install older version on new hard drive

In theory, Mavericks should also has the same drivers as Yosemite. They would put those drivers inside the same folder. But Apple intentionally might not put it there just to force us to use latest OSX. I would understand if they would not like us install Snow Leopard but 1 year-old Mavericks should be installed. Apple is such a restrictive company that urge me to move back to Windows, will be staying for the sake of Retina until Windows finds the way.

I think you're over thinking this. When Windows 7 came out, many systems couldn't support it as the OS required more graphics power and many of the newer systems couldn't run older versions of Windows as the graphic board drivers required newer drivers which only worked in Win7. Change always ruffles peoples feathers in the wrong way ;-}

You may be right. Although I am against Yosemite with many aspects, I am mainly focusing on productivity perspective. As a faculty, I am against the fonts, fonts have become thinner, may look nice to people at a first glance but not to me, they are thinner, harder to read. I like fat and bold looking fonts that reduce eye strain. Whoever makes the decision, they just look at the monitor and see nice "drawings" I guess, he/she did not try reading for 8 hours in front of the computer. Similar thing happened in win7, they changed to thinner fonts and calibri, it looks very good in powerpoint, in larger fonts, but for text Arial-like fonts (win XP) are the best, they require more space, more readability. Quite a lot of discussion on the internet supporting my view. This is one of the reasons why non-retina computers suffered a lot wrt readability. Pixel number per font decreased.

You raise a good point on eye strain. You can alter the system font size and the size of the desktop icons. Right click on the desktop and then click on Show View Options. As to altering the font its self I haven't tried this yet but this might work: Fonts for Developer. In any case if you have the skills you can also directly alter the system's settings altering the font that way. I would strongly recommend you talk with an Apple Store Genius or place a call to Apple Support as you do get free help for the first 90 days. Lastly, write a note directly to Tim Cook and place a enhancement request to Apple as well. At one point you could alter the font within the Desktop control panel and then you could in the Handicap control panel since Mavericks both are no longer available. I'm still using Mavericks my self so I don't know if Yosemite has any new options to alter things.

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