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Just bought a new MBA. Sequoia or Tahoe 26?

N

novetan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I just got a refurbished MBA 13" (16GB, M1, 512GB, 2022 model) and preinstalled with OS Ventura. I wanted to update the OS but not sure whether Sequoia or Tahoe 26. Some articles mentioned stay away from Tahoe for now as it still has bugs. Some say worries no more. One extreme said Tahoe is the worst OS ever.

I understand this articles has been well covered but mostly quite sometime ago. Human mindset may changed. Which OS should I install? Or shld I wait further for patches to be updated until it is stable.

My work mainly involved photo editing using photoshop CC, Nik collection, Topaz Photo AI.

I also bought a studio display (also a refurbished), M4 Mini, 24GB, 2TB. Type of work remain as abv described. The MBA is mainly for travelling. I don't mind to hv the OS for studio display to be similar to my new MBA if the recommendation is inclined towards Sequoia. But just feel short change if the Display followed suit. The benefit is I hv a universal OS and don't need to learn abt Tahoe but I think is also not difficult to operate in two different OS. Just that if Display is operating in Sequoia, I didn't capitalise the power house of the Display/Mini M4. Is my question make sense?

Or could I put it this way. If I know nothing abt how Sequoia likes and straight upgrade to Tahoe, I wouldn't know what I'm missing. Sometimes not knowing is better. Also Tahoe kind of future proofing. And is M1 chip able to handle Tahoe

Tks
 
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novetan said:
Or could I put it this way. If I know nothing abt how Sequoia likes and straight upgrade to Tahoe, I wouldn't know what I'm missing. Sometimes not knowing is better. Also Tahoe kind of future proofing. And is M1 chip able to handle Tahoe
Click to expand...
My personal advice is to wait at least until Tahoe 26.3 final (it shouldn't be long now) and then decide. At the moment, my M4 and M4 Pro are still running Sequoia.

In the meantime, I'm noticing that various third-party applications are receiving updates to work better with Tahoe... so I assume that .3 will be a better experience.
 
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Hi,

If you want to use Google Drive for Desktop then upgrade to Tahoe. And it's also much better. Everything works fine and software is up to date.
 
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Tahoe is fine, if it comes with it, or it has features you want, then upgrade.

I was one of the critics, but once I upgraded, I found I was largely wrong on many points regarding tahoe
 
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Sequoia until you are really comfortable with the idea of going to Tahoe, unless Tahoe has some change(s)s or feature(s) which you see a a real benefit to how you use your Mac. Going forward is easy. Going backwards is a pain.

I'm still on Sequoia myself. I've been keeping a close eye on Tahoe feedback and also usage levels. I am planning to move up to it, but not for another 2-3 months, probably.
 
I'd stick with Sequoia til some Tahoe .4 or .5 update, unless you have some specific app or workflow which requires the latter.
 
Another vote for Sequoia for now. I have two M4 Macs (one MacBook Air, one iMac) and the one with Sequoia is running more smoothly and reliably.
 
I say Tahoe.
At the end of the day, the design language used in Tahoe is what Apple is going to be using for at least the next five years, might as well get used to it now.
As for this…

novetan said:
One extreme said Tahoe is the worst OS ever.
Click to expand...
This has been said about every single version of macOS or OS X going back 25 years.
It’s likely just as easy to find someone saying that sequoia was the worst version Apple ever released this time last year as it is finding someone saying the same about Tahoe.
 
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Lounge vibes 05 said:
It’s likely just as easy to find someone saying that sequoia was the worst version Apple ever released this time last year as it is finding someone saying the same about Tahoe.
Click to expand...
I’m pretty sure I distinctly remember many people saying that about Sequoia last year lol. Of course, there are some rather annoying visual bugs with Tahoe that I don’t remember ever facing anything quite as unpolished. Not in the way really, just annoying
 
boppin said:
And what exactly doesn't run smoothly on the other Mac running Tahoe?
Click to expand...
I’ve experienced

- screen flickering that only goes away after a restart
- Finder slowdowns so intense I had to restart completely
- beachballs in Photos on very simple things like commenting on shared albums -- which work smoothly on Sequoia
- control panels in System Settings loading blank
- incorrect drive icons in the sidebar of the Finder

And this is on top of the weird UI nonsense like Maps spouting layers of sidebars on top of each other (versus quick little pop-up menus) when selecting locations to plan out a route. That’s just a random example, but it’s pretty illustrative of how much they’re struggling to keep smooth UI interactions happening while also utilizing the half-baked paradigm they have rolled out with Tahoe.

Again, I’m comparing basically the same machine side by side running the two OSes and Tahoe is consistently worse. Some roughness and bugs are to be expected in a new OS, I get that. And each Tahoe release has gotten smoother.

But it’s still worse and there are fundamental design choices I dislike intensely. My Sequoia Mac feels like it has a “pro” OS and the Tahoe one feels like it’s got some corny “fun” OS. It’s usable, but I’m not a fan. Hopefully with this dip**** Alan Dye gone off to Meta (lol), Apple can rediscover its own design standards.
 
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ignatius345 said:
I’ve experienced

- screen flickering that only goes away after a restart
Click to expand...
Just an idea.

Perhaps a fault of your used hardware? Or it might be some kind of firmware update. Remembers me of the Thunderbolt 1.0 and 1.1 update for Snow Leopard on the early MacBook Pro 2011 which causes a jammed screen.

