macOS Sierra

Pinkpoison · Sep 20, 2016

Its just appeared here in the UK app store.

ardchoille · Sep 20, 2016

KevinJS said:
I would wait. The current OS usually appears as the first item in the menu.

Talking of OS X Server, I'm wondering about getting the server version when I eventually buy a Mini. Any thoughts?

Apple used to sell a Mac mini specifically spec'd as a server machine and shipped with OS X Server installed. I would think the OS X Server would work fine on a mini, but one should probably plan to buy a custom Mac mini as a server may need more CPU and RAM. Perhaps order a custom mini from Apple?

EDIT: I found an image of the old Mac mini sales page at Apple:

ardchoille · Sep 20, 2016

macOS Sierra is now in the App Store under Apps Made by Apple - also available from the top main banner therein.

KevinJS · Sep 20, 2016

It's up.

Here's the link.

macOS Sierra on the Mac App Store

KevinJS · Sep 20, 2016

Over 4Gb downloaded. Not much to go now. Anyone know whether you need to make a bootable installer for your old OS BEFORE installing the new one? Or can you make an El Cap installer from the files already on your Mac even though Sierra is installed?

scifan57 · Sep 20, 2016

I just started my download now, 4.77GB.

KevinJS · Sep 20, 2016

I'm looking at a "black screen of 'something interesting is happening'"

Fans are running hard. I can rarely hear them.

Too late to figure out whether I should have made a bootable installer for El Cap. The Sierra download autoboots, so make sure you are ready for it BEFORE you start the download.

Fans have calmed down now.

ardchoille · Sep 20, 2016

KevinJS said:
Over 4Gb downloaded. Not much to go now. Anyone know whether you need to make a bootable installer for your old OS BEFORE installing the new one? Or can you make an El Cap installer from the files already on your Mac even though Sierra is installed?

You can make a bootable installer at any time. You can upgrade to Sierra without ever making a bootable installer - the USB installer is just a kind of backup in case you ever need it. I just upgraded to Sierra and am in the process of making a bootable installer now. It works either way, so it's up to you.

The main thing about downloading the new OS version is that it remains in your Purchased list forever; Example: if you happened to skip Yosemite, you can't go back and download it now unless you had previously downloaded it while it was available. It's kind of like when Apple stops signing a previous version of iOS.

ardchoille · Sep 20, 2016

Just noting from my upgrade, the upgrade takes a while and you'll be sitting on a black screen with the Apple logo and progress bar for a long while. It's not stuck, it will pick up after some time. I'm guessing it's making lot of changes in the background.

scifan57 · Sep 20, 2016

ardchoille said:
The main thing about downloading the new OS version is that it remains in your Purchased list forever; Example: if you happened to skip Yosemite, you can't go back and download it now unless you had previously downloaded it while it was available. It's kind of like when Apple stops signing a previous version of iOS.

That's why I can download every version of OS X/ macOS from Lion to Sierra.

KevinJS · Sep 20, 2016

scifan57 said:
That's why I can download every version of OS X/ macOS from Lion to Sierra.

Well, more by luck than judgment I've done the same. My Mac started with Mountain Lion and I've done all of the updates since.

KevinJS · Sep 20, 2016

Obviously the update process takes long enough that people might worry that their Mac has frozen.

I'm now looking at a progress bar with a message under it.

"Completing installation: About 12 minutes remaining"