I'm currently running the latest Sonoma public beta on an old 2012 cMBP with the OCLP beta and it's running really well. With all the issues surrounding Ventura 13.5, I'm tempted to install Sonoma on my M1 13" MacBook Pro rather than wait for a patch that may or may not eventually be released. I know there's still plenty of time for a few glitches in Sonoma but, overall, I'm liking what I see. Any thoughts...?
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Should I update my "daily driver" to Sonoma?
- Thread starter Furby2005
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No you should not. A beta is for beta testing and for getting feedback reports from you. If you are willing to do that then go for it, but...
There are pinned threads highlighting the bugs and also the apps that don't work. Anyone saying they don't have a problem is either not an extensive user or doesn't have apps currently affected by Sonoma. Different Macs and set ups behave differently with betas with some having bad bugs and unexpected behavior.
There are pinned threads highlighting the bugs and also the apps that don't work. Anyone saying they don't have a problem is either not an extensive user or doesn't have apps currently affected by Sonoma. Different Macs and set ups behave differently with betas with some having bad bugs and unexpected behavior.
Install Monterey
It's supported and stable.
Be aware that one version might run great, and the next might introduce bugs that hurt your use case!
If you depend on your laptop for your livelihood then wait. If you use your laptop for leisure, then sure as long as you have another computing device that you could use if a bug rendered your machine unusable temporarily.
I'm excited about a couple of Sonoma's features and I might pull the trigger on my couch laptop. I'm not putting Sonoma on my work machine until at least 14.1.
I'm excited about a couple of Sonoma's features and I might pull the trigger on my couch laptop. I'm not putting Sonoma on my work machine until at least 14.1.
I’m always a bit puzzled why with every macOS version that’s still in beta/preview this question pops up. See it this way: If it was truly ready for prime time it would’ve been pushed to the general public. But it’s hasn’t.
So no, it's not really suitable to fully depend on on a day-to-day basis. Like haralds rightfully says: One version can be okay, the next can introduce major new bugs and compatibility issues with hardware and/or third-party apps, as the latter haven’t been officially updated yet. You can pretty much forget about official support too.
Downgrading can be a real pain because of firmware updates and because your Libraries (Music and Photos per example) aren’t backwards compatible anymore.
It is and will always remain a big gamble to install a prerelease operating system. Especially when it involves your primary production machine.
So no, it's not really suitable to fully depend on on a day-to-day basis. Like haralds rightfully says: One version can be okay, the next can introduce major new bugs and compatibility issues with hardware and/or third-party apps, as the latter haven’t been officially updated yet. You can pretty much forget about official support too.
Downgrading can be a real pain because of firmware updates and because your Libraries (Music and Photos per example) aren’t backwards compatible anymore.
It is and will always remain a big gamble to install a prerelease operating system. Especially when it involves your primary production machine.
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Yes. Yes you should. Fortune favors the bold.
Also, looking forward to the "Installed macOS Sonoma beta on my 'daily driver' and now all my data is missing/none of my apps work/new screensaver is cool" follow-up.
Also, looking forward to the "Installed macOS Sonoma beta on my 'daily driver' and now all my data is missing/none of my apps work/new screensaver is cool" follow-up.
I don't advise running beta versions of macOS on mission-critical computers.
richmlow
Apple is expected to roll out the new product mid-September as it has done for many years. This means that Sonoma is at most a couple of weeks from RC. The risk at this point is very low.
I have tested it on three systems as a second boot for months. After weeks without problems with my apps, I decided to make the switch. Yesterday, I upgraded the primary disks. I even upgraded my ATV, iOS, and iPadOS devices.
But I would not do it if I were on a single system.
I have tested it on three systems as a second boot for months. After weeks without problems with my apps, I decided to make the switch. Yesterday, I upgraded the primary disks. I even upgraded my ATV, iOS, and iPadOS devices.
But I would not do it if I were on a single system.
There's always the risk of being an early adopter of an RC even. People have to look at the apps primarily and not the OS. The OS can be running fine but if the apps don't work they have to wait. In the past we have had apps like Capture One that would take aaaages to support a new OS.
In every corporate setting I have worked in the OS upgrade wasn't rolled out until almost every security patch rolled out, so they waited a year.
You’re confusing macOS with iOS. While the next major iOS release coincides with the launch of new iPhones in September, macOS does not. macOS Big Sur wasn’t released until November 12, macOS Monterey October 25 and macOS Ventura on October 22.
My mission-critical ones always wait for the .1 release, even.
Depends what you do. If you don’t use many third party apps, i’d go for it.
If you do, and/or you use your mac for work (i.e., for your job), i would just wait at this point - it’s only 1-3 months off, and you’ll just need to upgrade your mac through multiple betas + the final release between now and then which is time you could be doing other things.
I’ve run betas before, Mavericks beta was awesome vs. what came before it. But these days macOS Mojave or later is pretty decent; you’re not going to be getting radically better battery life or whatever this time around.
I think you’re more likely to run into edge cases where third party stuff bugs out or doesn’t work than see any major benefit.
But hey, if you want the new shiny, go for it! Bug reports are valuable and if you find any please report them!
I am running a public beta of Sonoma on an external thunderbolt ssd connected to my Mac Studio. It boots dog slow and several apps start up slow too. And I experience some bugs. I have no intention to install this beta on my internal drive. I will erase this partition and use a stable OS instead.
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Thanks to all for your input 🙂. Now that Apple has finally released the 13.5.1 patch and Ventura is behaving itself again, I think I'll be sticking with the 'stable' release for now. I've been impressed with the Sonoma beta so far though and will probably update soon after the official public release.
I always put the beta on iPhone and iPad about a month out from release but I wait till X.1 for MacOS.
Whether or not you should go ahead and upgrade your MacOS to the current MacOS 14 Beta 7 really depends on the person's use case for their "daily computer". If they are not using their computer extensively (Logic Pro, Photoshop, Logic Studio, Office 365, and Adobe related apps) where their livelihood depends on these programs then I don't see the harm in upgrading so long as they know how to set up and use Open Core Legacy Patcher 0.6.9n to install the latest Sonoma OS.
There is enough information in the Sonoma for unsupported Macs thread but you will have to dig for the info. Officially it is not recommended to use your only computer to upgrade to Apple's newest OS but if you're not using it for anything other than video streaming (watching), email and internet surfing then I don't see the harm in upgrading the OS.
There is enough information in the Sonoma for unsupported Macs thread but you will have to dig for the info. Officially it is not recommended to use your only computer to upgrade to Apple's newest OS but if you're not using it for anything other than video streaming (watching), email and internet surfing then I don't see the harm in upgrading the OS.