Upgrade to Monterey os

I just finished upgrading from Mojave to Monterey on a 2017 iMac yesterday. I used Go64 to help me identify 32-bit only apps to either upgrade them to 64-bit if available or if I could live without them going forward on Monterey. I have setup a Mojave volume via APFS (Apple File System) so if I really need to use those 32-bit only apps again I can always boot to that volume.

The biggest hurdle I had was a windoze game I played regularly using WINE. The game originally had a Mac version but this was eventually dropped. The problem was that its launcher is still 32-bit while the main game client is 64-bit. WINE handled this just fine on Mojave. So if I wanted to upgrade to Monterey I would either have to reboot to Mojave to play the game or purchase CrossOver. I ultimately decided to buy CrossOver (when it went on sale) to play the game on Monterey since CrossOver is able to run the game's 32-bit launcher on Monterey (but WINE cannot do this).

I also setup Monterey on an external SSD and verified a number of applications as well as confirm that Monterey worked just fine on my 2017 iMac (Apple docs said it would but you know always nice to verify before making the big leap).

So I ended up never upgrading to Catalina or Big Sur on my iMac. I just made the big leap from Mohave to Monterey. The bottom line is you need to look at all your applications to see which ones are only 32-bit (with no 64-bit upgrade) and whether you can live without them going forward or are willing to boot back to Mojave to use them. Go64 was an invaluable tool in helping me with this transition.

FWIW, older 32bit apps will no longer run when upgrading to Catalina and later. You can check which apps may need updated or replaced with Go64.