# Mac OS Sierra. It's a good thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 3, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598 "2016-10-03T21:41:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/1 "2016-10-03T21:41:18Z")
Apple has invited my 2011 MacBookPro to download OS Sierra. Running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 and all is good. Any reason to go for the Sierra? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/2 "2016-10-03T21:46:08Z")
You don’t want to get too far behind the curve… I am running Sierra on a similar machine - it runs fine, and has a few neat features. Other than that, it’s mostly the same as Yosemite and El Capitan. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/3 "2016-10-03T21:48:34Z")
I downloaded it on my mid-2011 MacBook Pro, and it’s running fine. Freed up 10 gigs of hard drive space, too, after the install. I really haven’t noticed much new in terms of features, but it seems to work great. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/4 "2016-10-03T22:26:10Z")
I’ve been running it since the 1st public beta. I like it and aside from a couple weird interactions with MS Office in the first 2 betas, I have had no notable issues. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/5 "2016-10-04T18:20:12Z")
Thanks all! I am now a Sierra member. First thing I had to do was mute the banner notifications. The chime was driving me crazy. Another question. Why do Apple OS downloads take so much time? It took 1.5 hours to download. And 30 minutes to install. When I was a PC guy a Windows update would take nanoseconds. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/6 "2016-10-04T19:00:04Z")
[QUOTE=harmonicamoon] Why do Apple OS downloads take so much time? It took 1.5 hours to download. And 30 minutes to install. When I was a PC guy a Windows update would take nanoseconds. [/QUOTE] This isn’t just an update or patch - these named releases are the rough equivalent of Windows Service Packs. Pretty sure when you downloaded XP’s SP3, it took more than a few nanoseconds. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/7 "2016-10-04T19:20:38Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Thanks all! I am now a Sierra member. > > First thing I had to do was mute the banner notifications. The chime was driving me crazy. > > Another question. Why do Apple OS downloads take so much time? It took 1.5 hours to download. And 30 minutes to install. > > When I was a PC guy a Windows update would take nanoseconds. The download is almost 5 GB. It’s an entire OS - like going from Windows 8 to 10. > [@](#): > > Windows 8.1 users are reporting the Windows 10 file size is 6.07GB. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/8 "2016-10-04T19:43:15Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > This isn’t just an update or patch - these named releases are the rough equivalent of Windows Service Packs. Pretty sure when you downloaded XP’s SP3, it took more than a few nanoseconds. OK. That is true. Thank you again. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/9 "2016-10-05T02:12:26Z")
I don’t see the point. I have no other Apple devices (that would benefit from Sierra), I don’t care about Siri, and I don’t want everything uploading. As long as they keep updating the security patches on El Capitan, I have no plans to upgrade. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/10 "2016-10-05T04:39:22Z")
_sigh_ It’s finally happened. For the first time in 20 years of running Macs, I got an alert telling me that the new OS can’t be installed on my machine. And I don’t have the fundage for a new Mac ☹ ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/11 "2016-10-05T05:00:40Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > _sigh_ It’s finally happened. For the first time in 20 years of running Macs, I got an alert telling me that the new OS can’t be installed on my machine. And I don’t have the fundage for a new Mac ☹ Just stick with El Cap. It will be supported for at least 3-4 more years. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/12 "2016-10-06T04:47:05Z")
My crisis goes the other way. Adobe CS4 is known not to work on Sierra and I don’t want to be rope-a-doped into a subscription to their current version. Guess it’s time for me to really look at switching to GIMP and Inkspace. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/13 "2016-10-06T09:29:31Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > My crisis goes the other way. Adobe CS4 is known not to work on Sierra and I don’t want to be rope-a-doped into a subscription to their current version. Guess it’s time for me to really look at switching to GIMP and Inkspace. Yeah, that’s a plus for me. This 8-year-old Mac still runs my legal copy of Photoshop. So I guess when I get a new computer, whether a new Mac or a Windows machine, I’ll keep this 2008 iMac on the side for Photoshop. I like to use PS now and then, but not enough to justify a monthly subscription. This old Mac is still sufficient to run Photoshop when I need it to. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/14 "2016-10-06T12:04:02Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Thanks all! I am now a Sierra member. A “cup-carrying” member? ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/15 "2016-10-06T12:23:40Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > My crisis goes the other way. Adobe CS4 is known not to work on Sierra and I don’t want to be rope-a-doped into a subscription to their current version. Guess it’s time for me to really look at switching to GIMP and Inkspace. > [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Yeah, that’s a plus for me. This 8-year-old Mac still runs my legal copy of Photoshop. So I guess when I get a new computer, whether a new Mac or a Windows machine, I’ll keep this 2008 iMac on the side for Photoshop. I like to use PS now and then, but not enough to justify a monthly subscription. This old Mac is still sufficient to run Photoshop when I need it to. You could run them in a virtual machine. Check out Parallels or VMWare Fusion. I’m not sure at what point Mac OS X’ license allows running in a VM, but I think it was many, many versions ago so you should be okay legally. I know that I have VMs running as old as Mac OS X 10.8 (although I admit I don’t know the license status!). While most people run a VM to run Linux or Windows for “that one app,” there’s no reason not to run Mac OS X in a VM for those apps. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/16 "2016-10-06T14:15:18Z")
I now have Sierra. I really have little use for most of the new features … though that may change in time. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/17 "2016-10-06T19:04:43Z")
Really bad bug: Photoshop keeps crashing. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/18 "2016-10-07T00:43:52Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Really bad bug: Photoshop keeps crashing. :mad: What version? PS works fine for me but I’m a Creative Cloud subscriber so I’ve gotten big updates recently. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/19 "2016-10-07T15:44:08Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > What version? PS works fine for me but I’m a Creative Cloud subscriber so I’ve gotten big updates recently. Got it! I’ve now updated ALL my Adobe apps, plus some new ones. Huge total learning curve. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mac-os-sierra-its-a-good-thing/767598/20 "2016-10-09T01:33:48Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > My crisis goes the other way. Adobe CS4 is known not to work on Sierra and I don’t want to be rope-a-doped into a subscription to their current version. Guess it’s time for me to really look at switching to GIMP and Inkspace. If you haven’t checked out [Affinity Photo](http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/graphics-and-media-software/image-editing-software/serif-affinity-photo-1295010/review) (and its companion drawing program, Designer) it’s definitely worth the cost of $50. If you’re stuck on CS 6 or earlier the Affinity programs will open newer CCloud Photoshop and Illustrator files that CS 6 can’t handle. There are now Windows versions, and a version update in the last 2 weeks. And $10 off for awhile. Hopefully the update will include a “hide selection” feature to get rid of the marching ants when necessary. Affinity has scheduled a page Layout program for 2017.