macOS 14.0 Sonoma; first impressions

[Rod]

Well, the long awaited macOS 14.0 Sonoma is here and I've spent the better part of a day sifting through the new features and changes from the preceding macOS 13.7 Ventura.

One big focus in the Upgrade seems to be on appearance with new Wallpapers, screen saver options, Stage Manager and Desktop Widgets.

In Apple Menu > System settings > Wallpaper, you will find Dynamic Wallpapers, one for Sonoma and three more from previous macOS as well as the one you were using prior to the Upgrade, if you were attached to that, at the top listed as "Pictures".

You now get the option to use your Desktop Wallpaper as a Screen Saver.

I chose the multi coloured Dynamic Sonoma Wallpaper on Automatic and clicked use as Screen Saver. If you didn't use a screen saver previously you will need to go to Apple Menu > System settings > Lock Screen > Start Screen Saver When Inactive, or simply ignore this option as your settings will have been saved from Ventura.

All of the above apply to the other Wallpaper options listed under; Landscape (default on installation), Underwater, Cityscape and Earth.

Personally, I don't really like the new Login Screen. In Ventura I had an animated Memoji (of myself) front and centre and quite large which did rather amusing things like; waving hello when I launched, going to sleep if I didn't login immediately, smiling when I did login, frowning if I logged in with the wrong password and more. Now the Memoji is relegated to the bottom of the screen, so small you can hardly see the expressive animations.

As for Widgets and Stage Manager, there are a couple of confusing things I found. If you want to find options for you will find them in Apple Menu > System settings > Desktop & Dock. Not really intuitive but it is all Desktop related so I suppose that's why.
When you scroll down to Widgets in the Desktop & Dock settings there are a couple of things I fooled around with but in the end I arrived at this (below) as the best setup for me on a 14" MBP.



It's a huge page covering the Dock, Windows and Mission Control Settings, the latter you can ignore if you don't use it, I for one use it a lot in conjunction with Hot Corners. Because of that I don't find Stage Manager quite as exciting as some others might because I can see all my Desktops and all my active apps just by hovering my cursor over the top right corner of my screen. Making my eg. browser window smaller so I can click on a portion of my Desktop to hide the browser and see my Desktop and Widgets seems unnecessary but that's just me, macOS has always offered multiple ways of doing the same things and this is just another example.

You can also change the default web browser on this same panel.

I suggest that everyone just try the different options and see what they do till you arrive at a combination that suits your workflow.
You may notice, I have Use iPhone Widgets ticked, this is handy for continuity but may require running the iOS app version for macOS.
You can also drag items out of Notification Centre and put them on the Desktop as Widgets which partly negates the point of Notification Centre.

Suffice to say there is a lot to cover, if anyone has any questions, problems or observations by all means reply to this thread.

 

[Slydude]

Thanks for that summary, Rod. You touched on a few things I had not experimented with yet. It almost makes a second monitor unnecessary for the way I do things.

I think I will try moving a couple of specific things out of the notification center and running them as widgets. With my vision and desk setup, I find them hard to read in the right corner of the screen.

I need to experiment and see if I can get more contrast on the menus..

 

[macuros]

To be honest, nothing special.

Desktop widgets - if only there would be a music widget. I miss this one. Otherwise, I won't be using them.

Wallpapers are a nice addition. I like them and set it to shuffle all aerials. But Continuously currently doesn't work. I think it is a bug there.

Safari profiles. Nice to have, but don't need them. I already have my own workflow with browsers. I can't get used to groups or profiles. I always have to think about which group am I in. So I just use the browser to do my work. But, I am not the kind of person that like to have many tabs open. I have my standard 4-5 tabs always opened, then I just open what I need for personal or work stuff. Later I close all tabs that I don't need.

I am most satisfied if the OS is fast and has as few bugs as possible.

 

[RWW53]

Hi, OK a newbie question, coming from Windows an upgrade means you get your wallet out and an update is free, so am I right in saying in the Mac world an upgrade is just a free OS update?
Thank you, Russ.

 

[MacInWin]

Hi, OK a newbie question, coming from Windows an upgrade means you get your wallet out and an update is free, so am I right in saying in the Mac world an upgrade is just a free OS update?
Thank you, Russ.

It's pretty straightforward. MS sells software as their main product. Apple sells hardware, gives away software to run on that hardware.

So, yes, after Lion, the OS has been free. But don't trivialize it as "just a free OS update." Sonoma is a major change from Ventura.

