Sierra vs HighSierra - worth it?

[Giuanniello]

I used to be one of those upgrading ASAP whatever it was, computer OS, phone OS, digital camera firmware, water flush firmware... now I am more conservative, some of my Macs still run on El Capitan and I am fine with them, the one running Sierra is the 2009 27" i7 8GB iMac whose I upgraded to an SSD, so far it should be one of those eligible to upgrade to HighSierra but was wondering if worth the pain to upgrade, I am not into cosmetic any longer, I also think that it's quite a while nothing happens on both hardware and software fronts and as such I am fine as I am but would like to know from you if there is anything, besides the file system, which makes it worth to risk upgrading.

Grazie

 

[SoYoung]

At this time, not for me. Too many bugs. I dont recommend upgrading if everything is fine with Sierra for now. Wait for a .1 or .2 release.

 

[maflynn]

I was close to upgrading but as I peruse this forum, with the various topics where people are having issues, I'm leaning towards holding off.

The final deciding factor for me, is that I absolutely need GoToMyPC compatibility, and given the information on GoToMyPC support site, some folks are having issues.

 

[Frankfurt]

I am holding off until .1 or .2 release. There is no gain in being an "extended beta" tester.

 

[phillytim]

What makes High Sierra worth it is to have the ability to seamlessly share comparable resources/capabilities with your iPhone or iPad - such as Notes, Messages in iCloud (when enabled), etc.

 

[SoYoung]

What makes High Sierra worth it is to have the ability to seamlessly share comparable resources/capabilities with your iPhone or iPad - such as Notes, Messages in iCloud (when enabled), etc.

I hope Message in iCloud will release soon but it seems we’ll have to wait at least a couple of months to get it.

 

[bo217]

I am holding off until .1 or .2 release. There is no gain in being an "extended beta" tester.

"Extended beta tester" is a good euphemism ...

 

[EugW]

Maybe wait a point update or two, but High Sierra is one of the most important updates in years.

HEIF/HEVC, APFS, Metal 2, etc.

I upgraded all 5 of my machines already, including 2 that are not even officially supported.

 

[Uplift]

Updated works iMac over Sierra
Failed
Jumped through hoops to get it working
Experienced two kernel panics today, the first time I've ever had a KP
As I was typing this post, Bluetooth random disconnect stopping me from typing, headphones disconnected and mouse stopped working, I thought it crashed again but everything kicked in within a few seconds.


Updated personal MacBook Pro a clean install (manual Erase and install)
The update was fast and is working flawlessly amazingly well. It seems faster and no issues what so ever.

The difference I had between machines is clean install vs update from Sierra although a work colleague updated his Macbook Pro over Sierra direct from AppStore download and it works fine... looks like it's a bit of a lottery.

Personally, I would only update from a clean Erase as the system changes are significant... still taking a risk though so maybe leave it if you're not willing to put up with troubeshooting.

 

[AFEPPL]

I'm giving this one a miss.

 

[Transgredi]

Did the immediate upgrade from Sierra and regret it. I'd rather wait till first or second major set of patches.

 

[cappo3]

I upgraded from Mavericks and it was a mess, unusable. Time-Machined back to Mavericks. The sun shines again! (rMBP late 2013)

 

[AlteMac]

Waiting for .1 or .2. I also usually upgrade right away, but with a 2012 MacPro with a mix of SSds and external HDDs, I am waiting this time.

 

[EugW]

I upgraded from Mavericks and it was a mess, unusable. Time-Machined back to Mavericks. The sun shines again! (rMBP late 2013)

What specs? Not a clean install?

Works beautifully on my 2009 MacBook Pro with SSD and 8 GB RAM. Works OK on my 2008 MacBook with SSD and 4 GB RAM. However, both are clean installs, so no leftover junk.

 

[370zulu]

Installed 10.13 into VMware Fusion Guest to check it out first. I would like to have APFS and iMessage in iCloud, but I will wait. The forum posts I have read and my experience with iOS11 (and subsequent downgrade back to 10.3.3) has given me reason to pause on any upgrades for the time being. Advice for waiting a few point releases is sage IMHO.

 

[EugW]

iOS 11 is great... at least on A8X or better. I can't comment on A8 or A7.

 

[cappo3]

What specs? Not a clean install?

Works beautifully on my 2009 MacBook Pro with SSD and 8 GB RAM. Works OK on my 2008 MacBook with SSD and 4 GB RAM. However, both are clean installs, so no leftover junk.

rMPB 13" Late 2013 with i7 2.8 and 16 GB of RAM. The best 13" MBP you could get back then! It is still blazingly fast (on Mavericks, at least).
I did not perform a clean install. I stayed on 10.9.5 since the beginning, never had any issues and never had to start from scratch. On High Sierra, Safari 11 did not work at all, Photos corrupted my iPhoto library twice while trying to convert it and keyboard and trackpad stopped responding twice. I had to abruptly reboot the laptop, never happened to me since I bought this thing!
I am so happy that the Time Machine worked its wonders!

 

[ceezy]

My 2010 MBP didn't get along well with Sierra (El Cap was fine), so I knew I wanted to upgrade asap even if a lot of the features wouldn't work. So far it has been an improvement on my older mac, although it always takes a few weeks to tell for sure.

 

[simonsi]

I've done both my 2011 iMac and MBP - no issues with either upgrade over Sierra. Sierra over El-Cap I did have problems with, seems the installer didn't detect some incompatible extensions I had but all was fine after I manually removed them. HS was flawless.

 

[Fishrrman]

Like the OP, I "hold my Macs back" somewhat. With 4 Macs here (2012 Mini, 2015 MBpro, 2010 MacBook, old white iMac), 3 of them are doing fine on El Capitan, so that's where they'll stay for the foreseeable future.

I do experiment with the "absolute latest", using external drives that I have around. Currently have HiSierra 10.13.0 running on one of them. Even though the drive is an old firewire "hand me down", HiSierra installed and runs fine on it (though slowly, but that's to be expected). But I'm not committing myself to it just yet...

 

[wlossw]

Wait. I had one machine go smoothly and the other totally did.