Sonoma- The worst OS in human history?

[kagharaht]

I have been aching for a Snow Leopard pass. I don’t need new features. I’d prefer the existing ones actually worked and worked well. It’s such. Shame that we are in 2024 and software is still such a train wreck.

My initial experience was horrible with Sonoma. A brand new iMac M3 maxed out. I never migrated any data. No Time Machine migration. Everything was on iCloud. Files, iCloud mail account. Seriously, I copied nothing from any drive. Soon as I started to set it up, it asked to be updated to Sonoma, since it shipped with Ventura. Soon as it finished the Magic Trackpad was all over the place, stuttering, jumping, pausing. It was getting worse, so I did a safe boot after and it helped. Then the ejects of external SSD was happening. Then Quicktime just froze combining some mov files into one. The screen turned pinked and the iMac shut down and rebooted. Oh yeah the keyboard and trackpad disconnected and had to be reconnected manually. I did another safe boot later. Then Mail started to just expectedly quit on its own randomly. I only have one mail account "iCloud". So then I ended up Reinstalling Mac OS. That improved Magic Trackpad a lot, but Mail still keep crashing. I finally had it and just Erase All Contents and Settings start all over again. NO Migration from any drive since I have iCloud everything. Updated to 14.5 , now I only have the sudden eject of SSD USB drive (not often but can happen), and Pages locking up once and forcing it to quit. I did another Safe boot to clear up cache and this is where I'm at. Maybe 14.5 will stay stable. If I was a new Apple customer I would have been extremely disappointed and regret the purchase. I've experienced worse with Apple stuff so I deal with it and fix what I can. Anyway Sonoma was terrible for my initial experience with it.

 

[Sciuriware]

My initial experience was horrible with Sonoma. A brand new iMac M3 maxed out. I never migrated any data. No Time Machine migration. Everything was on iCloud. Files, iCloud mail account. Seriously, I copied nothing from any drive. Soon as I started to set it up, it asked to be updated to Sonoma, since it shipped with Ventura. Soon as it finished the Magic Trackpad was all over the place, stuttering, jumping, pausing. It was getting worse, so I did a safe boot after and it helped. Then the ejects of external SSD was happening. Then Quicktime just froze combining some mov files into one. The screen turned pinked and the iMac shut down and rebooted. Oh yeah the keyboard and trackpad disconnected and had to be reconnected manually. I did another safe boot later. Then Mail started to just expectedly quit on its own randomly. I only have one mail account "iCloud". So then I ended up Reinstalling Mac OS. That improved Magic Trackpad a lot, but Mail still keep crashing. I finally had it and just Erase All Contents and Settings start all over again. NO Migration from any drive since I have iCloud everything. Updated to 14.5 , now I only have the sudden eject of SSD USB drive (not often but can happen), and Pages locking up once and forcing it to quit. I did another Safe boot to clear up cache and this is where I'm at. Maybe 14.5 will stay stable. If I was a new Apple customer I would have been extremely disappointed and regret the purchase. I've experienced worse with Apple stuff so I deal with it and fix what I can. Anyway Sonoma was terrible for my initial experience with it.

I'm sorry for you; I must have been lucky from Mountain Lion upwards (or forwards?).
;JOOP!

 

[Queen6]

Been running it since beta on Mac mini M2 and M2 MBA and haven’t had a single issue. Both machines are only rebooted for updates. I honestly don’t know how people manage to have so many issues.

Because they dont look in the mirror. Lot goes into a modern OS, I'm first to say I dont like or want the bloat, however the core OS is well developed and more efficient then ever. For those that have issues they should learn to troubleshoot as whining about it wont resolve anything.

I only use the core OS, computers are binary, they dont spit the dummy, they just run code. If one of my systems is acting up I generally know where to look. Do the providers get it wrong? Yes they do, mostly they dont. I dont buy into Apple and it's Walled Garden, never have. The Mac is simply a tool that works for me as does Windows & Linux.

The Mac's I have with issues are either beaten to death or have inherent design flaws. The M1 MBP is not on that list as it yet to miss a beat as has Sonoma. There's aspects of the OS I dont like, equally that doesn't take anything away from it as is purely subjective...

Computers are complex, many users are not...

