Goldengate

It seems umm, not sure really. It seems very A.I integrated, one of the reason I got away from Windows was because it was too A.I based.

Some things look good, but not sure if I will bother to update.

Not a problem I'll have, my Mac runs on Intel... although the Neo doesn't, I'll need to think about that.

I'll likely leave it until at least the 27.1 release.

Edited by billford (Fri 28-Aug-26 11:33:06)

You can switch Siri back to the classic experience rather than AI in Goldengate. The biggest change is stability and performance improvements - this is primarily a bug fix update for quality of life plus the rollout of AI for those that want it. If you are on Mac OS 26 then going to 27 is likely to be a significant improvement due to all the under the hood work they have done on this update.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

one of the reason I got away from Windows was because it was too A.I based.

Windows is very cloud based, but I wouldn't say AI based.

macOS 27 looks a no brainer for anyone on 26. If you're on earlier and can still get security updates, then its less obvious, as you have to fight the new user interface theme that is either loved or hated.

In reply to a post by billford:

Not a problem I'll have, my Mac runs on Intel... although the Neo doesn't, I'll need to think about that.

I'll likely leave it until at least the 27.1 release.

From what I have read, it works fine on the Neo.
If I do update it will certainly not be for a while. My Mac came with Sonoma and I was pretty quick to update to Sequoia and Tahoe. I don't think I will be as quick with Goldengate.
The one problem with Macs when updating to the latest OS is that it also updates the firmware, which may make rolling back impossible or difficult.
I have not looked into it, but not sure if it is possible to reverse the firmware.

In reply to a post by ian72:

You can switch Siri back to the classic experience rather than AI in Goldengate. The biggest change is stability and performance improvements - this is primarily a bug fix update for quality of life plus the rollout of AI for those that want it. If you are on Mac OS 26 then going to 27 is likely to be a significant improvement due to all the under the hood work they have done on this update.

So are you using Goldengate?

With Tahoa, I can switch off the AI, so all the writing tools and that sort of thing is gone and also Siri separately. I keep them both off. but so far what I have found is that if Siri is turned off in Golden gate, then the Writing tools and other AI stuff is still on. I have seen no info how to turn it off. Siri seems to be deeply integrated into the OS and so is the A.I.

I don't have any stability issues with MacOs 26,
I will see if I can get more info once it is released, but for the first time since I have had a Mac, I think I will not be in a rush to update the OS and may even not bother.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Windows is very cloud based, but I wouldn't say AI based.

macOS 27 looks a no brainer for anyone on 26. If you're on earlier and can still get security updates, then its less obvious, as you have to fight the new user interface theme that is either loved or hated.

Windows can be cloud based, but not having a MS account will stop that, But then I only using Windows 10 now.

As for Mac, I do what I did with Windows and not have it signed into an account, easier with a Mac. You say updating to MacOs27 is a no brainier, but it seems to be mainly about A.I and I just don;t want A.I on my devices.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

t it seems to be mainly about A.I and I just don;t want A.I on my devices.

I'd wait until its actually released and properly reported. Only two weeks to go.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

From what I have read, it works fine on the Neo.

I'm not too concerned about it running properly (although it will probably introduce a few new annoyances, if not bugs, Apple upgrades usually do) but, like you, I just don't want AI on my machines...

We're always being told that computers are just tools... well, tools are there to do a job, not pass opinions!

Edited by billford (Sat 29-Aug-26 08:42:13)

In reply to a post by jchamier:

I'd wait until its actually released and properly reported. Only two weeks to go.

Yep, I was not going to rush into it this time anyway, so will wait until there is more info.

In reply to a post by billford:

I'm not too concerned about it running properly (although it will probably introduce a few new annoyances, if not bugs, Apple upgrades usually do) but, like you, I just don't want AI on my machines...

We're always being told that computers are just tools... well, tools are there to do a job, not pass opinions!

LOL, yeah, I think we are old hat.
I will use A.I on websites now and again, about once in a blue moon and I do have a A.I voice thing, which I am mucking about with, but that is offline. I may stick that on my Linux machine.

