Apple’s latest iteration of its desktop operating system - macOS 10.13 "High Sierra" - was released yesterday; like Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and OS X 10.11 El Capitan before it, High Sierra is primarily a technology and refinement update, and is consequently light on new user-facing features.
The tentpole features that Apple are promoting for the new release include:
Graphics and video efficiency improvements;
New file system (APFS) for increased reliability and performance;
Safari introduces blocking for auto-playing videos and Intelligent Tracking Protection;
Mail has been optimised for increased performance and reduced storage requirements;
Photos introduces improved editing tools, and integration with third-party editing applications.
Whilst technology and refinement updates are often some of the most-beloved releases, we urge caution in upgrading to the new OS. In particular, the introduction of APFS has the potential to break a lot of existing applications - particularly production-focussed applications such as audio and video workstations. A number of manufacturers - including Apple themselves - have already warned that older versions of their production applications will not work under High Sierra - including Logic Pro 9, MainStage 2 and Waveburner.
We will be testing and monitoring compatibility of applications, utilities, plug-ins and hardware compatibility with High Sierra, and will be available to advise on upgrade recommendations in due course. As always, when the time to upgrade comes, we strongly suggest ensuring there is a full system backup in place, to provide a safety net in the event of a catastrophic compatibility failure!