Don't upgrade your OS if you don't have to

BFD3 General Discussion
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This is just my opinion on this, so it’s not a rule of course, but I think it should be and with the recent release of macOS Monterey and subsequent bug/error posts, I think it’s worth bringing to attention now. I’m sure there are some here who do the same as I, but I see the posts all the time in forums, of people who have broken systems because they upgraded their OS, so this is for them.

Unless you bought a newer computer and can’t downgrade the OS from the more recent versions, I think it’s wise to stay on at least one previous OS version from the current when possible. This is especially important if you run legacy software and hardware.

This helps developers catch up first. Even a huge company like Avid is slow AF to make their software compatible. They’re a bad example, but there are Devs out there that are smaller, that try, but just naturally have a harder time rolling out updates. This isn’t that important and could be argued in another way…

But the main takeaway is YOUR music production setup and it’s stability, so using an OS that you know is staying rock-solid for you, is super important. I use macOS High Sierra 10.13.6. It’s now 4 versions behind Apple’s latest, but everything works 99% of the time (minus BFD3 of course), so I’m content with that.

My suggestion, is if you really need to have and experience the latest OS and if you have the storage, make a separate partition or container and install it on that. Most modern computers can boot super fast, so having to restart shouldn’t be a huge deal for most. Or, if you have a desktop for music production and say a laptop, then use that as your daily driver with an up-to-date OS and keep that stuff separate from your main music rig. This also is an advantage because neither system is getting bogged down with stuff it doesn’t need and they will be more efficient. I ran macOS Mavericks 10.9.5 and Pro Tools 11 for like 5 or 6 years and it was great. I’ve been using two separate OSs/computers for years and that has saved me a lot of headaches.

So that’s my rant. Take it for what it is. Try it out, don’t try it out… it’s just my advice and what I’ve learned.

TL;DR: Don’t use the latest and greatest OS for your music production rig if you can help it. You’ll spend more time making music.

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That’s why I’m not going to Windows 11 (just yet)

Windows is bloody shite to say the least. But I have trouble every time Windows upgrades - and in my opinion it upgrades far too often, just for the sake of it.

If it ain’t broke - don’t fix it - is my motto.

Neil

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I thought it was pretty ridiculous with Windows 10, when they started “forcing” even incremental updates on you. Security or not, it should be the end-user’s choice.

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Yep.

I gut my Windows machines to make sure they never even attempt going online for any reason. The music PC does nothing without my say so or initiating it. Apart from BFD, there is only Reaper that ever needs updating, and only if its got a bugfix I need or a feature i want (neither are often, im happy with stock reaper).

Reaper is a whopping 15mb so I can get someone to download it for me and send me it on a drive, or some floppy disks or a wax cylinder :slight_smile:

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I thought you could only postpone Windows 10 updates for like 30 days and no way to turn them off completely?

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No, you can disable them permanently If you so choose and if you have PRO, on Home it is like as you say, but you can get around that if you like and don’t care for legalities

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I can never remember which version i have, but yeah, all phoning home is turned off and fully legal.

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Type “winver” in search on the taskbar.

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Thanks! I think I’ll remember that!

System has it too. I only ever look if i need to know and I never/rarely need to know :slight_smile: