see if a co-worker or other person local to you has media you can use.

[cellio]

Well, in this case I meant my own USB drive, to move an installer from Dani's machine to mine, both of which are only ever connected to our wired ethernet. (Well, other than when Migration Assistant turned on my wifi for a day.) I have a drive that's only ever been connected to my (older) Mac.