Quick review of 10.9 upgraded from 10.6.8 on older MBP

Question

Hello all,
I just upgraded two laptops a MBP15 5,4 and a MBP13 8,1/SSD to 10.9, both from 10.6.8.
both have 4GB RAM
I read a lot of issues, install problems, slow machines etc, etc.  Here's what i found.
Folks here talked me out of doing a clean install for, oh, the first time in a long, long time.  I simply upgraded, and both went well.
here's hwo i went about it:
1. repaired permissions
2. made a bootable clone on an external drive, and tested it, usign CCC
3. made a 2nd backup of my files and key libraries using rsync
3. downloaded the insatll app - NOTE: it becomes a 5.31 GB file in your applications folder. No magic.
4. ran the insatller - NOTE - it provides several options - clean/update; choice of disks etc.
5. launched and immediately once "stabe" restarted
Here's how it was:
1. no propblems.
2. several programs didnt work - obviously rosetta stuff, but a few others.  10.9 noted them, that's nice
3. initially everything is slow sicne its building indices etc
4. mail needs to be converted (how and why is a mystery) - this takes a while if you have GBs like i do
5. Many apps need to configure themselves - all the Office apps had to do a bunch of housekeeping
6. All thsi time the machine was slow.
7. Over the next 24 hours i restarted several times. Interestingly, this seemed to prompt more rebuilding.
8. the machine has gradually become much faster
9. I would say now 10.9.nuttin is different, but on par, with 10.6.8 on speed and responsiveness. Some things faster, some slower.
10. 4GB seems to be plenty of an average user. 10.9 has a novel memory managemetn scheme that uses RAM more efficieently (compression vs file swapping)

Answer 1

Darn, it saved before i was done.
Bottom line, be careful, do your prep and the install seems to go well.
It WILL initially be slow.  Its will speed up. I always think that forcing the issue with restarts (journal changes, re-start) is a godo idea.
At the end it seems about as fast as 10.6.8 and of course, much newer. Most stuff is good, a few things are steps backward, or maybe i'm just too accustomed to the old ways of working.
Too bad rosetta is gone.
Grant