Instead, they litter my User/Library folder with random database files and other utter bullshit….

Yes, apple has us covered, if you use nothing but apple apps. But because some idiot developers decide not to stick to the proper procedures… we all get f*cked.

Make two backups, just for the hell of it.

1. Eliminates Cruft
2. Eliminates junk files.
3. Eliminates any fragmentation that occurs (although OS X is very resilient to fragmentation, it’s not immune)
4. Clean install = less bugs. Sometimes, there are migration errors that leave you with corrupt libraries.
5. If you’re installing on multiple macs, having a copy of it means not having to re-download a 5GB file again and again.
6. Having a copy means if you’re on the go, and your OS dies, you can use that same flash drive/ DVD to reinstall, even if you don’t have an internet connection.

Step 1 = buy it. same as upgrading.
Step 3 = Decide if you want to install from a DVD or external hard drive. Not really a step…
Step 5 = Reboot. Again, not really much of a step.
Step 7 = Install it. Same as upgrading.

So, really.. just 3 additional actual steps:

1. Show Package Contents to locate the .DMG file.
2. Restore the DMG to a DVD or drive.
3. Format your drive before installing.

User since 1988 and this is the first time I have not jumped all over an OS upgrade.

Then there was an iTunes update in 2001 with a bug that completely erased hard drives with a space as the first character (http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2001/11/48149). This was a somewhat common practice among Mac power users, to make drives appear at the top of the open/save dialog windows, and also quickly select the drive after clicking the desktop and pressing the spacebar (obviously Quick Look later killed the latter trick).

My system was set up that way, and it was pure luck that I wasn’t home that weekend to apply the update. Sure I had backups, but any unplanned system restore as a result of malware or update bug is a serious waste of one’s time.

Ever since then I’ve always waited at least a few days before applying any updates that ask for an admin password.

That being said, I’m with you… a backup of your drive and an attempt at an in-place upgrade that will more than likely be successful, is all you really need.

All this desire for clean installs went out the door with System 9. All the voodoo you hear from “experts” is a bunch of self-aggrandizing chatter.

Wait until the shakedown cruise has been at least midway or back in port, if you can wait that long.

I am now giving major upgrades an at least two week hiatus.

Just a thought.

As for clean install: most definitely. 8 steps – geez, anal much?

I suspect Apple will offer the OS on a USB stick for Mountain Lion, as some people need to update a half dozen Macs in a family.

The idea of updating a hard drive just never occurs to me. I always get a new hard drive, or if it is an expensive SSD, I clone off the old OS to an external HD, make sure it works, wipe the internal drive and proceed with a “clean install”.

I’ve never been a fan of in-place upgrading to a new major OS release, because of the occasional glitch and the issues of 3rd party applications and utilities which all need to be checked out for compatibility.

Multiple bootable clones of your old OS is the only way to know you can survive if the new OS flops for any sort of reason.