“When Apple launches a new version of one of its OSes, say, macOS Sierra, the first thing users think about is the features,” John Martellaro writes for The Mac Observer. ” If they’re a bit more methodical, they’ll look at their mission critical apps and monitor for updates from those associated developers. But, above all, a decision to not upgrade (or do it soon) must be balanced against the security updates folded into the new version.”
“The feature list of macOS Sierra is deceptively simple. It is so modest in its scope that some users may be seduced into thinking that they may not need the upgrade, even though it’s free,” Martellaro writes. “That’s a bad idea.”
Martellaro writes, “If you’ve been thinking that you can continue to survive with, say, a 2007 iMac running Mountain Lion, I’d advise against it if that Mac is connected to the Internet.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good advice. If your hardware can upgrade and your apps are ready, you should make sure you’re running the latest version of OS X/macOS possible.
All of our Macs, mission critical and otherwise, are running macOS 10.12 (build 16A323).
Everything runs much better and faster with MacOS Sierra – I am really happy – Really surprised at how snappy® it is.
You had to didn’t you. 😀
Mine too… Mid 2012 MacBook Pro with 16GB and a Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD. Sierra is the fastest and snappiest OS I’ve ever used. My MacBook Pro Boots in 7 seconds… Runs like a bat out of hell. 10.12.1 will fix some minor cosmetic issues I’ve seen like List Views going whacky occasionally, but other than that I love it!
I turned on file vault, for the first time.
Now that encryption is a little bit weaker on iPhone backups, can’t be too safe.
Double layer encryption.
I’m still upset at Apple! My early 2009 Mac Pro and MacBook Pro officially isn’t supported. I got Sierra working on both and run perfectly fine and don’t see any reason why they aren’t on the compatibility list! I could see if it was something show stopping like a chipset instructions or something, but they run perfectly and no reason not to be on the list!
How did you get Sierra running on your older Macs? I’m trying to get it on my 2008 MacBook Pro.
Good point. Most of us would prefer to run the latest and greatest for security reasons, even if it were a bit slower, and like you said, it probably isn’t slower anyway, it’s just Apple being naughty.
Only reason eventually not making it to such upgrade, is the incompatibility with other third party apps.
Personally, I regularly boot on the 3 last OSX versions in order to avoid useless upgrade fees for tens of older apps that still can be useful from time to time.
You might consider virtual machines (using Parallels) of those older MacOS versions; easier than rebooting, and generally works just fine.
I’m running Sierra on my 2011 iMac. I’m even running almost the most recent beta. The new one will install tonight. Everything is fine. No issues, no problems. I’m not always looking for new features so I don’t find many. I don’t use Siri much. I’m always happy with new security features being there. And there’s still a beer or two left in the fridge. Life is happy.
Sierra won’t run on my wife’s 2009 iMac and runs pretty fast from an SSD I installed. Not sure if there are new requirements in the graphics card to run it or what the dividing line of compatible hardware is based on.
Incompatible?
There are Sierra compatibility hacks around. Be careful. Repair then backup first so you can restore if it all goes oblique. Here’s one article on the subject:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/install-macos-sierra-older-macs
I should point out that not all of Sierra is going to work on compatibility hacked Macs. Example: Siri. There was a point where Apple began to providing noise cancelation microphone systems on Macs, which are essential for quality communication with Siri. Macs outside the Sierra compatibility list don’t have them. A workaround would be to get a noise canceling headset. Etc.
I’m using a 2008 Mac Pro (heavily upgraded), and used one of the hacks to upgrade to Mac Sierra. It actually fixed quite a few things that had gone wonky in Yosemite (particularly bluetooth). I replaced my wi-fi card with one that has Wi-Fi ac and the latest bluetooth, so it is compatible with handoff, airdrop with my phone, etc. I upgraded long ago to a 2GB video card as well as all SSD drives and a dual-SSD PCI card. It feels now like the machine with Sierra has reached its potential. It is definitely more stable and faster in Sierra than the same setup was in Yosemite. The incompatible stuff would have been the original video card, original wi-fi, and the bluetooth card wouldn’t have been compatible with airdrop, etc.
What I forgot to mention is that I have an old iSight camera (the kind you mount), and it works great with Siri.
thanks for the link !
from the article: “installing macOS Sierra on an unsupported computer could […] void [ing] your warranty.”
I think we don’t need to worry about that for devices from 2009 or earlier….
I’m sure many are waiting on the hardware refresh. That is going to happen this year, right Apple? Right?
Does anybody have experience with Sierra on a late 2010 MacBook Air, 4GB? Any drawbacks with Sierra (vs. El Capitan)?
(I know I need new hardware but still…)
No personal experience but i can tell you Sierra is no slower than El Cap. It is very important to turn off stuff that eats your battery. Siri and iCloud are definitely not necessary or useful for many of us.
Yeah, I have tried all the suggestions people have posted and it still takes my 15″ 2016 MB Pro 10 minutes to shutdown under Sierra. This software needs a patch badly.
To anyone having problems: Download Onyx 3.2.0 from http://www.titanium.free.fr/ and run it then restart. My Mid 2012 Macbook Pro is faster and better than ever under Sierra!