Software:macOS Sonoma

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Short description: 20th major version of the macOS operating system

macOS Sonoma
A version of the macOS operating system
MacOS Sonoma - logo.svg
MacOS Sonoma Desktop.png
Screenshot
DeveloperApple Inc.
OS family
Source modelClosed, with open source components
General
availability		September 26, 2023; 9 months ago (2023-09-26)
|Final release|Latest release}}14.3[1] (23D56)[2] (January 22, 2024; 5 months ago (2024-01-22)) [±]
Update methodSoftware Update
Platformsx86-64, ARM64
Kernel typeHybrid (XNU)
LicenseProprietary software with open-source components and content licensed with APSL
Preceded bymacOS Ventura
Official websitewww.apple.com/macos/sonoma/
Support status
Supported. Drops support for all Macs released in 2017 except the iMac Pro.
Part of a series on
macOS
MacOS wordmark (2017).svg
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Related

macOS Sonoma (version 14) is the twentieth and latest major release of macOS, Apple's operating system for Macintosh computers. The successor to macOS Ventura, it was announced at WWDC 2023 on June 5, 2023,[3] and released on September 26, 2023. It is named after the wine region located in California's Sonoma County.[4][5]

The first developer beta was released on June 5, 2023,[6] and macOS Sonoma entered public beta on July 11, 2023.[7]

New features

macOS Sonoma includes a number of new features and improvements, mainly focused on productivity and creativity:[8][9][10][11][12]

  • Widgets have been revamped. They are no longer constrained to the Notification Center—instead they can be placed anywhere on the screen, and the widget picker has been redesigned to resemble the iPadOS and iOS versions of it.
  • The lock screen has been redesigned to include a date and time similar to iOS and iPadOS. The power buttons have become a context menu.
  • Video-conferencing apps can overlay the presenter's webcam video on top of screen sharing.
  • App icons have been made more rounded.
  • The Spotlight search bar has been made more rounded, and its width has been decreased.
  • Safari changes:
    • Browsing profiles enable separate sets of bookmarks, extensions, and cookies, which can be used to separate, for example, a personal setup from a work one.
    • Password sharing lets multiple people have access to the same collection of website passwords, and update them as needed, with changes syncing across all enrolled devices.
    • Safari web apps let the user add any website to the Dock and open it in a simplified Safari interface, just like an app. A similar feature is available in Google Chrome. This feature is somewhat different from progressive web apps since it does not require additional work from website developers.
  • Messages changes:
    • More precise search filters: for example, the contact name can be combined with a search term to look for the term within a specific conversation.
    • Catch-up lets the user quickly jump to the first unread message in a conversation.
    • Tapback now appears as multiple icons instead of being a context menu.
    • iMessage stickers have a new selection interface.
  • Apple TV now has a sidebar instead of a top bar.
  • Game mode optimizes gaming performance by prioritizing gaming tasks and allocating more GPU and CPU capacity to the game. It provides smoother frame rates for game play and faster response times for wireless game controllers and AirPods.
  • New slow-motion screen savers of different locations worldwide. When logged in, they gradually slow down and become the desktop wallpaper.
  • Smoother animations for several areas such as the notification panel, the lock screen, and the show desktop gesture. The notifications now slide in with a ease-out motion, the lock screen now zooms in and out when unlocking and locking, the show desktop gesture has a new spring back animation.
  • Users can react with their hands and animations will pop up based on the hand gesture.
  • AV1 hardware decoding has been introduced on devices with AV1 hardware decoding support, such as Macs with SoCs from the Apple M3 family.[13][14]
  • Print Center, a utility application returning from Mac OS X Tiger, was reintroduced for managing print jobs, viewing different printer queues, and pausing or deleting print jobs.
  • The text cursor now looks more like its iOS counterpart. It is bolder, has a smooth blinking motion, and its color follows the current app's accent color. It also briefly displays an indicator that shows the current input language when the user switches keyboard languages. This indicator can also signal helpful input details like when Caps Lock is on.
  • Videos now encode faster in Final Cut Pro, Compressor, and third-party video applications on Mac computers using M1 Ultra or M2 Ultra.

