It will be interesting to see how download numbers compare to previous versions. You can check out all of the above and more in a handy feature I just published. As for immediate benefits to the end user, both Safari and Photos are getting some new feature updates, including better ad blocking and more advanced editing options, respectively. High Sierra also brings new video encoding for 4K and marks the arrival of Metal 2, which will offer graphical enhancements in the future. That update will be mostly invisible to users in the short term, but it will help futureproof the operating system for years to come. Crazy to think, but all of the OS X updates used the same system the company has relied on since the early days of the Mac. The big change here is the first meaningful update to Apple’s file system in around 30 years. That’s due in part to the bonanza features in iOS 11 and the fact that macOS 10.13 is a pretty unsexy update, mostly focused on infrastructural changes.

Apple’s other operating system has taken a bit of a backseat to its mobile counterpart in recent years, and High Sierra’s no exception. The latest version of macOS just went live on the Mac App Store as a free download.