Sixth Beta of OS 10.13.4

[honestone]

Apple released the sixth beta of High Sierra, OS 10.13.4 3 days ago to testers:

http://osxdaily.com/2018/03/19/macos-10-13-4-beta-6-released-for-testing/

Interesting that there have been this many beta versions. I don't think I've (at least recently) seen so many betas! Maybe Appel is encountering some more bugs with each beta release.

 

[Allen Davis]

Just another reason for me to cling to Sierra. I do have HS installed on the HDD that originally came with my MBP but use it as an "almost mirror" in an external drive dock. Booted from it a few days ago just to look at HS's new features. When I rebooted from my internal drives, all my QuickTime videos wanted to open with the "Open Any File" application. Took 2-3 tries to get QuickTime Player reset as the default app for those files. I blame HS, but I could be wrong. It's never happened before.

 

[honestone]

I certainly understand your trepidation, Allen. Myself, High Sierra has actually been fine. Not really having any issues, except for 1) a minor bug with Quicken 2007, 2) the slower startup times, and 3) the slow process for wanting to restart my Mac from another source (either my SuperDuper! backups, or Tech Tool Pro's eDrive). Of course Im suspect it helps that I make a concerted effort to keep my Macs "lean, mean, and clean".

 

[Allen Davis]

I certainly understand your trepidation, Allen. Myself, High Sierra has actually been fine. Not really having any issues, except for 1) a minor bug with Quicken 2007, 2) the slower startup times, and 3) the slow process for wanting to restart my Mac from another source (either my SuperDuper! backups, or Tech Tool Pro's eDrive). Of course Im suspect it helps that I make a concerted effort to keep my Macs "lean, mean, and clean".

Aside from the AFPS issues and slower start-up times, I'm really surprised that Apple's still beta testing an OS at this late stage. After all, the next iteration of macOS is supposed to make its debut in a little more than five months from now if they keep to their regular schedule.

Apple never experienced this much difficulty when it jumped ship from the Motorola 68xxx CPUs to the PowerPC collaboration with IBM and Motorola. Nor did they experience much trepidation when transitioning to Intel. I must say that my confidence is a little shaken.

In addition, Apple has already reported that High Sierra's successor will no longer "support" any 32-bit software. From what I've seen, HS doesn't support 32-bit software to any appreciable level. Even with Sierra, I've learned there are certain features in some of my Adobe CS4 applications I have to avoid unless I want a crash (almost all in InDesign and to a lesser degree in Illustrator; Photoshop is still rock solid).

 

[honestone]

Excellent points! And yes, if Apple proceeds like they have done in the past, the next iteration of the Mac OS, V10.14, would arrive in a little over 5 to 6 months (thinking September or October). And I also remember those two prior transitions you mentioned, with Apple not having as much difficulty as with this new shift.

I have 2 32 bit apps that I will need to deal with when OS 10.14 comes out: Quicken 2007, and a calculator called Magic Number Machine. Right now, the "bug" with Quicken 2007 is that the program can no longer backup the transaction file under High Sierra. Fortunately, I have Quicken 2017, which runs fine. But Quicken 2007 has always been rock solid.

I also believe some companies have not offered upgrades for their software for HS compatibility. As I mentioned before, Micromat (makers of Tech Tool Pro), Shirt Pocket Software (makers of SuperDuper!), and Bombich Software (makers of Carbon Copy Cloner) did need to devote a significant amount of time and effort to come up with upgrades that are compatible with High Sierra. Also, Titanium Software (makers of Onyx) needed to release 3 updates for Onyx before it was finally fully compatible with HS.