Gaming

Alongside macOS Sonoma, Apple announced developer tools for porting Windows games to macOS. The Game Porting Toolkit (GPTK), derived from Wine and released in beta, translates Windows application programming interface (API) calls to equivilent macOS APIs, allowing developers to run unmodified versions of their x86 Windows DirectX games on macOS. Mac users have been able to use the Game Porting Toolkit to run a number of DirectX 12 games; tech news outlets have compared the tool to Valve's Proton compatibility layer for Linux. Apple also released a Metal Shader Converter that converts shaders to Apple's Metal graphics API.[15][16]

A DigitalFoundry review of the first beta of Game Porting Toolkit found it "impressive", with few graphical glitches and full support for console controllers instead of the keyboard, though they found that frame rates were around half of what they would be on Windows, and that many games were not supported.[17] During the Sonoma beta, updates to the Game Porting Toolkit brought support for 32-bit games and around 20% better performance.[18]

According to reporter Peter Cohen, Game Mode and the Game Porting Toolkit are improvements but do not indicate the kind of "sea change" in Apple's priorities and culture that are needed to build a true Mac gaming ecosystem. Cohen says that the problem with Mac gaming is not in the ability to port games, but in a lack of a "business case" for game publishers to do so, due to the Mac's low market share, the cost of supporting a port, and uncertain demand for Mac games when many Mac users also own consoles or gaming PCs.[19][20] YouTuber Snazzy Labs issued similar criticisms,[21] which journalist John Siracusa agreed with.[22]

Removed features

  • Support for legacy Mail plug-ins has been removed.[23]
  • System API support for converting PostScript and Encapsulated PostScript files to PDF format has been removed, following previous changes in macOS Ventura that removed support for viewing and converting PostScript and Encapsulated PostScript files within Preview.[24]

Supported hardware

macOS Sonoma supports Macs with Apple silicon and Intel's Xeon-W and 8th-generation Coffee Lake/Amber Lake chips or later,[25] and drops support for various models released in 2017, officially marking the end of support for Macs without Retina display and all models of 12-inch MacBook. The 2019 iMac is the only Sonoma-supported Intel Mac that lacks a T2 chip. Sonoma supports the following Mac models:[26]

  • iMac (2019 or later)
  • iMac Pro (2017)
  • MacBook Air (2018 or later)
  • MacBook Pro (2018 or later)
  • Mac Mini (2018 or later)
  • Mac Pro (2019 or later)
  • Mac Studio (all models)

Unofficial support

By using patch tools, macOS Sonoma can be unofficially installed on earlier models that are officially unsupported. Such models date back to the 2008 MacBook Pro and 2007 iMac.[27]

According to an Ars Technica analysis, 2016 and 2017 Macs received on average six years of updates, lower than the seven to eight years of updates received by Intel Macs released from 2009 to 2015.[28][26]

Release history

The first developer beta of macOS Sonoma was released on Monday, June 5, 2023.[29] The Sonoma developer beta was the first to be available to anyone with a free Apple Developer account, without needing a developer subscription.[30][31] The full release was released on September 26, 2023.

Previous release Current release Current beta release Security response
Version Build Release date Darwin version
14.0 23A344 September 26, 2023 23.0.0
xnu-10002.1.13~1
Fri Sep 15 14:41:34 PDT 2023
14.1 23B74 October 25, 2023 23.1.0
xnu-10002.41.9~6
Mon Oct 9 21:27:27 PDT 2023
14.1.1 23B81[32] November 7, 2023 23.1.0
xnu-10002.41.9~6
Mon Oct 9 21:26:29 PDT 2023
23B2082[32]
14.1.2 23B92 November 30, 2023 23.1.0
xnu-10002.41.9~6
Mon Oct 9 21:27:27 PDT 2023
23B2091
14.2 23C64 December 11, 2023 23.2.0
xnu-10002.61.3~2
Wed Nov 15 21:54:10 PST 2023
14.2.1 23C71 December 19, 2023
14.3 23D56 January 22, 2024 23.3.0
xnu-10002.81.5~7
Wed Dec 20 21:30:27 PST 2023
14.4 beta 1 23E5180j January 29, 2024 23.4.0
xnu-10063.100.610.0.2~19
Fri Jan 12 22:41:06 PST 2024

