macOS 15.7.3 and macOS 14.8.3

I did the update to 15.7.3 on my MacBook Air and my mother's iMac this morning, but subsequently discovered that the external hard disk connected to her machine for Time Machine backups appears to have kicked the bucket. Fortunately I have a spare drive that I could swap it for, so she'll have her data backed up. Subsequently confirmed on my MacBook that the drive isn't showing up at all when connected.

Apart from the UI deadlocks in Safari 26.2, Sonoma's actually quite nice now. Like a comfy pair of slippers.

Perhaps the trick is to wait 2 major versions?

@Sebby Maybe it's finally worth updating from macOS 13? I've been thinking about whether Sonoma is worth a try now.

@Bri Maybe it is, honestly, if you don't mind that devs are *already* bringing down the hammer (SoundSource 6 isn't compatible for instance). If you can live with the fact that Apple is only going to make low-cost security investments without giving too much regard to quality improvements, and all your apps run fine, it's as good as any modern macOS gets to be nowadays. But, apart from the fact that it actually works, it's not compatible with the latest AirPods I own, so I'm put out whenever I wear them. I'll spend a bit more time with it during the holidays in order to keep using VMware Fusion (26 causes an instacrash when VO runs), but I expect I'll inevitably make the move before too long, if for no other reason than to clean house.

I stuck with Mojave for five years mainly out of spite towards Big Sur's UI update (which frankly in my opinion is the worse one compared to Tahoe) so I can deal with using an unsupported version of macOS. I am fully divested in Apple's ecosystem as much as I can be, because none of their products are worth being forced to upgrade, or the other examples of loss of control and customization. I don't mind not being able to use SoundSource 6, because SoundSource 5 works great. Perhaps better.

My main concern in updating to Sonoma is that everything will generally work shittier than it already has been.

@Bri Mojave was definitely a good release, but especially after it stabilised. The last to support disk cloning, that was the great loss. I guess I'm saying that, at this point on the declining curve, Sonoma is basically at that point where it won't get better, but it won't get shittier either, and it's predictable enough that you can use it. It really is a great shame that we can't simply upgrade and get the best out of our hardware, but if you're looking for stability, it's as good as it gets for a supported release.