I was very unhappy with Sonoma and had previously posted about it on Nov 15th:

I have a Mac Mini M2-Pro (16GB RAM) with the latest Ventura OS 13.6.1
I purposely waited for a second release of the Sonoma OS before attempting to upgrade. The Sonoma OS was very problematic; system was slow, most apps unresponsive or crashing, etc. . . Fortunately, I use Time Machine backup every week and keep all photos and documents on external drives, but the Sonoma OS would not let me restore to Ventura. I had wanted to do a clean install anyway (just got the new Mac Mini this past August), so I did that and re-loaded only the software that I use. It's a bit puzzling because I know others on this site have upgraded to Sonoma without any problems. Meanwhile, I did send a report to Apple and will stick with Ventura 13.6.1

I have a Mac Mini M2-Pro (16GB RAM) with the latest Ventura OS 13.6.1
I purposely waited for a second release of the Sonoma OS before attempting to upgrade. The Sonoma OS was very problematic; system was slow, most apps unresponsive or crashing, etc. . . Fortunately, I use Time Machine backup every week and keep all photos and documents on external drives, but the Sonoma OS would not let me restore to Ventura. I had wanted to do a clean install anyway (just got the new Mac Mini this past August), so I did that and re-loaded only the software that I use. It's a bit puzzling because I know others on this site have upgraded to Sonoma without any problems. Meanwhile, I did send a report to Apple and will stick with Ventura 13.6.1

That's a very cool avatar!

Nice photos with stunning autumn color. I prefer the first photo that is centered.

I use my 65" LG OLED TV as the monitor for my M2 Pro MacMini (512GB SSD w/16GB RAM), because I like being in my living room and I paid a lot of money for that TV in 2019 :-). Two months ago, I had replaced my 2018 Intel MacMini with the current one. The M2 Pro simply blew away the Intel Mac - photo editing became quick and snappy with Luminar Neo. What used to take about 20-30 seconds now takes about 2-3 seconds! In any case, if you go for the MacMini, you might consider a 32" monitor over the 27" if you have the space. My partner bought a LG QHD 32" monitor for his Windows 11 computer and is very happy with it, because there's lots of viewing space and everything looks tack sharp.

I am not concerned about the internal storage because I always keep all photos, documents & other important stuff on external drives (Samsung T7 SSDs.) I use the Time Machine backup app on Seagate 5TB external drive at least once a week - it backs up the internal SSD and external drive that contains photos and documents. On top of that, each month's photos are backed up to two Toshiba HGST hard drives that I access via a HHD docking station.

I am so glad that I keep my photos and documents on the external drives because when Apple released an updated version of the newer Sonoma OS, I upgraded to that and it was a bad experience (very slow, unresponsive apps, etc. . .) The Sonoma OS would not let me restore to the previous Ventura version with my Time Machine backup, so I erased the disk and reinstalled Ventura before I was able to restore from the Time Machine backup. I was not too worried about any of this, due to having everything on the external drives for safe-keeping.

I am absolutely pleased with the M2 Pro MacMini.

That's good to know. I have a buddy who loves golf and began working part-time in a golf pro shop after retiring. He is going to need either a heart transplant or a pump implanted due to damage from a heart attack 2 years ago. Whenever he recovers, that museum sounds like a perfect day trip to take him.

I assume you were on I-287 in the northern NJ area. I see that sign whenever I'm headed for Connecticut or New York and have always wondered about that, so I Googled the museum to see what it's about. I would imagine if one is an avid golf player and/or fan, they might be interested. I'm usually more focused on finding the nearest Starbucks

A friend and I visited there a few years ago to tour and take pictures. For an extra $10 fee, one can bring a tripod or monopod - well worth it!

#5

Nicely done!

#9 - very clever!

Really nice silhouette shots!

#9

Whenever I check my gmail, I always go straight to the All Mail folder and delete the ones I don't want (most of them.) Then, I go to the Trash folder and permanently delete them.

Regarding the Baldwin piano dilemma: I will probably never have another acoustic piano because today's digital pianos by Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, etc. . . are of exceptional quality in their respective upper end models. I have the Yamaha P515, which emulates the Yamaha DFX III 9ft concert grand and the well known Bösendorfer Imperial, along with over 400 other high quality sounds - all within a small footprint. The P515 has the higher-end features of the Clavinova line (wooden keys, simulated ivory, realistic hammer action, etc. . .) The advantages for me are that I can connect privately without headphones, using my hearing aid and Bluetooth. And. . . some of J.S. Bach's works sound very cool with an assortment of synthesizer voices (Invention #8, for example.)

#2