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Early adopter or wait for the upgrade?

Do you upgrade from day one?

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boppin

boppin

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Hi,

Are you an early adopter or do you wait for several updates before doing the upgrade?

Well, I won't upgrade from Tahoe to Golden Gate, because I still have apps, who are still Intel based and I don't see that there will be an update right now. Like ImageOptim and DOSBox.

I have send the team of DOSBox an email and asked them what they will do when there is only Apple Silicon and no longer Intel. Unfortunately I didn't get an answer.
 
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boppin said:
Hi,

Are you an early adopter or do you wait for several updates before doing the upgrade?

Well, I won't upgrade from Tahoe to Golden Gate, because I still have apps, who are still Intel based and I don't see that there will be an update right now. Like ImageOptim and DOSBox.

I have send the team of DOSBox an email and asked them what they will do when there is only Apple Silicon and no longer Intel. Unfortunately I didn't get an answer.
Click to expand...
macOS 27 Golden Gate Is the Last to Support Intel Apps via Rosetta 2

Golden Gate doesn't support Intel Mac's, but it will still have Rosetta 2 for apps.

You're fine until macOS 28. They have pre-warned developers that Rosetta 2 will be depreciated.
 
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On my business Mac I try to wait for the .1 release because I use that machine to put food on my table. On my personal Mac I usually install as soon as Macrumors announces the GM (usually about a week before it goes public).

I've done the betas before when a new feature excites me - but generally I don't like when things break because an app hasn't been updated or the beta OS release is buggy. Last year - I did the iPadOS public beta just to try out Liquid Glass, but I think I'll wait on this years features - even though I am excited for new Siri.
 
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Benefits to waiting:

* Apple is more aggressive with fixing bugs in the period after release (before they shift development more towards the next OS version).
* Some third party apps may also need some time to fix bugs or make adjustments for the new OS.
* Community knowledge will build up around the new version, so if you *do* run into issues after you upgrade, chances are higher that there will be discussion or a fix if you wait a bit.

Without a major new feature draw, I don't see why it isn't better to wait until 27.2 or 27.3 before upgrading.
 
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On the work machine it's always .2 for me, and it's less about macOS bugs than about plugin/render engine certification catching up. Adobe, Maxon, and the Redshift folks are usually a couple months behind on a new macOS release, and I've watched After Effects hang on frame renders on day-one upgrades before. Personal MBP gets the .0 for testing — only reason I'd break the pattern on the work rig is if there's a specific fix I'm chasing.
 
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Normally, I upgrade on Day 1 - firm in the knowledge that Apple will have botched things, and it will take them several .x.x versions over the course of the next year to fix them or add new issues, with little to show for it.

However 27 may make me wait - or indeed not bother - if Siri AI / Apple Intelligence (ever the oxymoron) cannot be turned off / deleted from my Mac and iPhone. Apple and Tech Media being cagey about whether that will be possible, while I've seen some Forum posting elsewhere that suggest those controls don't exist in current Betas.
 
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RedRaven571 said:
I agree, why do we need a 'new' OS every year? How about every 2 years (or even 4)? I guess it's a convenient way for Apple to weed out older systems that will be unsupported with every new release, and hope that folks will run out to get a new Mac.
Click to expand...
By the time we get used to the current OS, and get really productive with it, they foist a new one on us. Which we have to relearn (for no good reason) and deal with all the new bugs. So, productivity goes WAY down (especially as we all need to come here and bitch and moan for hour after hour 🙂 ) And we again need to wait out the bugs as we relearn stuff with features that at least 80% did not need or want. Then, it starts all over again.

Apple is ABUSING us. They should do incremental upgrades. Period. And if not that, then a new OS every 2 to 3 years. But really, incremental is the way to go. IMAGINE IF AMAZON HAD A NEW UI/UX EVERY YEAR. How stupid would that be? Yeah, this is just as stupid 🙂 And yet, Amazon has arguably the most modern UI/UX on the planet. How did they do that? Yeah, remember... INCREMENTAL UPGRADES FTW!
 
