In reply to a post by Pheasant:

The trouble with marooning yourself on a particular version of an OS, especially one that is now four versions since the current release, is that it becomes an increasingly difficult proposition to move off it. You just get more stuck until one day you have no choice but to move off and then it's (usually_) major trauma time.

I think its really a counterproductive move, better to keep with 1 or 2 vers. of the current release, but who am I to say...whatever floats ya boat.

Why would it be difficult to move off it?
I am shocked to be honest that her Mac pro is compatible with Monterey, the computer is 7 years old.

In reply to a post by ian_c:

The main problem is that she will get left behind in terms of security updates. Apple pretty much has a three generations and you're out approach.

The only good reason for staying on High Sierra if is she has some 32-bit apps (as I do with my old laptop), since MacOS is now 64-bit only.

While the aesthetics don't do much for me you would never mistake MacOS for a mobile OS - it isn't trying to be, even with Big Sur. Apple is seeking (not always effectively) for thematic consistency. Functionally it is all desktop.

I don't think she has any 32bit apps.
Yes, I have heard about the 64 bit thing from a mate, his version of Office stopped working on his laptop when he updated to a later version of Mac OS, he was not impressed.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

Security of an OS is more important than looks.

Up to her at the end of the day, her computer and she has been using Macs long enough to know what she is doing, which is maybe why she was shocked that I am looking at going for a Mac, she doesn't think I will cope with a OS that is more locked down than Windows and a hardware that is certainly locked down.

With Apple the hardware age usually isn’t the limiting factor but mix of applications and other utilities etc as you note in your post above. Leaping four versions will not necessarily be as smooth process - therefore it make it more difficult and folks are less inclined to do it for fear of what may break.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

With Apple the hardware age usually isn’t the limiting factor but mix of applications and other utilities etc as you note in your post above. Leaping four versions will not necessarily be as smooth process - therefore it make it more difficult and folks are less inclined to do it for fear of what may break.

As i said, it is up to her, she did say about updating the Imac, her daughter had a problem updating her macbook the last time, maybe that is what may put her off as well as not liking the mobile phone look, after all the Mac pro is her work machine.

i have just seen this.
https://www.neowin.net/news/macos-monterey-is-report...

Edited by zyborg47 (Tue 02-Nov-21 10:37:45)

All worked fine for me, seems to be as solid as Big Sur at the minute

Not so good here. I did an install an external SSD (as an update of my current Big Sur install) and can only get it to boot in safe mode. The boot messages seem to indicate hat it can't read the SSD; as it boots in safe mode I can only think it's a kext problem related to the (Samsung) SSD.

So I think I'll stick with Big Sur for my live boot.

From that and Adrian's link I seems the issue is installing on an ExtHD and therefore outside the system partition.

No isuue on internal (Apple) SSD. 2016 era MBP I7 6th gen

I'm sure that there would be no problems on my internal drive. But I'd prefer to be sure of the cause before upgrading as I need to use the external SSDs.