Hello Frank,
[Topic moved here.]
To add to others' replies, my thoughts would be:
- I use macOS 10.13 and find it to be excellent for Hauptwerk and other purposes at this point in time. Eventually it will be de-supported by Apple after which it would no longer be advisable (for security reasons) to use it if the computer is connected to the Internet. Also, eventually companies will stop making drivers/software for it.
- I don't know of any benefits that macOS 10.15 'Catalina' would give you above 10.13 for Hauptwerk purposes specifically (although maybe there are features in it that you might possibly want for other reasons).
- There are a few minor (mainly cosmetic) compatibility issues between Hauptwerk v5 and macOS 10.15, which are listed in the last section of the release notice:
https://www.hauptwerk.com/documentation/ . 10.15 is still reasonably new, and some hardware and software isn't yet fully compatible with it,
- Personally, I would never upgrade between major versions of either macOS or Windows without performing a completely clean installation of the operating system (reformatting the drive during installation, reinstalling all software afterwards, etc.), since my experience has been that both platforms (Mac and Windows) work and perform significantly better as a result. Although allowing the operating system to upgrade an existing installation should technically be possible, every time I've ever tried it (including only a few macOS versions ago) I've had problems as a result, and ended up having to wipe it and reinstall everything from clean anyway to get back to a system that works reliably and performs well. However, reinstalling the operating system and all software from clean is of course a fairly major undertaking. Other people seem to have had more luck, so your mileage may vary, as they say.
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.