[ANSWERED] Sequoia OK for Isadora?

JJHP3

Hi Folks - couldn't find any recent info about whether Sequoia and Isadora have a happy marriage. Y or N? Thanks, John

Woland

Official Answer

As a TroikaTronix staff member, I can say that we’re conducting internal testing and haven’t found any major issues with Isadora on Sequoia. So far, we’ve had two user reports of problems on machines running Sequoia, but both were different and the exact cause wasn’t determined so it could have been their hardware, software setup, or their Isadora file rather than Isadora having a problem with the OS.

If you try Isadora with Sequoia and encounter any issues, please submit a ticket using the link in my signature. We’re committed to documenting, reproducing, and fixing problems that could impact a significant portion of our users as quickly as possible.

TLDR: As far as I know, it's fine, though I never recommend working with the newest OS (see my "Personal Answer" below).

Personal Answer

The following advice isn't specifically about Isadora, it's just about keeping any software you need working on your Apple computer:

Personally I find it's best to avoid updating your OS unnecessarily; if it ain't broken, don’t fix it. If you want to test a new OS, clone your computer to an external drive first and update the clone on the external drive to avoid rolling the dice with your actual computer.

I avoid updating to the latest macOS for at least a year after release because Apple’s annual releases can come with major bugs and compatibility issues. (Feel free to Google "macOS update bricked laptop" to see what I mean.) Instead, I let eager early adopters deal with the pitfalls, giving Apple time to fix problems before I consider updating, and even then I never update unless I have no choice. To me, it's comparable to the idea of replacing your furniture, car, or apartment every year just because time has passed—if what you have works well, why risk unnecessary changes that might create problems or reduce comfort? I prefer using a stable OS to ensure my projects run smoothly and so I can remount productions without issue. Since 2015, I’ve only moved my computers to a newer version of macOS two or three times (though I do have bootable external drives with every macOS since Mojave for Isadora testing purposes).

When buying new Apple computers, you’re basically stuck with the latest OS, and downgrading is difficult. To avoid this, I usually buy slightly older models so I can start out with an older OS that has a proven track record of being stable. If you do need to use a new computer or OS, always build time into your project timeline for bench-testing to make sure everything will work as expected because the newest and shiniest thing is not always better (just look at the Cybertruck, cryptocurrencies, AI-powered everything, etc.)

Personally, I just don't trust any new Apple OS or hardware until it has proven itself over a reasonable period of time. Apple’s, (in my opinion), needlessly frequent and, (in my opinion), absurdly undertested OS and hardware releases have been known to introduce unexpected and (often) non-trivial issues for developers and users and so it's not always possible for us to catch them all right away. They aim to move fast and break things and boy howdy are they good at both. For instance:

With the release of Isadora 4, we finally managed to fix an issue from Isadora 3.2.6 where right-click menus and some keyboard shortcuts didn’t work on computers that didn't have their system language set to English. We tracked the problem back to a "helpful" new feature Apple added to their developer tool Xcode which they "helpfully" enabled by default.
A nonsensical, but less impactful example is that a few OS's ago they decided to change the name of their menu options from "[APP NAME] > Preferences" and "Apple > System Preferences" to "[APP NAME] > Settings" and "Apple > System Settings" despite Apple not changing the name of the "Preferences" folder (the system folder for storing the files responsible for application "settings".) This is a little thing, but I feel illustrates my point that sometimes it seems as if they change things just to change them, not to improve them, not because there's any obvious reason to do so, but just for the sake of it being somehow different from their last OS (even if it's a meaningless or even detrimental change).
Back in 2021, Apple's introduction of the infamous orange dot caused problems for many AV artists. It seems that they just didn't care that the orange dot would appear on every external display connected to the computer, including projectors and LED walls.
Going back to 2019, it was identified that several Apple computer models released the previous year all had T2 security processors that interfered with USB 2.0 audio interfaces which presented serious issues for pro audio users. (Source 1 and Source 2).

TLDR: My personal opinion is that if you value stability for your projects (not just Isadora projects!), it's best to avoid using the latest macOS or working with brand-new Apple computers whenever possible.

JJHP3

@jjhp3 Thank you ~