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

I suspect the people with the least experience, the least knowledge, and the least patience are having the most problems.

Wish I'd thought of saying that never a truer word said... I get the call the M1 with Sonoma is packed. I trust in the solution as has never given me any reason to think otherwise, in turn others trust in me. If Sonoma was the broken mess some proport it to be I wouldn't be running it for very good reasons...

Q-6

 

[kagharaht]

I'm sorry for you; I must have been lucky from Mountain Lion upwards (or forwards?).
;JOOP!

System 5 was bad for me when they added or put something called multifinder if I remember. Thing crashed so many times LOL but it was nice to have. System 7 was ok then 7.5 was nice. Most of the OS going forward wasn't too bad with quirks here and there. Catalina crashed on me a lot of times in 2023, but I think the iMac late 2013 was really struggling. I'm hoping the Erase all contents and settings and 14.5 does the job this time.

 

[bousozoku]

you mean, someone who would be even more experienced with bugs, problems? more tech-savvy, more immersed in the OS? makes sense to me 👍

It was amusing to me how many people were clamoring for Apple to open beta testing to the public and, after it was available, were screaming "How do I put it back?" 30 minutes after they installed a beta test version on their only machine.

 

[ssmed]

... The system runs stable as long as you reboot daily or shut down daily. Keep it running 24/7 or having sleep function without a daily or so reboot and things starts to crash ...

We have been running one database server for weeks without problems on Somona so this is not our experience.

 

[AZhappyjack]

Yeah it’s pretty bad with its quirks. Not enough to say it’s not workable. Just have to accept the crashes, freezing and occasional external SSD sudden ejects. The system runs stable as long as you reboot daily or shut down daily. Keep it running 24/7 or having sleep function without a daily or so reboot and things starts to crash. Which is sad really. Love my new iMac M3 that i maxed out. Too bad Sonoma is so crappy.

My experience is quite different. I have Sonoma running on an M2 MBA and an M2 Studio … I might reboot them once every 2-3 months … and I could not tell you the last time anything hung or crashed.

 

[fisherking]

It was amusing to me how many people were clamoring for Apple to open beta testing to the public and, after it was available, were screaming "How do I put it back?" 30 minutes after they installed a beta test version on their only machine.

true, true. still not an answer to my question tho...

 

[ultratiem]

My experience is quite different. I have Sonoma running on an M2 MBA and an M2 Studio … I might reboot them once every 2-3 months … and I could not tell you the last time anything hung or crashed.

This is the worst take to have as it completely invalidates real bugs and serious problems just because they may be rare or not experienced by OP.

They are sharing their own personal experience. Your experience differed. Cool. Just leave it at that.

 

[The1Biz]

I just tried updating my Garmin and nope, it won't read from it.

I checked under Security to allow accessores, and rebooted, still nothing.

I checked online and it seems there are other threads when USB items aren't working under Sonoma.

 

[newton4000]

That's what I keep reading, that no other OS in all of humanity is as bad as Sonoma.

I'm a Mac user since the Mac Plus days. This is the first time I have never upgraded to a new OS, ever. I'm still running Ventura. I don't want to experience the worst OS in human history. Hard to believe Apple produced an OS worse than Windows Me!

Yes - definitely. It's worse than Hitler and Stalin combined. It's probably the most tragic event in human history. No doubt at all here. I don't think thermonuclear war would be worse.

 

[ssmed]

I just tried updating my Garmin and nope, it won't read from it.

I checked under Security to allow accessores, and rebooted, still nothing.

I checked online and it seems there are other threads when USB items aren't working under Sonoma.

Hub or direct connection? I have had a few problems over the years with my Garmin watched attached via a hub!

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I tried. I gave it three installs since its been out. What an unreliable mess.
I thought, hey maybe next release they'll iron this thing out, but now Apple's priority is wedging a whole pile of Ai features into it so lololol brace yourselves for next year: OS La Brea

 

[shadowboi]

Still running Monterey.
No way I am loosing my battery life and buttery smooth animations to some possible bugs new OS may introduce

 

[Miles Fu]

I may keep on 14.5 for quite a long time as I normally will not try the first version of a new OS, so I may not update to 15, until, maybe 15.2 or 15.3 to be more stable.

