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Should you Upgrade to macOS Monterey?
Related: Apple, Apple Core Rot, Apple macOS, Apple macOS Monterey, Don H
It won’t be long before macOS Monterey is out.
See Apple’s preview of macOS Monterey, showing the usual “shiny stuff” with all those great new bugs you gotta have and all sorts of things pointlessly redesigned, so as to confuse you and make things harder to use, to keep your mind sharp relearning how to do something simple you used to understand.
OK, maybe there might be one useful thing in there somewhere, but all I see is crapware I’ll never need or use.
For the average user, upgrade if you like whatever new features are offered (nothing of value is typical). You might get a few headaches too, and a slew of new bugs and security vulnerabilities. Enjoy.
For the professional user relying on their Mac for work, MPG’s advice remains the same as usual—be cautious and reluctant about a major release of macOS.
1. Never upgrade to a major new release of macOS until at least 6 months have elapsed.
2. For workflows that work, never upgrade the OS to a major new release unless concrete and important benefits exist.
Basically, never upgrade to a major new release of macOS unless there are compelling benefits that exceed the downsides (which are hard to know until the installed).
Don H writes:
One item you might want to add to your list of concerns when upgrading (and you’ve been bitten by this yourself) is the often one-way migration of Mail to the new OS. Dabbling in a full system upgrade is one thing; committing your mail store to its caprices is another
When I eventually make the jump myself (and I’m still running Mojave here) the first thing I do is import *some* of my mail to see how that works. In the meantime I keep the bulk of my messages on my old system where they are safe. Only after I’m sure the new mail program works to my satisfaction will I import those messages, in batches, to the new system.
(I have meticulously saved every mail message I have sent or received, with only a few losses over the years, since the late 80s. For me that is my greatest ‘presence’ on my computer, more than all the files I have generated. I know for you it would be all your photos, but compared to mail messages those are easier to migrate or recover if lost. Mail is a total dealbreaker for me if the new OS doesn’t handle them correctly.)
MPG: yep, while one might reinstall an older macOS if macOS Monterey displeases, there is no going back on local mail repositories—a longstanding Apple arrogance of irrevocably changing (“upgrading”) mail formats—no respect for user data.