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Cape Dave said:
By the time we get used to the current OS, and get really productive with it, they foist a new one on us. Which we have to relearn (for no good reason) and deal with all the new bugs. So, productivity goes WAY down (especially as we all need to come here and bitch and moan for hour after hour 🙂 ) And we again need to wait out the bugs as we relearn stuff with features that at least 80% did not need or want. Then, it starts all over again. Apple is ABUSING us and using us as beta testers. They should do incremental upgrades. Period. And if not that, then a new OS every 2to 3 years. But really, incremental is the way to go. IMAGINE IF AMAZON HAD A NEW UI/UX EVERY YEAR. How stupid would that be? Yeah, this is just as stupid 🙂
Click to expand...
Yeah, I reverted back to Sequoia after a few months on Tahoe, during which my M1 Pro based MBP seemed like it was slower overall and longer boot times (which annoyed me after this machine was like lightning when I first got it); I almost feel like trying to go back to Sonoma to see how it behaves.
 
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Cape Dave said:
By the time we get used to the current OS, and get really productive with it, they foist a new one on us. Which we have to relearn (for no good reason) and deal with all the new bugs. So, productivity goes WAY down (especially as we all need to come here and bitch and moan for hour after hour 🙂 ) And we again need to wait out the bugs as we relearn stuff with features that at least 80% did not need or want. Then, it starts all over again.

Apple is ABUSING us. They should do incremental upgrades. Period. And if not that, then a new OS every 2 to 3 years. But really, incremental is the way to go. IMAGINE IF AMAZON HAD A NEW UI/UX EVERY YEAR. How stupid would that be? Yeah, this is just as stupid 🙂 And yet, Amazon has arguably the most modern UI/UX on the planet. How did they do that? Yeah, remember... INCREMENTAL UPGRADES FTW!
Click to expand...
Excellent Post! 👍
 
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Alameda said:
I could not agree more.
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I see it that way too, but unfortunately, innovations might fall by the wayside as a result. I remember how frustrated I was back then with the poor SMB support.

And also interesting to know:
The people at AppleCare support, the hotline, do always get the latest public version. There is no turning back.
 
I'm waiting. I need my Mac to run reliably, so while I love to play with early releases, I'm going to sit this one out until it's official.
I do have a MacBook that I don't use regularly, so if I get really antsy, I might install the public beta on that.
 
Wait until .0 (if you're impatient) or .3 (if you are in a production environment). M1 Pro Max has 27DB4 and it's still buggy, but feels faster than 26.6 on the M4 Pro.
 
Cape Dave said:
By the time we get used to the current OS, and get really productive with it, they foist a new one on us. Which we have to relearn (for no good reason) and deal with all the new bugs. So, productivity goes WAY down (especially as we all need to come here and bitch and moan for hour after hour 🙂 ) And we again need to wait out the bugs as we relearn stuff with features that at least 80% did not need or want. Then, it starts all over again.

Apple is ABUSING us. They should do incremental upgrades. Period. And if not that, then a new OS every 2 to 3 years. But really, incremental is the way to go. IMAGINE IF AMAZON HAD A NEW UI/UX EVERY YEAR. How stupid would that be? Yeah, this is just as stupid 🙂 And yet, Amazon has arguably the most modern UI/UX on the planet. How did they do that? Yeah, remember... INCREMENTAL UPGRADES FTW!
Click to expand...

This is why Golden Gate is a good step forward, they fixed a lot of performance bugs overall. Hopefully they do this every few years instead of every 10-15 years.
 
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I understand that Apple has to sell but at this point I can't understand why they didn't move from Sequoia to Golden Gate, making us wait two years, true, but at least avoiding Tahoe which is far from perfect and saving users from being beta testers (with software officially no longer in beta)
 
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I usually wait until .1.1 at least, though my production Mac isn't supported anymore so its moot anyway. I might install it early on my Air as that's my "fun" Mac.
 
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I’ve been upgrading on day one (GM release not Developer Previews) since Mac OS X Tiger and never experienced any show stopping issues so I don’t see any reason why 2026 is going to be any different. 🤷‍♂️
 
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Install a beta on my main Mac? No, thanks.

Even though GG looks infinitely better than Tahoe—and I wouldn't rule out the possibility that a beta version of it might outperform the latest released version of Tahoe—I’d rather not.

I could be wrong, and that might well be the case, but I prefer to wait and install Golden Gate once it’s officially released.
 
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