 

[fisherking]

funny how many people decide any current OS is 'the worst', based on their own experiences, vs the idea that there might be a bug, or (gasp) a problem with their specific setup. (but my fave: people on this forum who aren't running sonoma, and will tell you why) 🙄

besides, name a mac OS that was bug-free (really, check the snow leopard forum if you think that was a perfect moment).

stuff happens, and there's a whole community here of people who can help. whining solves nothing, asking for help can... lead to getting help.

just my thoughts 🤔

 

[The1Biz]

Hub or direct connection? I have had a few problems over the years with my Garmin watched attached via a hub!

Direct connect. The weird thing is my other bike GPS still connects using the same connection. I don't see any connection options other than in Privacy & Security in System Settings.

 

[Sciuriware]

Direct connect. The weird thing is my other bike GPS still connects using the same connection. I don't see any connection options other than in Privacy & Security in System Settings.

I found 2 strange things about USB (C):
1) any kind of hub slows down or some software complains about a bad cable,
2) if your device is USB A or B and you use a converter cable to USB-C the software may
complain "This connection will not allow full speed" and is ultra slow.
The latter happened running CCC, connecting a Seagate disk (USB B) to a laptop with only USB-C.
The solution was: a new cable directly from USB B to USB C. Speed gain: factor 3.
;JOOP!

 

[rehkram]

Since the OP did not ask for anyone's opinion, I won't bother providing one. And neither should anyone else bother, unless you've got absolutely nothing better to do, IMNSHO

Ridiculous threads that start with "I keep hearing...", or "Everybody's saying..." etc etc are a total waste of everyone's time and energy. T-R-O-L-L

 

[eoblaed]

Sonoma was one of the most stable early-beta macOS releases in years. Subjectively, the performance after the first day or so was smoother and slicker than prior OS's.

I don't know anyone personally that's had problems with Sonoma, and most seem to have enjoyed it more than its predecessors.

But you're kind of late! The next macOS is going to be announced in four days. Can't wait!

 

[zevrix]

I kind of dislike how they made it feel like less of a computer and more like an iPad in System Settings

Well. For what it's worth, they finally made System Settings look like Preferences/settings in any other normal app on the Mac. That is, where you always see the list of settings in the sidebar.

So System Settings now looks more like a Mac app - unlike that bizarre System Preferences concoction they introduced on OS X. Where we had to constantly go back and forth between individual settings and the list of all settings as we couldn't see them at the same time.

I submitted requests to Apple to change System Preferences to the standard sidebar-based UI way before the iPad existed.

 

[Sciuriware]

I kind of dislike how they made it feel like less of a computer and more like an iPad in System Settings.

Now you know how those people felt when they were forced to migrate from command line to
Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointer (= WIMP, 1960, Douglas Engelbart).
;JOOP!

 

[martint235]

Because they dont look in the mirror. Lot goes into a modern OS, I'm first to say I dont like or want the bloat, however the core OS is well developed and more efficient then ever. For those that have issues they should learn to troubleshoot as whining about it wont resolve anything.

I only use the core OS, computers are binary, they dont spit the dummy, they just run code. If one of my systems is acting up I generally know where to look. Do the providers get it wrong? Yes they do, mostly they dont. I dont buy into Apple and it's Walled Garden, never have. The Mac is simply a tool that works for me as does Windows & Linux.

The Mac's I have with issues are either beaten to death or have inherent design flaws. The M1 MBP is not on that list as it yet to miss a beat as has Sonoma. There's aspects of the OS I dont like, equally that doesn't take anything away from it as is purely subjective...

Computers are complex, many users are not...

Q-6

I get the point about bloat. It doesn’t bother me but I can see why it would bother people. These threads are just “it’s absolute rubbish” when it patently isn’t (well leaving Windows Vista aside).

 

[martint235]

Wish I'd thought of saying that never a truer word said... I get the call the M1 with Sonoma is packed. I trust in the solution as has never given me any reason to think otherwise, in turn others trust in me. If Sonoma was the broken mess some proport it to be I wouldn't be running it for very good reasons...

Q-6

I’m actually not that experienced in Mac. I’ve worked in IT for decades but never really used my Macs as anything more than an enabler. Still not seeing issues in Sonoma though.