The companies I'm familiar with use betas.

Sure, but most do run non-public beta phases, that one has to apply for, if one wants to be part of those. I've been part of several ones. Apple surely employs internal testers as part of their development cycle as well. Not all plug-in developers can afford that, though I'm sure when this is possible many will do that.
Few owners want to wait for that phase to root out common issues. Thus releases are bound to still have some undiscovered bugs.

In this case it's about a beta version of macOS and third party software. No-one needs to install that beta, unless the latest release has a massive issue that the beta is suposed to solve. This indeed has happened before.

But normally it's a good idea to make tests for oneself. In macOS you can for example create a separate partition, install the beta on there and do some sessions booted from there, using the same project disks. Then when testing has been completed, delete this partition.
When testing like this, it might be a good idea to exclude this partition from any backups.

and this is why Devs say more often than not.. DO NOT UPDATE.
It's not as simple as the plugin developers just using a current beta of an OS.. there are so many other variables.

It would be nice to make a catalog of plugin companies that either make an effort to be ready for new OS releases (by repairing their stuff during the OS' beta) or who let customers hang there with insecure OSes or new machines they can't use.

Such as?

It's rude not to be ready for a new OS when that OS did provide a beta period.

I want the developers to try the OS' beta, not the customer.

When the final release comes out the plugins should be ready.

Yup, that's all great in an idealistic world. But what if said developer uses a platform for security, or a framework, that suddenly falls over (because of an OS beta update) and they've done all of the necessary coding to make surest complies.... then nope.
I wish it was all so simple, but it sure is not.

Just like consumers shouldn't buy plugins that slack off with OS updates the plugin developers shouldn't buy modules that do. That particularly applies to strong DRM, which has a history of breaking on OS updates (hardly surprising since by definition they do things that are undocumented) and not being ready at OS release time.

In this binary environment, where everything is one way or another, some tend to feel that the process for devs keeping up with the Joneses should be equally set in stone, but it simply isn't the case. As others have mentioned, it is not that simple. There are additional, greater considerations, and devs, especially small shops, don't have the luxury of fixing everything on Apple's/Microsoft's timeline. So there are delays. It's always been that way and, likely, always will.

The good thing about the computer industry's lack of innovation is that we can safely sit on an older OS without itching to update, because the update isn't so different from the previous version. We're not missing out on much. In the days of Steve Jobs, there were exciting new things coming to market. Not so much anymore.

I can tell you that many companies, especially small ones, don't want to participate in beta phases because it's an expenditure of time that doesn't always pay off. For example, they spend time trying to figure out a bug, when it then gets fixed by the OS/DAW company in the next release. I've seen this with companies working with Apple, with us, and with DAWs. Instead, they'd rather wait for the official release and just do whatever is necessary at that time.

That's also why you get companies saying "don't upgrade to version X yet!" in their Day 1 posts.

It's unfortunate, but it's also realistic when a company doesn't have the resources to spend on future-looking compatibility.

Pete

Did anyone update to 15.3.2 already?

Yep, a few hours ago... all good.

Updated 3 machines, did not notice a difference.

good to know. I'm still on the fence , well the Sonoma fence that is



M

Sonoma is fine. Apple has been spending their energy trying to make AI usable on Sequoia.

The only reports I’ve ever seen of sequoia helping were for people with borked installations where upgrading to the new OS cleared things up.

If your machine is fine I wouldn’t mess with it.

Can these run Sonoma, or are we forced to accept Sequoia. All my studio macs run Sonoma or older. Got an M4 Max MBP arriving and wondering if i should use it as an opportunity to slowly migrate workflow and test - if it is only option - or whether I can install Sonoma over it and kick that can down the road.

I’m not seeing anything compelling with Sequoia for making music. So it is more a case of wanting to avoid detriment.

I’ve not nearly 2000 plugins and a lot of external gear. Most will be compatible by now if ever going to happen.

M4 needs Sequoia. It should all be fine at this point - my earlier comment was more about if your Sonoma machines are OK, I don’t see anything compelling (from an audio app standpoint) in sequoia for older machines.

Just more capacity used and the potential for issues (any change brings the potential for issues).

Eventually (especially if one uses Logic) we’ll be forced to update but I might totally skip Sequoia this year.

Next year the new Logic will probably not work with Sonoma so if it has some major enhancements I’ll then upgrade.

If you don’t use Logic then most other DAWs will support Sonoma for at least 2-3 more years.

Thank you. I expected as much, but good to get some feedback.

It is a spare machine for now so no rush to get everything working. I guess I’m going to have to bite the bullet then! I have a pair of iMac Pros that are still very serviceable so I’m assuming that Sequoia will be the last MacOS that platform.

I’m waiting for my Intel Macs to see what happens. If this year’s release is supported on them (without ill effects) and is the last one, I’ll move to that next year.

If sequoia is the last supported release, I’ll move to sequoia at the end of this year (by then it will have received most of the bug fixes it ever will).

15.3.2 on an M4 Pro, everything is good here.

Which DAW(s) do you use?

Logic Pro 11.1.2

15.3.2 on a new M4 Max Mac Studio. RME UFX III, UAD Apollo, Cubase 14, Logic 11, NI, VSL Synchron, EWQL OPUS, Spitfire Player, Eventide, Fabfilter, Liquidsonics, Altiverb, UADx, Synapse, U-he, Arturia, Spectrasonics, Soundtoys, Engine Player ... all good here.

Just bought a M2 Mac Mini Pro 10-core running Sequoia. I want to wipe my M1 iMac (which was the music machine) and use it for work. I run UAD Apollo TB, mix of native and regular UAD plugs/Acoustica Audio/Plugin Alliance/Arturia

Generally...safe to wipe the iMac and switch?

I only have my ‘business machine’ - used for admin and business productivity in Sequoias ATM. - no issues at all. But have recently acquired a new production laptop.

Upgraded from a maxed out M3 Max 16 MBP (running latest build of Sonoma) to a more mobile 14” M4 Max equivalent which came with Sequoia - so will be testing everything.

It arrived on Monday and I’m still filling the drive with the almost 2000 (8Tb) of plugins and libraries on the old machine. So far so good.

Everything seems to load and scan without a hitch. Will test the playback and performance in my last 12 months of sessions/projects before I put the white smoke up the chimney, but so far so good.

I’ll parallel run the new unit for a month before I switch to it as the main machine then finally upgrade the old M3 to Sequoia.

Then lock it away to be the back-up/test bed for whatever they call the next MacOS that’ll come out after ADC later this year. I’ve held off as long as I can in the hope 3rd party developers iron out the kinks.

Then the whole cycle repeats in 2026 with M5 and whatever MacOS follows!

Obviously install everything and get up and running on the M2 before wiping the M1

Agree 100%. Always best to thoroughly test the 'new machine' before you pension off the old one. I upgrade my main production hardware every 6 months - alternate between the fastest laptop and desktop iterations, but always try to lag as far behind as I can on the OS, and test heavily before I let go.

And open major applications and check them. After each migration I've done I've needed to go back to the old machine for certain plugin presets or some disk authorization that I forgot to transfer over. There shouldn't be a rush to wipe the old machine.

Used Migration Assistant today from M2 Max Studio to M3 Ultra Studio, Sequoia 15.3.2 -> 15.3.2. Mostly painless, though it took a little time to get it to use the Ethernet connection. I used a CAT8 cable, not sure if that's good or not, but got speeds over 500M/s, only took about 20 minutes. Re-authorizing plugins is to be expected.

15.4 was just released btw.