The High Sierra Thread (macOS 10.13)

[MysticCow]

macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Supported Hardware

The following can run macOS 10.13 High Sierra:

• iMac (Late 2009 to 2017)
• iMac Pro (2017)
• Mac mini (Mid 2010 to Late 2018)
• MacBook (Late 2009 or later)
• MacBook Air (Late 2010 to 2017)
• MacBook Pro (Mid 2010 to 2018)
• Mac Pro (Mid 2010 to Late 2013)

HEVC hardware acceleration is not possible on any Early Intel.

You can have your hard drive formatted as APFS for maximum compatibility. You can also format the drive as HFS+, but you can't have both on the same partition.



How to get it

High Sierra (10.13) can be downloaded directly from the Mac App Store.

To create an installer USB AND you're in High Sierra or later, go to Terminal and type:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

You can either rename your USB stick MyVolume to save some trouble or substitute the name of your volume for MyVolume. TRUST ME--it's easier to just rename the USB stick.

For earlier versions of the MacOS, here is the command you need (10.12 Sierra or lower):

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app

These commands will erase your USB stick and create a macOS High Sierra installer. Due to invoking sudo, you will need your admin password.


Minimum RAM

• 2 GB

Minimum Hard Drive Space / Partition Size

• 14.3 GB

Release Date

• September 25, 2017

Apple Software Updates

• macOS 10.13.6 update
• iTunes 12.8.2

Web Browsers, FTP et al.

• Current Firefox
• Current Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge

Web Design & Development

Audio & Video

• Current VLC

Games

Graphics & Design

Office & Productivity

Tools & Utilities

• Onyx for Mac or Onyx Direct Download Link

Notes

This is a WikiPost. Feel free to add any softwares or additional OS info that you find. Add new categories if you feel your software does not fit under any current category. Some of these lists may not be populated currently, so please add a bullet list (Unordered List.) Unbold the links if they are bolded.

 

[MysticCow]

Added a few software links.

 

[Amethyst1]

eGPUs are not possible on any Early Intel.

They are I got eGPUs working on a 2007 MBP via ExpressCard and Early 2008 MB via miniPCIe - haven't tried High Sierra yet but there's nothing in hardware that prevents eGPUs from working with older machines.

 

[MacFoxG4]

I upgraded from El Cap to the patched version of High Sierra on my MacMini 3,1 and I like it. It is a bit slower to boot than El Cap was, but then again I only have 4 GB of RAM in the Mini, so maybe if I maxed out the RAM to 8 I would see faster boot times. The mini is already running an SSD, so the only other thing to upgrade is the RAM. The main downsides for me would be the UI and Disk Utility. By comparison, Snow Leopard is much better in those categories.

The Main advantage of High Sierra over El Cap to me is that it supports the latest Firefox while El Cap is stuck on 78 ESR. 78 ESR isn't bad, but it will stop being supported soon. Chrome still supports El Cap, but I'm not sure how much longer they will do so. Word 2008 works on High Sierra, so that's good.

I tried to go beyond High Sierra on the Mini, but that hasn't worked out, so High Sierra is the newest I will go in terms of Mac OS X on the Mini.

 

[Amethyst1]

I tried to go beyond High Sierra on the Mini, but that hasn't worked out,

What issues did you face just out of interest? I've only played with a patched Mojave on my 2009 mini for a couple of minutes and never took it for a full spin.

 

[MacFoxG4]

What issues did you face just out of interest? I've only played with a patched Mojave on my 2009 mini for a couple of minutes and never took it for a full spin.

When I booted into the installer volume created by the patcher, I kept getting stuck at the Apple loading screen with a blank progress bar. I tried a USB flsh drive, a blank partition on the Mini's internal SSD, and the HDD in my 2006 MBP via TDM and the results were the same. I heard that maybe I could get these installer volumes to boot if I left the Mini on that screen for an hour or possibly overnight, but I would rather not do that. I gave the installer volumes about 10-20 minutes on that screen before I gave up. This happened with both Mojave and Catalina patchers. Not sure why High Sierra patcher didn't have this problem and yet the other two did.

 

[Jack Neill]

I just put High Sierra on a Mid 2009 iMac. I had Catalina but it was a bit laggy. 13.6 runs quite well with 8GB and a SSD. Shame this machine doesn't have SATA 3 to take full advantage of the MX500 I dropped in it. I really just wanted a iTunes machine to Airplay to my Homepod stereos. 13 really got much better after .4 on most of my machines, before that it was really buggy.

 

[Amethyst1]

Shame this machine doesn't have SATA 3 to take full advantage of the MX500 I dropped in it.

You're probably not going to notice the difference between SATA 2 and 3 anyway unless you're frequently dealing with very large files.

 

[Jack Neill]

You're probably not going to notice the difference between SATA 2 and 3 anyway unless you're frequently dealing with very large files.

Probably right, the 215/265 R/W are way better than the 45/65 I was getting with the OG 160 platter.

 

[MacFoxG4]

I upgraded from El Cap to the patched version of High Sierra on my MacMini 3,1 and I like it. It is a bit slower to boot than El Cap was, but then again I only have 4 GB of RAM in the Mini, so maybe if I maxed out the RAM to 8 I would see faster boot times.

Since I made that post, I have actually run High Sierra on 8 GB of RAM on my early 2009 Mini and it is faster all around now that the RAM has been maxed out. Out of all the patched Mac OSes I have tried on this Mini, HS runs the best. The only downsides are that it no longer gets security updates and it is no longer the newest Mac OS this Mac can unofficially run, so if you're into maxing out your Mac HS doesn't fit the bill anymore. I have thought about putting HS back on here, but with the current SSD I have in here, I would have to remove either Linux or Mavericks and I'm not sure if I want to remove either.