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Intel iMac: worth going to Ventura?
- Thread starter mindquest
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Why not use the latest? I have Sonoma on my 2019 iMac and it's fine.
I wouldn't upgrade to Sonoma... I mean, I have it, and it's fine but you might as well wait until a .1 or .2 update. Ventura seems to be plenty stable.
I only update my OS if I lose feature/software support, so I just got forced to upgrade from Catalina because Autodesk Fusion 360 no longer runs on it this year. Why fix something that isn't broken?
...it is broken. That's why we have security updates. You are risking all your data by remaining on an unsupported version. I don't mean to seem harsh, but it boggles my mind that people do not understand this basic concept. To be clear: the OS is full of security holes, and always will be.
It is beyond silly to say that all my data is at risk because the OS I run isn't "supported" software. Older OS works fine. Next!
I moved to Ventura and my Intel iMac and have been very happy with it. I did jump to the stable release so missed any bugs that were around at the beginning, but I found it a very smooth transition from Catalina to Ventura.
Only in marginal unimportant ways. That continues to surprise me!
I would.
Before any upgrade check your apps: Are they supported on the newer macOS? Have you installed the latest version?
Well, now, don't be glib. There's SUPPORTED and then there's supported. Perhaps you don't need SUPPORT by phone, genius bar, official forums, or feature improvements. However, just because a Mac keeps booting, don't assume you're out of the woods. An OS can be "broken" in ways most folk aren't ordinarily aware of. Those broken things are referred to as "zero-day exploits" when you have no advance warning, and as "CVEs" after a warning is published. For every CVE, there could be dozens more vulnerabilities yet undiscovered.
AppleTO is right, if a bit melodramatic. It's best to use a SUPPORTED version. However, Apple supports OSs for security a while longer than they SUPPORT them in marketing channels. Regardless of one's "Ain't Broke" philosophy, it is plain irresponsible to blow off data and privacy security.
The moral of the story is: Don't be complacent. If you ever feel confident and relaxed about your data and internet experience, then you're not paying attention. If you need an unsupported OS for critical apps, or just your comfort zone, understand that you should be compensating, manually, for a vendor's fall-off in security improvements. This can be a tedious, frustrating effort, indeed.
Sonoma is doing ok on my 2019 15" MPB. So far, it's a drop in replacement. This is hardly a comprehensive scientific study, but this is all the stuff I dongulate up in there, still works the same as before. To the extent extra drivers were required, I didn't have to fiddle with them:
- iPhone X,
- One or two 27" displays
- Flash card readers, External SSDs and thumb drives, Nikon Z6II as flash storage,
- USB hub with an Epson scanner and a Canon color photo printer
- Magic Trackpad when charging, logitech mouse when charging
- Wacom bamboo digitizer
- Apple SuperDrive (CD/DVD) for movies music and burning
- 1.4MB floppy drive [edited from 1.4", floppy so small]
- corded audio headset-mic, Blue Yeti mic
- Teac midi mixer
- Ion usb turntable
- kodak film scanner
- HP color laser printer
- Bose cans, sony buds, airpod pro
- AirDrop with iPhone and iPad,
- iPad as external screen
- logitech KB and mouse, HP mouse
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My external Acasis thunderbolt enclosure doesn't like Sonoma. The firmware update van RC 14.1 seemed to cause issues. That's why I went back to Ventura. However now I have sometimes a black screen after login for a couple of minutes because of the firmware update.