Stay Catalina and PS 2022 or upgrade to a new OS?

[NancyA]

I have included a picture of my MacBook Pro 15 in. 2018.  If you need anything else please let me know.  I googled and the only one I found said you were still on Catalina but it appears there are 3 newer ones.  I don't want to get too far behind but Catalina is working good for me.  I am using photoshop 2022 and I don't think there is anything new in the new PS that I need.

Thanks for your advice!

[Brian]

How much free space on the HD?

You could upgrade to Big Sur, which is what I'm running now. It's pretty stable at this point and seems to be working well for me. Not a huge difference between Catalina and Big Sur, at least for Macs like ours. One thing it does do is allow you access to the very latest version of Photoshop. Which could be a good thing or bad as lots and lots of our users have had problems with the latest version of PS/LR and their Video Cards; nothing but errors and complaints from Photoshop. Yours is on the edge, but it *should* work fine.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not the end of the world. All you would have to do is dump the latest version of PS and never upgrade it and you'll be fine. Unfortunately, you won't know if anything "bad" will happen until you actually upgrade.

So if you do want to continue down the upgrade path, let me know how much free HD Space and we will go from there. With a 2018 Mac (mine is a 2017 Mac) I'm thinking a new Mac will be in our future's within the next 2 years. 2025 is going to be the year for us to replace our computers, so start saving.

[NancyA]

I just ran CleanMyMac X and got this.  I figured a new laptop was in the works. I need to do some research.  Do you have a suggestion or recommendation for laptop specifications?

I'm going to sit on doing any upgrading right now.  I have a sony AI and lag on generating gets to me.  I am afraid upgrading anything will just make that worse.

[Brian]

1 hour ago, NancyA said:

Do you have a suggestion or recommendation for laptop specifications?

If you are going to stay with a Mac Laptop, have about $4600 (US Dollars) saved up. By the time you are ready to buy, things will have changed drastically. So hit me up for info when the time comes.

As far as specs, your Mac is fine to upgrade. This is how you update to Big Sur and this REQUIRES SAFARI TO ACCOMPLISH. No other browser will work. Period. No Chrome, Firefox, Edge, whatever. It MUST be Safari only!!

Copy and Paste the following URL into Safari:

macappstores://apps.apple.com/app/macos-big-sur/id1526878132?mt=12

That link should open the App Store to the following Page:

It should Say macOS Big Sur. Click the "Get" button, download the installer file and go through the motions. I will warn you, this file is about 1GB in size and I would not have anything else open while you download this. No Netflix or Spotify or Facebook or E-mail. No 50 Tabs open in a Browser either, I don't care if they are all important.  When it comes to a OS Upgrade, it should be you, your computer, and the OS Installer. That's it. Make sure your laptop is plugged in when you do this.

Also, you mentioned CleanMyMac, which is awesome, but you need to be on the latest version before you do ANY cleaning. If you have CleanMyMac X, this isn't an issue, just "Check for Updates." Old Cleaning-type Programs and a new OS DO NOT MIX!! You could royally screw up your computer if you run and out-of-date utility program such as this with a new OS.