See Apple's official release notes, and official security update contents.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Clover, Juli (January 22, 2024). "Apple Releases macOS Sonoma 14.3 With Collaborative Apple Music Playlists". https://www.macrumors.com/2024/01/22/apple-releases-macos-sonoma-14-3/. 
  2. ↑ "macOS 14.3 (23D56) - Releases - Apple Developer". January 22, 2024. https://developer.apple.com/news/releases/?id=01222024g. 
  3. ↑ "Apple announces macOS Sonoma with support for desktop widgets and screensavers". The Verge. June 5, 2023. https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23745460/apple-macos-14-sonoma-features-updates-wwdc-2023. 
  4. ↑ Edwards, Sara (June 5, 2023). "Apple unveils macOS Sonoma, the latest version of its operating system, inspired by Wine Country" (in en-US). https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/apple-reveals-latest-operating-software-version-inspired-by-sonoma/. 
  5. ↑ Heater, Brian (June 5, 2023). "Apple debuts macOS 14 Sonoma" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/05/apple-debuts-macos-14-sonoma/. 
  6. ↑ Clover, Juli (June 5, 2023). "Apple Releases First Beta of macOS 14 Sonoma to Developers". https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/05/apple-seeds-macos-14-sonoma-beta-1/. 
  7. ↑ "macOS Sonoma Public Beta Now Available" (in en). July 12, 2023. https://www.macrumors.com/2023/07/12/macos-sonoma-public-beta-now-available/. 
  8. ↑ Porter, Jon (June 5, 2023). "Apple announces macOS Sonoma with game mode and support for desktop widgets". https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23745460/apple-macos-14-sonoma-features-updates-wwdc-2023. 
  9. ↑ Cunningham, Andrew (June 5, 2023). "macOS Sonoma adds Game Mode, a new design for desktop widgets, and more" (in en-us). https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/06/macos-sonoma-is-the-next-release-of-macos-coming-this-fall/. 
  10. ↑ Shakir, Umar (June 5, 2023). "Apple announces new Safari profiles and WebKit features". https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23749836/apple-safari-macos-sonoma-profiles-icloud-keychain-sharing-webkit-wwdc. 
  11. ↑ "macOS Sonoma brings new capabilities for elevating productivity and creativity" (in en-US). Apple Inc.. June 5, 2023. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/06/macos-sonoma-brings-new-capabilities-for-elevating-productivity-and-creativity/. 
  12. ↑ "New features available with macOS Sonoma.". Apple Inc.. https://www.apple.com/macos/sonoma/pdf/macOS_All_New_Features.PDF. 
  13. ↑ "Safari 17 Release Notes". https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-release-notes/safari-17-release-notes. 
  14. ↑ "Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max, the most advanced chips for a personal computer" (Press release). Apple Inc. October 30, 2023.
  15. ↑ Warren, Tom (June 7, 2023). "Apple's new Proton-like tool can run Windows games on a Mac". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/7/23752164/apple-mac-gaming-game-porting-toolkit-windows-games-macos. 
  16. ↑ Purdy, Kevin (June 7, 2023). "Apple has a Proton-like Game Porting Toolkit for getting Windows games on Mac" (in en-us). https://arstechnica.com/apple/2023/06/apple-has-a-proton-like-game-porting-toolkit-for-getting-windows-games-on-mac/. 
  17. ↑ Mackenzie, Oliver (July 4, 2023). "Is Mac on the verge of a gaming revolution?" (in en). Eurogamer.net. https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2023-is-mac-on-the-verge-of-a-gaming-revolution-cyberpunk-hogwarts-and-dead-space-tested-w-game-porting-toolkit. 