But I don;t need A.I on my Mac, any more than I need it on my phone.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

LOL, yeah, I think we are old hat.

Probably

I might not mind so much if the AIs were actually intelligent... but they're not. They can be very clever I'll admit, but that's not the same thing at all.

When used as a tool for a specific task in a particular area I'm sure they'll be invaluable, medicine for example, but in treating them as intelligent and giving them any degree of influence in areas where cleverness isn't enough then I'm very much afraid we've opened a Pandora's box...

But this isn't the place for my rants so I'll shut up

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

But I don;t need A.I on my Mac, any more than I need it on my phone.

I think the slide switch for "Apple Intelligence" is still in place on macOS 27 and iOS/iPadOS 27.

Anyone tried it yet?

I had a look on Mac Forums and a few people are having issues and by the looks of it the A.I can't be disabled fully. I updated to other Macos versions pretty quick after they were released, but I think this one is going to take longer for me to update to, if i do at all.

On my iPhone and iPad I was burned by 26, so I'm avoiding 27 for a few months, see what others think.

The best thing to do i think. I don;t have a iphone, but I would wait as well if I did.

If a update comes up for Golden Gate that can turn. off all A.I then I would look at it.

A.I can't be disabled fully

That's because most of it is on-device.

iOS 27 on iPhone is a massive improvement on 26 - essentially it is a 26 service pack fixing a number of issues and bugs. In almost all cases it is faster and more battery efficient. Possibly one of the most stable iOS x.0 releases Apple have ever done. I've been using it since public beta 1 and it has been stable on my iPhone all the way through to final release.

I can't directly comment on Mac OS as I haven't been following it but I suspect similar would be the case - all of the v27s have been designed to fix bugs and improve performance across the devices. Going from 26 to 27 is pretty much a no brainer.

In reply to a post by ian72:

iOS 27 on iPhone is a massive improvement on 26 - essentially it is a 26 service pack fixing a number of issues and bugs. In almost all cases it is faster and more battery efficient. Possibly one of the most stable iOS x.0 releases Apple have ever done. I've been using it since public beta 1 and it has been stable on my iPhone all the way through to final release.

I can't directly comment on Mac OS as I haven't been following it but I suspect similar would be the case - all of the v27s have been designed to fix bugs and improve performance across the devices. Going from 26 to 27 is pretty much a no brainer.

some of the posts on MAc forums are saying that Golden gate is snappier or seems to be and there are things like the UI that is better.
Stability wise I have had no problem with Tahoe, some people on the MAc forums are saying they have had some issues with Golden Gate.
My main issue is the A.I that is plastered in it and not being able to turn it all off.
I have downloaded and stuck onto USB Tahoe or Macos 26, I am thinking of doing a clean install,, but I done a USB just in case Apple decides it wants to stick Golden gate on.

Not as easy as with Windows, got to download the Os using the terminal and then use the Terminal to make the USB.
Someone on the Mac forums said to go back to Sequoia as it is better than Tahoe, but Tahoe have worked fine. The machine gets stuck now and again on high CPU work, so that is why I am doing a clean install,

iOS 27 is far more robust than iOS 27. They have managed to go in and clean up many more bugs/improve small details than they’d normally do.

Quite possible ten times more than normal, they really did fix a lot of them. No doubt thanks to their developers using Claude to speed up the process of tracking down and fixing hard to pin down bugs. This is one area that really can benefit from AI coding tools helping developers.

Why are you thinking of a clean install ?

macOS isn’t Windows, it doesn’t tend to suffer from that same “bit rot” that an aging Windows install can.

My MacBook Pro M1 Max is a effectively running the same install of macOS that has been migrated through all the versions of macOS since whatever my 2012 MacBook Pro came with (and was migrated via another MacBook Pro over that time).

That old install is behaving just as well as my Mac Mini with a much more recent fresh install.

Unless you are having specific issues, doing a clean install of macOS as opposed to upgrading really isn’t necessary.

