Photos in High Sierra now has all the adjustment tools easily accessible on the side panel. Lori Grunin/CNET Now that they're free, operating system updates are often just as much about fixing the underlying plumbing of a device as they are about adding new and notable features.

That's largely the case with MacOS 10.13, otherwise known as High Sierra. For the most part, don't expect jaw-dropping changes or totally new interfaces.

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Instead, you get new features such as Safari's autoplay blocking, the ability to edit iPhone's Live Photos in Photos, and really fast file copying on SSDs. On the other hand, that means no sea-changes to your existing workflows, and some nice quality-of-experience enhancements if you're a big user of those applications. Performance is virtually identical, at least on an up-to-date MacBook Pro (13-inch). File moves are instantaneous under both High Sierra and Sierra, but copies of large files (like a 4.3GB ISO image) are instantaneous on AFS, the updating disk file system that's now default for anyone who doesn't have a Fusion drive or an old spinning hard drive. That's really important if you work with video and other massive-file generating tools.

Battery life seems to be slightly better -- we got about 30 minutes more. But it also turns out that High Sierra breaks one of our benchmarks. Just hours before the High Sierra update become available for download, a Keychain security vulnerability in MacOS. In response, Apple said the following: 'MacOS is designed to be secure by default, and Gatekeeper warns users against installing unsigned apps, like the one shown in this proof of concept, and prevents them from launching the app without explicit approval.

We encourage users to download software only from trusted sources like the Mac App Store, and to pay careful attention to security dialogs that MacOS presents.' Apple did not provide a timeline for a possible fix. However, because the vulnerability is said to affect High Sierra and previous versions of MacOS, waiting to update won't make you any safer. Should I update?

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TL;DR Yes, if you answer any of these affirmatively: • You're paranoid about security. Some say that the update is essential in order to get a complete set of security fixes, but it's not like Apple is going to keep Sierra unpatched. Enterprises are running even older versions and they'll continue to be patched. But if you think the potential security advantages outweigh the possibility of running into application issues, then update. • Your system has an SSD, not a Fusion Drive or HDD • You've updated your iPhone or iPad to iOS 11 and shoot photos and videos with the new file formats • You're a big Photos user • You have a complicated family to manage with iCloud • You've been screaming for the specific capabilities added in those particular applications Updating will also get you the latest security fixes (the Keychain exploit above notwithstanding). That said, my standard recommendation is to wait at least a month before updating and let the early birds find the most glaring problems and glitches, which are generally handled by followup point upgrades. Want a more detailed look at what you need to know about High Sierra?