Can i retrieve items from time machine into mavericks

Question

Dear people
I am looking to install mavericks but don't want to do a clean install, ( i will if it messes my machine up though ).
If i install mavericks i take it that;
A: all the apple apps will still work.
B: if it is messed up then i wil be able to retrieve items from time machine back up.
C: is it worth doing a seperate back up to a hard drive other than by time machine.
D: i previously installed my last software via a clean install, as the upgrade to mountain lion messed up my emails
is it better to do a clean install or are the problems with email boxes etc not relevant in this up date.
Thank you

Answer 1

All the Apple apps will still work- that's a very positive, hopeful statement. Probably they will.
You should be able to retrieve something from your TIme Machine backup. Yes.
A duplicate backup: it depends on how criticially important your data is, and how paranoid you are. One backup is good enough for me.
I am a fan of the clean install. However, I did not do one this time with Mavericks. Lazy. But it works fine.
I would suggest that you restart in safe mode, though, before running the installer. I couldn't get the installer to work until I did.
Regarding a clean install vs. an update install, I think you are asking the wrong question. My opinion is that the vast majority of problems that people have with their Macs are due to:
crapware. I will elaborate on this if you want more. If not, stop reading now.
Crapware = unneeded "haxies", "cleaners", "optimizers", "defragmenters", antivirus software, and GUI modifiers. These are usually poorly written, typically ports from the Microsoft world. They are unnecessary and usually cause problems. They can be impossible to uninstall. They are popular with recent converts from the Microsoft world. I avoid them. My mac almost never, ever has any kind of problem, and I use it a lot, and not just for word processing and checking my email. I do audio recording and editing and some video editing too.
So I do not think the problems people report are due to the OS itself. People want to blame the OS, but I think it's unreasonable for Apple to be able to control and supervise every software developer on the planet.
I would suggest: if you have crapware on your computer, do a clean install, and then don't reinstall the crapware. Just my 2 cents.
If you don't have crapware, the Mavericks upgrade will probably work fine.
a good backup, Time Machine or otherwise, is always a good idea, especially when installing a new OS.