This is one of the benefits of macOS not having a central registry, Apple retiring old feature rather than supporting them forever and not having the equivalent to DLL-hell that Windows has suffered from (though DLL-hell is less of a issue nowadays). And also Apple’s decision a few years ago to make all the system files totally unwritable (think Windows has some of that now but not in the way macOS does).

Worth reading Mark Russinovich blogs from a few years ago where he described why the idea that the registry causes slow downs is actually technically incorrect. The registry is a database, like any other database it is not read as a text file, it is random access.

the old "bit rot" was mostly caused by DLL-Hell, which has been effectively solved by the OS virtualising the directories that applications write DLLs to without using system calls. This stops one badly behaved application from breaking the OS.

Apple went the other way and decided to break older applications, which is why subscription versions of MS Office and Adobe products became very very popular on macOS.

Now and again the Mac seems to go on a go slow, certainly with higher CPU stuff, that it did nto do before. Also seems not to load pages from the web as fast for some reason, but the speed internet wise is fine.

Also, if I do decide to go back to Sequia, then I will have to do a clean install.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

It seems umm, not sure really. It seems very A.I integrated, one of the reason I got away from Windows was because it was too A.I based.

Some things look good, but not sure if I will bother to update.

Running it so far on a Mac Studio and a MacBook Pro M4 Max and so far it hasn't broken anything.

I was slightly worried about the driver extension compatibility on an ATTO ThunderLink adapter on the Studio but that seems OK.

I can't see anything too AI shouty either, Siri AI (beta) is disabled by default as is the ChatGPT integration likewise in a benign state. So I wouldn't worry about either of these.

I've installed it on an external SSD on my M4 Mini Pro and initial feeling is that it does subjectively feel much snappier than the Sequoia that I'm running (even though the internal SSD is considerably faster than the external one). But, at the moment I'm still sticking with the "if it ain't broke" philosophy and continuing to run Sequoia. The M4 pro, with 64G of RAM, is plenty fast enough.

I may do that if I can find a spare drive and have a peak.
i have just reinstalled Sequoia, don't want to do that too often. I printed out a list of the software I had on the machine and there is a lot I had on I don't use. Even so it have taken me a while to get tot he stage I am at and while I 99.9% of the software i want on the machine, I still need to se some up.

Still having the issue of a bit of a delay before some sites start to display, including this one for some reason. I don;t remember having it before, maybe I did. i will put the PC on in a bit and see if that does it.

64GB is a fair bit of ram, certainly for a Mac as it would not be cheap. I have 16Gb on a M2 pro and to be honest for the most part it works okay. I may update one day, see how things go moneywise and what doc says when i have tests in a few weeks time. I do have money saved, but with no work at the moment it would not take long to go down.
Anyway at the moment this Mac does me fine, I did think about getting a Neo just for a laptop, but i am not a fan of laptop, so maybe a Ipad. I will see what happens.

Anyway, the machine is back up and working with Sequoia and seems to be okay.

I run a number of virtual machines, so find the RAM useful. It would be much more expensive nowadays but I got it as an Apple refurbished a while ago. I buy all my Macs that way - normally saves a few hundred quid and they’ve all been as good as new. You just need to wait a while for the right one to come up.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

I run a number of virtual machines, so find the RAM useful. It would be much more expensive nowadays but I got it as an Apple refurbished a while ago. I buy all my Macs that way - normally saves a few hundred quid and they’ve all been as good as new. You just need to wait a while for the right one to come up.

Unfortunately there's not much good news on the horizon when it comes to RAM prices either...

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/17/apple-higher-ra...

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Unfortunately there's not much good news on the horizon when it comes to RAM prices either...

My company used to provide Macbook Pro 14" to most staff, some with 32 or 64gb most with 16gb. Now the majority are getting Macbook Air. The Windows side is equally suffering, RAM allocations are down, people told to try their experiments in "cloud" which needs funding.

The technology industry is slowly, but surely, killing itself.

Lenovo now want an extraordinary £1080 for an extra 32GB of RAM (£33.75 per GB) on ThinkPads and Apple want £25 per GB on Macs for extra RAM.

It's all more than slightly unhinged by the AI juggernaut

Edited by Pheasant (Fri 18-Sep-26 18:02:25)