Did you updated all of your software?
 
boppin said:
Just an idea.

Perhaps a fault of your used hardware?
Click to expand...
I’m using an M4 iMac that’s just over a year old, running the latest version of every update available. I’ve also seen posts from others complaining of the same issue on these forums. It’s a bug.
 
ignatius345 said:
I’m using an M4 iMac that’s just over a year old, running the latest version of every update available. So no. I’ve also seen posts from others complaining of the same issue on these forums.
Click to expand...
I meant, could it be that the iMac's hardware is faulty?

I suggest get an appointment at Apple genius bar or any other authorized service provider.
 
Last edited:
novetan said:
I just got a refurbished MBA 13" (16GB, M1, 512GB, 2022 model) and preinstalled with OS Ventura. I wanted to update the OS but not sure whether Sequoia or Tahoe 26. Some articles mentioned stay away from Tahoe for now as it still has bugs. Some say worries no more. One extreme said Tahoe is the worst OS ever.

I understand this articles has been well covered but mostly quite sometime ago. Human mindset may changed. Which OS should I install? Or shld I wait further for patches to be updated until it is stable.

My work mainly involved photo editing using photoshop CC, Nik collection, Topaz Photo AI.

I also bought a studio display (also a refurbished), M4 Mini, 24GB, 2TB. Type of work remain as abv described. The MBA is mainly for travelling. I don't mind to hv the OS for studio display to be similar to my new MBA if the recommendation is inclined towards Sequoia. But just feel short change if the Display followed suit. The benefit is I hv a universal OS and don't need to learn abt Tahoe but I think is also not difficult to operate in two different OS. Just that if Display is operating in Sequoia, I didn't capitalise the power house of the Display/Mini M4. Is my question make sense?

Or could I put it this way. If I know nothing abt how Sequoia likes and straight upgrade to Tahoe, I wouldn't know what I'm missing. Sometimes not knowing is better. Also Tahoe kind of future proofing. And is M1 chip able to handle Tahoe

Tks
Click to expand...
You have M1 - go with Sequoia. Don’t do Tahoe. My wife updated her M1 Air and I had to get it reverted back to Sequoia just several weeks back. She hated how slow it got. She lasted about 3 weeks on Tahoe and couldn’t deal with it. Tahoe is much slower and sluggish than Sequoia on M1 Air.
novetan said:
I just got a refurbished MBA 13" (16GB, M1, 512GB, 2022 model) and preinstalled with OS Ventura. I wanted to update the OS but not sure whether Sequoia or Tahoe 26. Some articles mentioned stay away from Tahoe for now as it still has bugs. Some say worries no more. One extreme said Tahoe is the worst OS ever.

I understand this articles has been well covered but mostly quite sometime ago. Human mindset may changed. Which OS should I install? Or shld I wait further for patches to be updated until it is stable.

My work mainly involved photo editing using photoshop CC, Nik collection, Topaz Photo AI.

I also bought a studio display (also a refurbished), M4 Mini, 24GB, 2TB. Type of work remain as abv described. The MBA is mainly for travelling. I don't mind to hv the OS for studio display to be similar to my new MBA if the recommendation is inclined towards Sequoia. But just feel short change if the Display followed suit. The benefit is I hv a universal OS and don't need to learn abt Tahoe but I think is also not difficult to operate in two different OS. Just that if Display is operating in Sequoia, I didn't capitalise the power house of the Display/Mini M4. Is my question make sense?

Or could I put it this way. If I know nothing abt how Sequoia likes and straight upgrade to Tahoe, I wouldn't know what I'm missing. Sometimes not knowing is better. Also Tahoe kind of future proofing. And is M1 chip able to handle Tahoe

Tks
Click to expand...
You have M1 - go with Sequoia. Don’t do Tahoe. My wife updated her M1 Air and I had to get it reverted back to Sequoia just several weeks back. She hated how slow it got. She lasted about 3 weeks on Tahoe and couldn’t deal with it. Tahoe is much slower and sluggish than Sequoia on M1 Air.
 
boppin said:
I meant, could it be that the iMac's hardware is faulty?

I suggest get an appointment at Apple genius bar or any other authorized service provider.
Click to expand...
Again, this was not an issue with this iMac until I installed Tahoe.

And, respectfully, I did not come here for the troubleshooting advice you’ve taken it upon yourself to offer. From others’ reports I can see this is clearly a known issue with Tahoe so I’ll wait for them to fix it or possibly downgrade back to Sequoia.
 
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after reading this, it seems the satanic seal of approval has been retracted for Tahoe meaning it could have non demonic characteristics after all
 
novetan said:
I just got a refurbished MBA 13" (16GB, M1, 512GB, 2022 model) and preinstalled with OS Ventura. I wanted to update the OS but not sure whether Sequoia or Tahoe 26. Some articles mentioned stay away from Tahoe for now as it still has bugs. Some say worries no more. One extreme said Tahoe is the worst OS ever.
Click to expand...

Just install whatever is offered to you in ‘Software Update’.
That would most likely be Tahoe, and whilst a sub-set of Mac Rumors member, believe it’s the worse thing ever, the reality in the ‘real’ world, is it’s fine. The silent majority rarely speak up.
It’s also not a permanent thing, so you can always roll back.
 
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