MacOS 13 Ventura, should you upgrade right away on 2022-10-24?

[Tralfazz]

MacOS 13 Ventura is scheduled for release on Monday 24 October 2022.

Should I upgrade to it right away?
No.

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edit 2022-10-24: I have performed all the testing that I am able (see Message #2 in this thread) and am running LOTRO in Crossover 22.0.1 on MacOS Ventura 13.0 exactly as well as it ran in Crossover 22.0.1 on MacOS Monterey 12.6. No promises because your hardware is likely to be different than mine but you will most likely have the same experience should you choose to upgrade from an earlier version of MacOS to MacOS Ventura 13.0 as long as your Mac is officially supported by Apple for MacOS Ventura 13.0.
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Why not, Tral?
Naturally, there are exceptions. If your employer requires it, or there is a feature in Monterey that isn't available in your current version of MacOS that you simply must have in order to get your job done/enjoy your computing experience; then sure, go for it. Remember, however, common wisdom holds that, "It's better to wait a few days or even for the first update patch to be sure there are no major issues with a new OS!"

If you're reading this then you're concerned about your ability to play LOTRO. A new version of MacOS could break compatibility with Crossover or whatever other version of WINE or whatever emulator you're using to play the game, and could even include updated drivers for your graphics subsystem that could cause problems. Those issues aren't likely but they are possible. If you're currently running LOTRO well under your current OS and you can engage in all your other work and leisure activities in a satisfactory manner under your current OS, it's better to wait.

How long should I wait?
Somewhere between a couple of hours and a couple of days.

I am going to test MacOS 13 Ventura with Crossover 22 and LOTRO as soon as I am able after it is released. My testing might be complete by 6pm EDT (server time) on the 24th, maybe earlier although it might take me up to two extra days if there are complications in my life or with the testing process. I can test in a non-destructive way: Before upgrading my current MacOS 12 Monterey boot volume, I'll create a fresh boot volume and install MacOS 13 Ventura and then Crossover and then LOTRO onto that. If it works, great! Then I'll upgrade my daily boot volume and run the tests again. I'll make note of any changes and anything you should be aware of or have to do to make it work, then post here in Mac Technical Support. You'll know as soon as I know.

If you wait for my report, you'll need to wait anywhere from a few hours after the release of the new OS to, at most, two days. It's perfectly fine to not wait if you like to be among the first people to upgrade to a new OS, and if you do so it would be great to hear from you as to the performance of LOTRO in Crossover under the new OS! But if playing the game is something you like to do, it's really better to let someone else be the guinea pig. Since I can perform tests without impacting my ability to play the game, it's really better to have a bit of patience and wait for my report. (Note that anyone can perform the same tests, there's nothing special about me. You do need to create additional boot volumes rather than simply applying the OS upgrade to your current boot volume, among other things; there's nothing complicated about it but most people don't do those things, they just upgrade their existing boot volumes and most don't even create backups first.)

Will Crossover 21 work with MacOS 13 Ventura?
No. You will need to use Crossover 22 with MacOS 13 Ventura.

This raises a complication for those people who ran into problems when attempting to run LOTRO under Crossover 22 and could not do so. If you could not run LOTRO under Crossover 22 on your Mac but were able to resolve the issue by rolling back to Crossover 21, you definitely should not upgrade to MacOS 13 Ventura. Note also that because I have not been able to replicate the issue reported by these people that I cannot test for you whether this issue might be resolved in MacOS 13 Ventura. I very strongly suggest that, if you experienced this issue but want to use MacOS 13 Ventura, that you create a new boot volume and install MacOS 13 Ventura onto that then install Crossover 22 then install LOTRO then test to be sure LOTRO is working. If so, you can delete that boot volume and then confidently upgrade your daily boot volume to MacOS 13 Ventura and your version of Crossover to v22. If not, and you want to play LOTRO, the best option is to simply not upgrade to MacOS 13 Ventura – at least until another update to Crossover is released at which time you can perform your tests again.

What about open-source WINE?
No public build of open-source WINE will run LOTRO with any post-Mojave version of MacOS, and no version of WINE from 6.17 forward will run LOTRO in any pre-Mojave version of MacOS. In other words, you need to use MacOS 10.14 Mojave (10.14.6, to be precise) in order to use the latest versions of open-source WINE. No earlier version (such as MacOS 10.13 High Sierra) or later version (such as MacOS 10.15 Catalina) will do.

What about Parallels or some other emulator?
Sorry, I don't know. Perhaps someone else will perform the required testing and share that with the rest of us. I don't use emulators and don't want to do so in order to play LOTRO.