 

[RWW53]

It's pretty straightforward. MS sells software as their main product. Apple sells hardware, gives away software to run on that hardware.

So, yes, after Lion, the OS has been free. But don't trivialize it as "just a free OS update." Sonoma is a major change from Ventura.

Hi, thank you for the reply, I did not intend to trivialise just needed clarification. Russ

 

[Rod]

Macuros, I too am a little underwhelmed with Widgets, I tried a few but honestly, I like having an empty desktop and I already have ways of obtaining the info they contain like Notifications and Control Centre already (unremovable) on my Menu Bar.

I do use them on my iPhone/iPad because the info they display would require opening an app but in macOS they seem a little like duplication.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Hi, OK a newbie question, coming from Windows an upgrade means you get your wallet out and an update is free, so am I right in saying in the Mac world an upgrade is just a free OS update?

An "upgrade" is an entirely new version of the Mac OS. IOW, it is a major number change, e.g. you upgrade from macOS 12 to macOS 13.

An "update" is an improvement to a major release. IOW, it is a point-something change, e.g. you updated from macOS 12.0 to macOS 12.1.

For many years now both Macintosh upgrades and updates have been entirely free.

In fact, for a good number of years now most (but not all) of Apple's Macintosh applications have been entirely free also. e.g. Pages, Numbers, Keynote, GarageBand, etc. They are free downloads if you didn't get them pre-loaded on a brand-new Macintosh.

This points to some interesting differences in business model between some of the biggest computer companies:

Apple makes its money on hardware, and they give away most of their software for free to encourage sales of their hardware.

Microsoft makes their money on software, which is just about all commercial. They happen to sell some hardware too.

Google makes their money on advertising revenue. They give away most of their software (and related services) for free in order to harvest your personal data to sell to advertisers, and to get ads in front of you.

 

[macuros]

Macuros, I too am a little underwhelmed with Widgets, I tried a few but honestly, I like having an empty desktop and I already have ways of obtaining the info they contain like Notifications and Control Centre already (unremovable) on my Menu Bar.

I do use them on my iPhone/iPad because the info they display would require opening an app but in macOS they seem a little like duplication.

Exactly, I like to have my desktop clean too. Especially now with these new wallpapers which I really like.

 

[MacInWin]

I have decided to give two a try. One is a Weather icon to tell me the temp outside and the other is a clock. Yes, I know the time is on the upper right corner, but I like an analogue clock face just to glance at. Tucked them upper left on the desktop.

 

[toMACsh]

Well, the long awaited macOS 14.0 Sonoma is here and I've spent the better part of a day sifting through the new features and changes from the preceding macOS 13.7 Ventura.

You mean 13.6 of course. I'll wait for 14.2 and let the inevitable kinks be smoothed over a bit.

 

[Rod]

No, 13.0.7, there was an update waiting prior to the Sonoma Upgrade.
See my post #1

 

[Pasquanel]

Yes, there was I almost missed it there definitely was.

 

[toMACsh]

This article makes no mention of 13.0.7 and I have not seen a notification for it in Software Update.

macOS Ventura - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[MacInWin]

I remember the update to 13 that Rod saw. Since I was going to 14, I didn't install it, but there was a simultaneous update to 13 when 14 was released. I didn't note the release number.

 

[Pasquanel]

It must have been a typo, I found this on Apple Insider, and when I clicked on the link this is what came up.
When I opened the link it referenced Ventura 13.6 not 7.

​

 

[PapaRed1]

Another newbie here - I installed Sonoma on my iMac, and attempted to place a widget in the lower right corner of my screen, but it won't stay. When I release it, it pops up to the right corner.
Is it possible to place the clock as a widget on other than upper right?

 

[MacInWin]

Another newbie here - I installed Sonoma on my iMac, and attempted to place a widget in the lower right corner of my screen, but it won't stay. When I release it, it pops up to the right corner.
Is it possible to place the clock as a widget on other than upper right?

I tried it, and all I had to do was to right-click on the Desktop, select Edit Widgets and then drag the clock to the lower right corner. It stuck there just fine.

 

[PapaRed1]

When I right-clicked, this is what I saw:

 

[MacInWin]

You should see this:


The "Edit Widgets..." is below the "Change Wallpaper.." option. If you don't see that, are you certain you are running Sonoma? What does "About This Mac" say? (Click on the Apple upper left corner and then About This Mac)