macOS Sonoma

macOS Sonoma (version 14) is the 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,[6] and released on September 26, 2023. It is named after the wine region located in California's Sonoma County.[7][8]

macOS Sonoma
Version of the macOS operating system
Screenshot
DeveloperApple Inc.
OS family
Source modelClosed, with open source components
General
availability		26 September 2023 (2023-09-26)
Latest release14.0[1] (23A344)[2] (September 26, 2023 (2023-09-26)) [±]
Latest preview14.1 beta 3[3] (23B5067a)[4] (October 10, 2023 (2023-10-10)) [±]
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/
TaglineCome for the power. Stay for the fun.[5]
Support status
Supported. Drops support for most Macs released in 2017.
Part of a series on
macOS
Features
Versions
Applications
Utilities
Related

The first developer beta was released on June 5, 2023,[9] and macOS Sonoma entered public beta on July 11, 2023.[10]

New features

macOS Sonoma includes a number of new features and improvements, mainly focused on productivity and creativity:[11][12][13][14]

  • Widgets have been completely 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 version of it.
  • The lock screen has been redesigned to include the 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.
    • 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.
  • New slow-motion screen savers of different locations worldwide. When logged in, they transform into the desktop wallpaper.
  • Smoother animations for several areas such as the notification panel and the lock screen.
  • 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.[15]
  • 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.

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 equivalent macOS APIs on the fly, 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.[16][17]

A DigitalFoundry review of the first beta of Game Porting Toolkit found it "impressive", with few graphical glitches and full support for console controllers, though they found that frame rates were around half of what they would be on Windows, and that many games were not supported.[18] During the Sonoma beta, updates to the Game Porting Toolkit brought support for 32-bit games and around 20% better performance.[19]

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.[20][21] YouTuber Snazzy Labs issued similar criticisms,[22] which journalist John Siracusa agreed with.[23]

Removed features
  • Support for legacy Mail plug-ins has been removed.[24]
  • 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.[25]
  • The 4.4BSD Calendar data files

Supported hardware

macOS Sonoma supports Macs with Apple silicon and Intel's Xeon-W and 8th-generation Coffee Lake/Amber Lake chips or later,[26] and drops support for various models released in 2017. The 2019 iMac is the only Sonoma-supported Intel Mac that lacks a T2 chip. Sonoma supports the following Mac models:[27]

By using patch tools, macOS Sonoma can be unofficially installed on earlier models that are officially unsupported, such as 2008 MacBook Pro or 2007 iMac.[28]

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.[29][27]

Release history

The first developer beta of macOS Sonoma was released on Monday, June 5, 2023.[30] The Sonoma developer beta was the first to be available to anyone with a free Apple Developer account, without needing a developer subscription.[31][32] 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 Release Candidate 23B73 October 17, 2023 23.1.0
xnu-10002.41.9~6
Mon Oct 9 21:28:12 PDT 2023

See also

References
  1. Clover, Juli (September 26, 2023). "Apple Releases macOS Sonoma With New Widget Features, Safari Updates, Screen Sharing Improvements and More". MacRumors. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
  2. "macOS 14.0 (23A344) - Releases - Apple Developer". Apple Developer. Apple Inc. September 26, 2023. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
  3. Clover, Juli (October 10, 2023). "Apple Seeds Third Beta of macOS Sonoma 14.1 to Developers". MacRumors. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  4. "macOS 14.1 beta 3 (23B5067a) - Releases". Apple Developer. Apple Inc. October 10, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2023.
  5. "macOS Sonoma". Apple. Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  6. "Apple announces macOS Sonoma with support for desktop widgets and screensavers". The Verge. June 5, 2023. Archived from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  7. Edwards, Sara (June 5, 2023). "Apple unveils macOS Sonoma, the latest version of its operating system, inspired by Wine Country". The Press Democrat. Archived from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  8. Heater, Brian (June 5, 2023). "Apple debuts macOS 14 Sonoma". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  9. Clover, Juli (June 5, 2023). "Apple Releases First Beta of macOS 14 Sonoma to Developers". MacRumors. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  10. "macOS Sonoma Public Beta Now Available". MacRumors. July 12, 2023. Archived from the original on July 12, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  11. Porter, Jon (June 5, 2023). "Apple announces macOS Sonoma with game mode and support for desktop widgets". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  12. Cunningham, Andrew (June 5, 2023). "macOS Sonoma adds Game Mode, a new design for desktop widgets, and more". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on June 10, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  13. Shakir, Umar (June 5, 2023). "Apple announces new Safari profiles and WebKit features". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  14. "macOS Sonoma brings new capabilities for elevating productivity and creativity". Apple Newsroom. Apple Inc. June 5, 2023. Archived from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  15. "Safari 17 Release Notes". Apple Developer. Archived from the original on September 21, 2023. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
  16. Warren, Tom (June 7, 2023). "Apple's new Proton-like tool can run Windows games on a Mac". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  17. Purdy, Kevin (June 7, 2023). "Apple has a Proton-like Game Porting Toolkit for getting Windows games on Mac". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  18. Mackenzie, Oliver (July 4, 2023). "Is Mac on the verge of a gaming revolution?". Eurogamer.net. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  19. Wegmann, Eugen (July 5, 2023). "macOS Sonoma: Game Porting Toolkit weckt Hoffnungen auf Mac-Gaming". Macwelt (in German). Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  20. Cohen, Peter (August 31, 2023). "Apple needs to deliver more than Game Mode and the Porting Toolkit". AppleInsider. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  21. Cohen, Peter (July 3, 2023). "Game Porting Toolkit in macOS Sonoma won't fix what's broken with Mac games". iMore. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  22. Voorhees, John (July 3, 2023). "Snazzy Labs on the Trouble with Mac Gaming". Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  23. 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". Mastodon. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  24. "macOS Sonoma Drops Support for Legacy Mail App Plug-ins". MacRumors. June 14, 2023. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
  25. hoakley (September 25, 2023). "PostScript's sudden death in Sonoma". The Eclectic Light Company. Archived from the original on September 25, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  26. Kubiv, Halyna (June 7, 2023). "macOS 14 Sonoma: Diese Macs erhalten kein Update mehr". Macwelt (in German). Archived from the original on June 7, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  27. Cunningham, Andrew (June 5, 2023). "macOS Sonoma drops support for another wide swath of Intel Macs". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on June 7, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  28. OpenCore Legacy Patcher - https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/releases/1.0.0 Archived October 5, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
  29. Cunningham, Andrew (July 1, 2022). "Some Macs are getting fewer updates than they used to. Here's why it's a problem". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on June 16, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  30. Clover, Juli (June 5, 2023). "Apple Releases First Beta of macOS 14 Sonoma to Developers". MacRumors. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  31. Clover, Juli (June 6, 2023). "Apple Makes Developer Betas Free to Download and Install". MacRumors. Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  32. Barr, Kyle (June 7, 2023). "Apple Makes Developer Betas Free for All". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on June 7, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023 – via Yahoo! News.
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