What is my potential for success if I move forward and install macOS Tahoe 26.0.1?

There are 4 Categories of Third Party Software / Services that are baffling and are not needed 

Get rid of them via the Developers Instruction 

In no special order 

Third Party 2 Way Firewalls 

like Lulu and Little Snitch 

Commercial VPNs 

They may not be what one believes they are doing for the computer and what they actually are doing behind the scenes 

They may also reduce your Internet Speeds by upwards of 30% 

https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

VPN: What you need to know - Apple Community

Third Party Security Software 

There are no known Windows-like Viruses in the wild that self replicate and affect macOS, because of the underling UNIX  Foundation and Permission Limitation. 

The Operating System resides in a Sealed and Read Only Volume that cannot be opened by the User nor by Third Party Applications.

The Only thing this Antivirus software is protecting is the Bank Account of the Developers and for zero return to the User aside from the problems this software creates.

Security. Built right in

Mac app security enhancements

The Built in Security  is all that is required to protect the computer.

Protecting against malware in macOS

Third Party Disk Cleaners / Optimizer 

Any Third Party Applications that will interfere with the normal operation of the OS,  is an invitation for disaster. 

Certain Applications maybe available on the Apple Apps Store - this only means the Developer is prepared to pay Apple a percentage on each sale. 

What the Application may do to the computer is up to the User to check this out before purchase

To put the Third Party Disk Cleaner / Optimizer in context and the damages it may have or has already done.

This type of applications can or will Muck Up your User Account ( Home Folder ) of this machine.

It does not touch the Operating System itself unless you consider your User Account ( Home Folder ) as part of the Operating System.

The Operating System is hosed

Actions have consequences, which in turn have repercussions. These repercussions from the AV Software may not always appear immediately, but when they do, they are often the least expected.

The anti-virus software that you have on your Mac does not help your Mac in any way.

Our advice would be to remove the anti-virus stuff you have on your computer......no matter whether you choose to update to Tahoe or not.

Is there some particular new feature in Tahoe that you really need right now? If not, why not wait 4-6 weeks and keep an eye on this site to get an idea of what the initial feedback might be....before you make the plunge.

But, it's your call.

Robert Paris wrote:

No, I have no such evidence... It costs me a pittance in $$ each year and it's never done harm.

But it does cause harm — harm that manifests in the form of lost time, productivity, even the energy and bandwidth wasted debating a subject that (if not for Windows) should have been rendered moot decades ago. Time, energy... commodities that can never be reclaimed. It's the ultimate in waste.

People complain about waste all the time — government waste, food waste, energy waste, wastes of all sorts of things individual people can do little to nothing about. This is something you can actually change, and the only thing you need to do is nothing. Don't participate.

The "anti-virus" business is a multi-billion dollar enterprise responsible for an aggregate worldwide economic cost that is beyond astronomical. It is truly incalculable.

Somebody had to pay for this nice building:

As you contemplate the pittance it costs you each year, consider dropping whatever sum that might be in a collection plate, a tip jar, or giving it to a total stranger you will never meet again. It is absolutely certain to brighten someone's day, even your own.

At least not to date...

Look at the calendar. The 21st century is 25% gone. To date there have been zero Mac viruses. None. Given the arguably over the top protections Apple has incorporated in all their products for about a decade now, there will never be a macOS virus.

Yet we'll probably still be having this conversation in another quarter century. Some things never change.

How many times has my seat belt in my car saved my life...??? Zero, and yes I know it's law to use it...

By the same logic you should also be wearing a motorcycle helmet in your car. And in everyone else's car too. You should also wear it on a bus, or a train as well. Because... better safe than sorry. Right?

Like steve626, my company requires anti-virus software on the 50,000’ish company Macs, and it has not been pretty.

As far as I know, nothing has been found by the 3rd party A/V software, and we have a very active company Slack channel where our Mac users exchange info. So if the A/V software reported something, we most likely would have had someone post it. So far zero reports.

Heck, discussions.apple.com does not have reports, that are not web page pop-up advertising pretending to be virus detection as a scare tactic.

However, at work we have had the A/V mandatory software cripple Mac performance, cause kernel panics, prevent unmounting external disks (because the A/V software is scanning the disk), etc…

The 2 things that have helped are, the M-series Macs have sufficient performance to make life bearable with A/V software, and Apple forced 3rd parties to stop using kernel extensions, which stopped the panics.

But we are still giving up performance so the company lawyers can “Cover your 🫏” just in case there is some kind of breach, they can say the company tried to protect its environment.

If you are a personal user you are just spending money for A/V, and extra electricity because your Mac has to work harder, and maybe buying a more powerful Mac than you need to compensate for the A/V performance loss.

My personnel Macs just depend on the Apple provided protections, which are very good.

My employer has required anti-virus on all its computers for more than 25 years. In that time I have never seen the anti-virus find anything on our Macs (we have about 3000 of them in constant use), the quarantine on the Macs is always empty.

However for both the PCs and Macs, the anti-virus programs have caused no end of problems. It has been serious enough that the company has been switching anti-virus providers every few years. The latest one (Sentinel) seems more stable than the others used before but one thing the anti-virus programs do is slow down file copies and especially Time Machine significantly.

Robert Paris wrote:

How many times has my seat belt in my car saved my life...???

As Barney stated, a seat belt could save your life. Third-party security software does nothing but cost money needlessly.

I have 2020 M1 MacBook Air running Tahoe, with absolutely no issues whatsoever, so a 2021 MacBook Pro should have even less issue running it.

The anti-virus is pretty unnecessary.

I have a 2021 iMac M1 running Tahoe 26.0.1. No issues. Personally, I would move directly to Tahoe 26.0.1 from where you are currently.

Note that I don't have VirusBarrier, NetBarrier or other similar products installed, have never had those types of products installed on any Mac that I've owned and would never even think of doing so.

Robert Paris wrote:

Why are you guys (who clearly know more than me by sheer numbers of points) so opposed to virus software...

It would be like installing software to keep vampires away. It may not damage your Mac but they aren't needed and just take up space.

Robert Paris wrote:

Why are you guys (who clearly know more than me by sheer numbers of points) so opposed to virus software... I grant you that I've heard many times that other very advanced users don't use such but it's also, to date, never caused me issues and yes, maybe it's just a bit of a security blanket I think might help a little bit here or there...

What is the antivirus software doing for you? Do you have any hard evidence it found anything that was not a false positive?

Your success potential is inversely proportional to the amount of system modifications you have installed.

Your success potential is already at rock bottom having any sort of pseudo-security system modifications.

Robert Paris wrote:

No, I have no such evidence... It costs me a pittance in $$ each year and it's never done harm. At least not to date... < Hoping I don't limp back in here later and say it finally did harm as I tried to install Tahoe... >. I consider it a security effort... How many times has my seat belt in my car saved my life...??? Zero, and yes I know it's law to use it... But I do know it's there and MIGHT save me if needed...

I expect to have some drugged out idiot crash into me. I don’t expect any malware to get past Apple’s security and unix inherent security.