update 2014 Mac mini?

I built a what I call my uptone Mac.   Love it.   

Apple wants me to update the iOS. to the current.  Im currently. on. macOS. Big Sur.   Should I update the OS?  Im scared too.  It's my main music server.  

Bueller. Bueller. 

M usicguy

I'm running a 2014 Mini with Mojave as a music server and it works well for me, so I can't see any NEED to upgrade your Big Sur unless there is something in that OS that you really want.

I use next to nothing in Mojave that isn't music related.

I think that Monterey is (and stays) the last OS for that computer. So, for security reasons, it is good idea to update to the latest 12.6.2 (and Safari to the ver.16). In overall, in my opinion, Monterey works better than BigSur. 

Mojave (10.14) was very solid--and was the last macOS version to support 32-bit applications. From Catalina (10.15) onward, support for 32-bit applications was dropped. So depending upon what apps you use on your music server you might consider carefully whether to move forward or not.

Over the years Apple's Mac operating systems have become much more complex, and in their "do-it-all" and intertwine/index everything approach, the number of active processes and threads constantly running in the background has shot up enormously.  Sometimes to the detriment of SQ for a machine that is directly attached to a DAC via USB.

Also, there have been what I loosely would call "eras" of macOS versions. Seemed to go about in threes:

1) Major change with teething problems,

2) Next a refinement that improved things,

3) And then a very solid best expression of the era.

Examples of the triplets I refer to (my memory on the first examples may be fuzzy but I think I got the final right in each):

Tiger>Leopard>Snow Leopard

Lion>Mountain Lion>Mavericks (Mavericks being my last favorite, most tweakable for audio server because after this the background stuff went WAY up and disabling most anything could break it.)

Yosemite>El Capitan and then Sierra>High Sierra>Mojave.  All 5 of these seemed to me to not vary much underneath, but I feel strongly that Mojave was the pinnacle of this era.

Catalina>Big Sur>Monterey

And I have yet to yet to move my work machine to Ventura.  Seems like the versions starting with an 'M' are often the sweet spot. But they seem to be sticking to the coast so I don't think we will see macOS Modesto anytime soon. 

@Superdad Very interesting.  What are your thoughts/experience now re Ventura and Sonoma ??

7 minutes ago, Schafheide said:

@Superdad Very interesting.  What are your thoughts/experience now re Ventura and Sonoma ??

I do not know as while I still use Macs for work, I no longer use any as DAC-attached audio endpoints.

(And even my work machine is still on Monterey... )

Please forgive if this is pedantic.  Make sure you're backed up on an external drive, then update as others suggest.  If somehow the whole thing fails, you are only out a few hundred dollars, and the Mac was not going to live forever anyway