The next version of MacOS ...

[ConcertinaChap]

... is version 26, Tahoe, apparently. They're going to the year in future hence the big jump from 15 to 26. It will run on the following machines:

- MacBook Air M1 or later
- MacBook Pro M1 or later
- MacBook Pro 16-inch (Intel) 2019
- MacBook Pro 13-inch (Intel) 2020 with four Thunderbolt 3 ports
- iMac 2020 or later
- Mac mini 2020 or later
- Mac Pro 2019 or later
- Mac Studio 2022 and later

So my iMac Pro is out. Not complaining, though. For a 2017 machine it's doing OK with another 2 years of support for Sequoiya, and the Studio, Air and Mini are all fine.

https://www.techradar.com/computing/mac ... s-and-macs

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[Sam Inglis]

I'm told that Tahoe will include some significant improvements to the Class Compliant USB driver within Core Audio, which deliver lower latency and improved stability.

[OneWorld]

I'm told that Tahoe will include some significant improvements to the Class Compliant USB driver within Core Audio, which deliver lower latency and improved stability.

Are you reading this Mr Gates? or will you continue to assert that a better operating system is one that is festooned with trish trash? Apart from my 2 Win11 machines - Jeeves and Mozart, I have an Apple iPad, which is getting on in years now, and it is elegant, fast, reliable etc all the things that make Apple the highly regarded product that it is, I don't think I have ever needed a reboot to clear a fault, it just works, and it accompanies me all day long, watching YouTube, BBC iPlayer, reading all manner of news sites from around the world etc etc etc and it never misses a beat. I have invested so much in WinWare that I cannot justify making the leap, and crossing over to the other side, but it is ever so tempting

[ConcertinaChap]

I must admit I have never understood why it took so long for M$ to implement properly USB Audio 2.0, and even now I understand it's not complete. Whereas Macs had it long ago and never needed ASIO drivers. Still, that's off the thread. If Apple have found ways to improve it that can only be good news.

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[BigRedX]

Is there an official release date for this yet?

I plan on updating my Mac Studio to Sequoia a week or so before while it's still relatively easy.

[OneWorld]

I must admit I have never understood why it took so long for M$ to implement properly USB Audio 2.0, and even now I understand it's not complete. Whereas Macs had it long ago and never needed ASIO drivers. Still, that's off the thread. If Apple have found ways to improve it that can only be good news.

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[ConcertinaChap]

Is there an official release date for this yet?

The press is just saying September - October. Well there's a surprise.

I plan on updating my Mac Studio to Sequoia a week or so before while it's still relatively easy.

Sensible. I'll be doing the same in July with our Macs.

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[BigRedX]

Thanks!

In that case, I'll be looking at dong mine some time in late August when work isn't too busy.

[Sam Inglis]

I must admit I have never understood why it took so long for M$ to implement properly USB Audio 2.0, and even now I understand it's not complete. Whereas Macs had it long ago and never needed ASIO drivers. Still, that's off the thread. If Apple have found ways to improve it that can only be good news.

CC

My (possibly incorrect) understanding is that Windows has natively supported class compliant USB 2 devices for quite a while, but that the drivers weren't suitable for professional use as the latency was too high. In the meantime ASIO became a de facto standard for serious audio work.

[ConcertinaChap]

I think the confusion here is because USB Audio 2.0 is not the same as USB 2.0, maybe? Windows supported USB Audio 1.0 with its 16 bit restrictions and the rest for a long time. In 2017 with Windows 10, release 1703, M$ announced they were going to support USB Audio 2.0 but then it turned out they were only supporting playback for the benefit of people with expensive speaker systems for games use. Recording was still just USB Audio 1.0. That is how things stayed until relatively recently.

Given that you have your ear to the industrial ground much more closely than I do you're more likely to be right than I am. It's my wife's birthday and we're going out very soon for a birthday meal and session so doing a bit of checking of chapter and verse will have to wait till tomorrow.

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[ajay_m]

It's the same reason that Android audio has terrible latency. Both Microsoft and Google aren't much interested in content creators. They are interested in content consumers and the huge flow of money that accrued through advertising.
I will probably move to Apple next time I refresh my studio laptop. Windows is just becoming too complex and unreliable. I now get a message on every boot that some Nvidia software is incompatible. The cause is a botched windows update that's non-trivial to resolve. Since it's only a minor nuisance I'll live with it but the continual spamming through the browser and start menu is starting to get really intrusive and I'm sure a lot of pointless AI crap is also heading towards my machine whether I like it or not.

[merlyn]

A key concept with Windows is 'third party'. Full disclosure: I don't like Windows. But I have installed it quite a few times for other people on their gaming rigs. For gaming it works out of the box. It doesn't come with the games that most people play, though -- they are all third party. Third party games, third party game launcher, third party browser, third party voice over IP ...

Is it even an OS? It's often called a platform. A platform for third party software. With this philosophy third party decent drivers doesn't seem like a leap.

[adamburgess]

Been trying the dev release of Tahoe 26.0 on a couple of my M1 and M2 machines. Works fine, so far!

Xcode, Sibelius and Logic, plus usual YouTube & web stuff. Plugins seem good.

CoreAudio and CoreMIDI stuff with a few different interfaces are playing nicely.

[Eddy Deegan]

A key concept with Windows is 'third party'.

...

Is it even an OS? It's often called a platform. A platform for third party software. With this philosophy third party decent drivers doesn't seem like a leap.

I've moved away from it for audio use but Windows is definitely an OS. The term 'platform' is somewhat fuzzier than 'OS' and something can be both an OS and a platform. Some platforms are very much not operating systems either.

Glad we cleared that up

[merlyn]

It's not unreasonable to expect drivers to be included with an operating system. Imagine if Android was like Windows. Guy buys Android phone. The screen looks pants. He goes on the internet to find out why. "Right," says someone more knowledgeable "find out what graphics card you have, go to their website, find the correct driver, download and install that, then reboot." Unfortunately our guy is not very technical and doesn't have a clue what any of that means.

Android works out of the box as it comes with all the correct drivers, meaning that most people can use it. I don't imagine you've installed many third party drivers on macOS.

Android and Windows have audio drivers with high latency because Android and Windows work with a much wider range of hardware, and the hardware is abstracted. Apple know what hardware is in their devices and can include the drivers for that.

The rise of class compliant audio is mostly down to the fact that it's not possible to install drivers on an iPad.

More relevantly, Windows has used third party drivers since its beginnings, why would they change that now?