VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Boothvoice]

I've been using the MacBook Pro for about a year and have not updated whatever operating system was on it when I started. I got messages to update almost daily , but several people warned about updating to the newest iteration until the bugs had been worked out. Have the bugs been worked out?

The update awaiting is Catalina 10.15.5..don't know if I missed one or not.

Thanks,
Tom
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Tom Booth
"Everything You Need in the Booth"
www.boothvoice.com

[Bruce]

I've moved this to the Gear section just coz.... well you know...

It is always wise to check with the companies that makes your most treasured as to see if they're compliant with the newest Mac OS. Mac has been pretty good about forewarning a makers and giving them the opportunity to fix issues in advance, but problems can still arise.

Also, see if there are other sources of compatibility information. For instance, Twisted Wave has a very active Facebook page where our member George Whittam often posts on just such a subject. You could also "like" George's own page there, Georgethetech Whittam.

Most of those "update" warnings are for very minor fixes that don't need to be made right away. Annoying. There is a way to get your Mac to stop reminding you all the time. It involves opening up your Terminal and writing some code, which I'm not personally excited about trying, but if you don't mind doing it, hunt the 'Net you'll find the instructions.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[Chris Duke]

Great advice from Bruce here!

Personally I'm an early adopter and like to take risks, even with major version updates. So when macOS 10.16 comes out, I'll update right away and deal with the consequences.

Generally speaking, if it's software you are ok. The big software devs are hopefully already a part of Apple's developer program and if not, (again hopefully) they are at least testing out their as on the public betas. I'm on the Apple developer program so I sometimes test out the betas and I've never encountered anything too huge.

If it's hardware, that's where you can get bitten. I have a plotter (for cutting vinyl) and whenever Apple comes out with a big update to macOS, I can assume that it won't work. It takes them weeks to get caught up with a functional update. Thankfully I don't rely on it for my biz anymore--but that drives home my point that it's usually external hardware devices that require weird drivers that get hit hardest, first.

Since most of what we deal with as VOs is external audio interfaces, we should be pretty safe. There's enough people testing those out on betas that by the time they reach the general public (gold master version) we won't encounter issues.

When in doubt? Wait until the first minor release update (such as 10.16.1 when that happens) or ask risk takers like myself if we've encountered any issues.

For minor updates like the upcoming Catalina 10.15.6 that's currently at beta 2, you shouldn't worry about those messing you up!
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Chris Duke
www.chrisdukevo.com
@chrisdukevo on social