How is High Sierra compared to El Capitan

[mediotanque]

I'd been using El Capitan since it was in it's early stages and is running like a champ on my macbook pro 2013.
I didn't updated to Sierra because I really don't need those fancy new things. But now I see that the new system has a lot of under the hood improvements.
I'll only update my macOS if the performance is better in this new one.
So here it goes... should I update?

 

[oatman13]

You should always update. At the very least you should update to the near-end versions of every release. So right now would be a great time to go to 10.12.6.

macOS High Sierra is a fantastic release though, and I'd encourage you to try it out when it is released.

 

[Apples555]

This brings up an important issue. Is Apple still following the n-1 support pattern? i.e. the only versions of Mac OS supported are the current and previous version (currently High Sierra and Sierra).

I've never gotten a definite answer.

 

[ZapNZs]

This one is definitely worth updating to (IMO it is also worth making a bootable clone before updating, using a program like Carbon Copy Cloner). I'm waiting a few months to upgrade my main machine (which is El Cap) to High Sierra, but I'm blown away by the subtle-yet-useful changes (like photos), the better graphics performance, the improvements in the responsiveness of the UI, the improved RAM efficiency (which I have noticed is especially pronounced on 4GB RAM models), and reduced CPU loads that correspond with disk activity. I am amazed how good of a job Apple did with this switch to the new file system - not only did they ensure it went seamless for the large bulk of owners, but they even devised a way to upgrade the file system in-place without requiring a fresh install, and ensured the in-place upgrade ran well. I think High Sierra is also laying the groundwork for some very exciting future features.

I was expecting a rough transition given the complexities of changing the primary filesystem - but that hasn't been the case at all!

This brings up an important issue. Is Apple still following the n-1 support pattern? i.e. the only versions of Mac OS supported are the current and previous version (currently High Sierra and Sierra).

I've never gotten a definite answer.

Apple will presumably continue to push security updates for several years to El Capitan based on prior trends I have observed. However, they dropped El Capitan support for the newest versions of Pages/Numbers/Keynote several months before High Sierra came out, so I think exactly what they continue to support depends on the specific software.

 

[EugW]

High Sierra is an important update all around, but for your machine especially as you will get Metal 2.

However, since there are still some bugs, it could make sense to wait until 10.13.3 or something.

I've got 5 machines on High Sierra, including 2 that don't officially support it, but I have encountered a few significant bugs, both with native functions and with third party software. It's way better than the mid betas back in August, but it will take some time before it's as solid as say 10.12.5.

This brings up an important issue. Is Apple still following the n-1 support pattern? i.e. the only versions of Mac OS supported are the current and previous version (currently High Sierra and Sierra).

I've never gotten a definite answer.

For Apple, n-2 seems to be the situation, in that El Capitan is still supported for Safari 11.

OTOH, in my experience with third party software support, it seems that usually you're OK up until about n-4. After that, all bets are off. Assuming some of my Macs will not get any updates past High Sierra, I expect them to be viable until about 2020 with Apple and 2022 for non-Apple software.