  18. ↑ Wegmann, Eugen (July 5, 2023). "macOS Sonoma: Game Porting Toolkit weckt Hoffnungen auf Mac-Gaming" (in de). https://www.macwelt.de/article/1980362/macos-sonoma-game-porting-toolkit-weckt-hoffnungen-auf-mac-gaming.html. 
  19. ↑ Cohen, Peter (August 31, 2023). "Apple needs to deliver more than Game Mode and the Porting Toolkit" (in en). https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/08/31/game-mode-isnt-enough-to-bring-gaming-to-macos-and-apple-needs-to-do-more. 
  20. ↑ Cohen, Peter (July 3, 2023). "Game Porting Toolkit in macOS Sonoma won't fix what's broken with Mac games" (in en). https://www.imore.com/mac/macos/game-porting-toolkit-in-macos-sonoma-wont-fix-whats-broken-with-mac-games. 
  21. ↑ Voorhees, John (July 3, 2023). "Snazzy Labs on the Trouble with Mac Gaming" (in en-US). https://www.macstories.net/linked/snazzy-labs-on-the-trouble-with-mac-gaming/. 
  22. ↑ Siracusa, John (July 3, 2023). "I'm not linking this @snazzyq video *just* because it agrees with everything I've been saying for years on @atpfm about Apple and gaming…but it's also not a coincidence that so many knowledgeable people have the same thoughts on the subject." (in en). https://mastodon.social/@siracusa/110650944362480116. 
  23. ↑ "macOS Sonoma Drops Support for Legacy Mail App Plug-ins" (in en). June 14, 2023. https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/14/macos-sonoma-drops-legacy-mail-app-plug-ins/. 
  24. ↑ hoakley (September 25, 2023). "PostScript's sudden death in Sonoma" (in en). https://eclecticlight.co/2023/09/25/postscripts-sudden-death-in-sonoma/. 
  25. ↑ Kubiv, Halyna (June 7, 2023). "macOS 14 Sonoma: Diese Macs erhalten kein Update mehr" (in de). Macwelt. https://www.macwelt.de/article/1944902/macos-14-sonoma-kein-update-fuer-diese-macs.html. Retrieved June 8, 2023. 
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Cunningham, Andrew (June 5, 2023). "macOS Sonoma drops support for another wide swath of Intel Macs" (in en-us). https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/06/macos-sonoma-drops-support-for-another-wide-swath-of-intel-macs/. 
  27. ↑ OpenCore Legacy Patcher - https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/releases/1.0.0
  28. ↑ Cunningham, Andrew (July 1, 2022). "Some Macs are getting fewer updates than they used to. Here's why it's a problem" (in en-us). https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/07/some-macs-are-getting-fewer-updates-than-they-used-to-heres-why-its-a-problem/. 
  29. ↑ Clover, Juli (June 5, 2023). "Apple Releases First Beta of macOS 14 Sonoma to Developers" (in en). https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/05/apple-seeds-macos-14-sonoma-beta-1/. 
  30. ↑ Clover, Juli (June 6, 2023). "Apple Makes Developer Betas Free to Download and Install" (in en). https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/06/developer-betas-free-to-download/. 
  31. ↑ Barr, Kyle (June 7, 2023). "Apple Makes Developer Betas Free for All". https://news.yahoo.com/apple-makes-developer-betas-free-182500492.html. 
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 "macOS Sonoma 14.1.1 Update (23B81) & (23B2082) – What's New?" (in en-US). 2023-11-08. https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-sonoma-14-1-1-update-23b81-23b2082-whats-new/. 
Preceded by
macOS 13 Ventura 		macOS 14 Sonoma
2023 		Succeeded by
Current



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