MacOS Sonoma

Last updated

macOS Sonoma
Version of the macOS operating system
MacOS Sonoma - logo.svg
MacOS Sonoma Desktop.png
Screenshot of macOS Sonoma
Developer Apple
OS family
Source model Closed, with open source components
General
availability 		September 26, 2023;16 months ago (2023-09-26)
Latest release 14.7.3 [1] (January 27, 2025;2 days ago (2025-01-27)) [±]
Update method Software Update
Platforms x86-64, ARM64
Kernel type Hybrid (XNU)
License Proprietary software with open-source components and content licensed with APSL
Preceded by macOS Ventura
Succeeded by macOS Sequoia
Official website apple.com/macos/sonoma at the Wayback Machine (archived 2023-09-26)
TaglineCome for the power. Stay for the fun. [2]
Support status
Receiving security updates. Drops support for all Macs released in 2017 excluding the iMac Pro.

macOS Sonoma (version 14) is the twentieth major release of macOS, Apple's operating system for Mac 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]

Contents

macOS Sonoma was succeeded by macOS Sequoia, which was released on September 16, 2024.

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

macOS Sonoma is the final version of macOS that supports the 2018–2019 MacBook Air, as its successor, macOS Sequoia, drops support for those models.

New features

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

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, 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 Corporation'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

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 the 12-inch MacBook. The 2019 iMac is the only Sonoma-supported Intel Mac that lacks a T2 chip.

Mac models that support macOS Sonoma are as follows. [26]

Unofficial support

By using patch tools such as OpenCore Legacy Patcher, 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 releaseCurrent releaseSecurity response
macOS Sonoma releases
VersionBuildRelease date Darwin version
14.023A344September 26, 202323.0.0
xnu-10002.1.13~1
Fri Sep 15 14:41:34 PDT 2023
14.123B74October 25, 202323.1.0
xnu-10002.41.9~6
Mon Oct 9 21:27:27 PDT 2023
14.1.123B81 [32] November 7, 202323.1.0
xnu-10002.41.9~6
Mon Oct 9 21:26:29 PDT 2023
23B2082 [32]
14.1.223B92November 30, 202323.1.0
xnu-10002.41.9~6
Mon Oct 9 21:27:27 PDT 2023
23B2091
14.223C64December 11, 202323.2.0
xnu-10002.61.3~2
Wed Nov 15 21:54:10 PST 2023
14.2.123C71December 19, 2023
14.323D56January 22, 202423.3.0
xnu-10002.81.5~7
Wed Dec 20 21:30:27 PST 2023
14.3.123D60February 8, 202423.3.0
xnu-10002.81.5~7
Wed Dec 20 21:28:58 PST 2023
14.423E214March 7, 202423.4.0
xnu-10063.101.15~2
Wed Feb 21 21:44:31 PST 2024
14.4.123E224March 25, 202423.4.0
xnu-10063.101.17~1
Fri Mar 15 00:12:41 PDT 2024
14.523F79May 13, 202423.5.0
xnu-10063.121.3~5
Wed May 1 20:16:51 PDT 2024
14.623G80July 29, 202423.6.0
xnu-10063.141.1~2
Fri Jul 5 18:01:46 PDT 2024
14.6.123G93August 7, 2024 [33] 23.6.0
xnu-10063.141.1~2
Mon Jul 29 21:13:04 PDT 2024
14.723H124September 16, 2024 [34] 23.6.0
xnu-10063.141.1.700.5~1
Wed Jul 31 20:48:44 PDT 2024
14.7.123H222October 28, 202423.6.0
xnu-10063.141.1.701.1~1
Thu Sep 12 23:34:49 PDT 2024
14.7.223H311December 11, 202423.6.0
xnu-10063.141.1.701.1~1
Thu Sep 12 23:34:49 PDT 2024
14.7.3January 27, 2025

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

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Engst, Adam (January 27, 2025). "Apple's January 2025 OS Updates Enhance Apple Intelligence, Fix Bugs". TidBITS . Retrieved January 28, 2025.
  2. ↑ "macOS Sonoma". Apple. Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved September 26, 2023.
  3. ↑ "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.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ Heater, Brian (June 5, 2023). "Apple debuts macOS 14 Sonoma". TechCrunch . Archived from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ "macOS Sonoma Public Beta Now Available". MacRumors. July 12, 2023. Archived from the original on July 12, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ 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.
  11. ↑ "macOS Sonoma brings new capabilities for elevating productivity and creativity" (Press release). Apple Inc. June 5, 2023. Archived from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  12. ↑ "New features available with macOS Sonoma" (PDF). Apple Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 19, 2023. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Safari 17 Release Notes". Apple Developer. Archived from the original on September 21, 2023. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max, the most advanced chips for a personal computer" (Press release). Apple Inc. October 30, 2023. Archived from the original on October 31, 2023. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ 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.
  17. ↑ 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.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ 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.
  20. ↑ 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.
  21. ↑ 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.
  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". Mastodon. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2023.
  23. ↑ "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.
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ 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.
  26. 1 2 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.
  27. ↑ OpenCore Legacy Patcher - https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/releases/1.0.0 Archived October 5, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
  28. ↑ 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.
  29. ↑ 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.
  30. ↑ 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.
  31. ↑ 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.
  32. 1 2 "macOS Sonoma 14.1.1 Update (23B81) & (23B2082) – What's New?". Mr. Macintosh. November 8, 2023. Archived from the original on March 28, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  33. ↑ Clover, Juli (August 7, 2024). "Apple Releases macOS Sonoma 14.6.1 With Bug Fixes". MacRumors . Retrieved August 7, 2024.
  34. ↑ "About the security content of macOS Sonoma 14.7".
Preceded by macOS 14 Sonoma
2023		Succeeded by
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