[OS X TeX] [OT] To upgrade or not to upgrade to Sequoia?

[Richard Koch]

Juergen Fenn,

I have an M1 Portable, the very first Arm machine released by Apple.
It is not a Macbook Air, but it also has 16 gig of ram.

I use that machine to compile the macOS Arm binaries using Big Sur.
Simultaneously I use an Intel machine to compile the corresponing
macOS Intel binaries, and the main thing I notice is how much faster
the M1 machine is than the Intel machine.

While I compile Arm binaries on Big Sur, I have also installed Sequoia on
that M1 machine; indeed I use it to install beta versions of Sequoia to make
sure there are no TeX-related problems. I've never had a problem with Sequoia
on the machine.

It is possible to turn Apple Intelligence off, although probably not necessary.
Maybe others have a different experience, but I say "go ahead and update"

Dick Koch

> On Jun 10, 2025, at 8:30 AM, Juergen Fenn via MacOSX-TeX <macosx-tex at email.esm.psu.edu> wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I am aware that this is the TeX on Mac OS X mailinglist. However, I dare
> asking you for advice on a not-so-TeX, but still a macOS question.
> 
> May I safely upgrade my MacBook Air M1 2020 with 16 GB RAM to Sequoia?
> 
> The reason I'm asking this is that no one around in my real life has yet
> dared to upgrade, and the internet seems to be full of users' complaints
> about 16 GB RAM not being enough for Apple Intelligence, and the machine
> running hot with no fan inside.
> 
> On Sonoma, with Thunderbird, Firefox, and Emacs open, I still have some
> 5 GB unused memory left which feels alright to me. So far, everything is
> running smoothly, and even big PDF and graphics files get handled with ease.
> 
> So, what is your experience with macOS Sequoia 15.5?
> 
> Can you switch off Apple Intelligence completely?
> 
> Please bear with me, and sorry for the noise.
> 
> Thanks in advance, and
> 
> Best regards,
> Jürgen.