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Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina

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Re: Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina

#31
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how much has it cost Microsoft? Apple was able to successfully take the base of MacOS and port it’s operating system to a much lower spec phone back in 2007 and came to dominate the smart phone market (in profit they only thing that matters), the tablet market where MS failed repeatedly, not to mention it was able to port the base OS to everything from Watches and TV set top boxes - all things that Microsoft trie…

Microsoft did manage to port Windows to mobile platforms, with success to some extent. Notice that it's Windows for Desktop that maintains support for legacy software. Support for legacy software isn't necessarily detrimental to success. Microsoft's lost battle in phone market has nothing to do with it. In addition, Microsoft seems to be doing just fine in the other markets, and it's been growing on cloud, which we m…

What “success” was that? Sure it had some modicum of success with Win CE/Win32/and .Net compact framework but success was fleeting. The development environment was nice but they ended up completely killing backwards compatibility with the newer versions and abandoned all of the enterprise/ruggedized devices. The last version of Visual Studio that supported then was VS 2007 while there were plenty of $1000+ ruggedized devices and kiosks that still ran Windows CE - I developed for them back in the day.

Re: Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina

#32
post #5

Perhaps these apps were already well beyond supported? I don't use anything except 1Password on the list at the link and the current supported version is 7. Version 2.x would have been sometime and many security updates ago, non?

Perhaps these apps were already well beyond supported?

Some of them are more than beyond supported. They're completely useless and unnecessary.

There are programs on there for connecting to PCMCIA modems and Palm Pilots.

That said, there is one item on that list that affects me, but I know that I've been avoiding a $299 upgrade for years, so it's not completely unexpected.

Re: Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina

#33
post #26
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have code that has continued to run, untouched, for decades. This isn’t always a good thing. I usually don’t like when a piece of software feels like it hasn’t been updated since the 90s. But I guess we don’t want some military defense system to break because it’s 32-bit either.

I could hardly care less how modern a piece of software "feels" as long as it's usable. It doesn't stop being usable 5 years later due to being out of fashion. Many recent redesigns (hello Gmail) are quite the opposite to me btw. I care about fixing security holes, and actually useful improvements (to the UI as well, why not, when they make sense)

Well, when the software doesn’t support all of the new features of the platform, I definitely care. I hate that even today four years after it was introduced, there are still video apps on iOS that don’t support PIP on the iPad and apps that don’t support split view.

Re: Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina

#34
post #23

I can understand eliminating CarbonLib support, though I would have made CarbonLib an optional component you needed to install on the OS a couple years ago to make it clear this was now an optional component that may no longer be supported in the near future. I also don't get why they would eliminate all 32-bit userspace support though - like why eliminate support for 32-bit Cocoa apps, and I think Apple made a mista…

At what point should they drop support?

Re: Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina

#35
post #2

This is why Microsoft is the better long-term play: Backwards compatibility -- their commitment to the investment of labor. If you build your software on Apple, there almost certainly will come a point in the future where your code will cease to work. Microsoft has made a commitment to backward compatibility. It's such a huge benefit. I have code that has continued to run, untouched, for decades . I don't have to upg…

And how much has it cost Microsoft? Apple was able to successfully take the base of MacOS and port it’s operating system to a much lower spec phone back in 2007 and came to dominate the smart phone market (in profit they only thing that matters), the tablet market where MS failed repeatedly, not to mention it was able to port the base OS to everything from Watches and TV set top boxes - all things that Microsoft trie…

How much has it cost MSFT? They have a trillion dollar market cap, so I would say that’s not a particularly relevant question.

Re: Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina

#36
post #29

I'm quite surprised Apple isn't providing a VM wrapper to run these apps in a more or less seamless way, for at least the next 2-3 versions. This is leaving a lot of software, and a lot of people, without alternatives.

It’s been 10 years since Apple released a 64 bit OS and the last 32 bit x86 based Mac.

Re: Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina

#37
post #23

I can understand eliminating CarbonLib support, though I would have made CarbonLib an optional component you needed to install on the OS a couple years ago to make it clear this was now an optional component that may no longer be supported in the near future. I also don't get why they would eliminate all 32-bit userspace support though - like why eliminate support for 32-bit Cocoa apps, and I think Apple made a mista…

Just to hazard a guess...

"Intel officials believe that ARM Macs could come as soon as 2020": https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/02/21/intel-officials-b...

Re: Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina

#38
post #2

This is why Microsoft is the better long-term play: Backwards compatibility -- their commitment to the investment of labor. If you build your software on Apple, there almost certainly will come a point in the future where your code will cease to work. Microsoft has made a commitment to backward compatibility. It's such a huge benefit. I have code that has continued to run, untouched, for decades . I don't have to upg…

> This is not true of ... almost any open source project.

I don't think that's generally the case, in part because of the very nature of open source. And certainly, for example, I can easily compile over 30-year-old TeX and run 30-year-old Emacs code.

Re: Apple's list of 235 apps that are incompatible with macOS Catalina

#39
post #2

This is why Microsoft is the better long-term play: Backwards compatibility -- their commitment to the investment of labor. If you build your software on Apple, there almost certainly will come a point in the future where your code will cease to work. Microsoft has made a commitment to backward compatibility. It's such a huge benefit. I have code that has continued to run, untouched, for decades . I don't have to upg…

I have a 32-bit application I use regularly to interface with old hardware (which isn't on the list incidentally; I suspect there are many other niche applications like this). The hardware vendor isn't going to re-write it. As such I have to... 1) Avoid MacOS upgrades forever, or 2) Let the hardware become nearly impossible to use (there are workarounds on the device itself, but it's really painful to use), or 3) Wri…

> I have a 32-bit application I use regularly to interface with old hardware

And the relevance of this use case is something that "using a laptop in a coffee shop" Apple users seem to be completely and utterly oblivious to.

Yet that hardware often has a useful life far longer than the computer plugged into it, or the software that runs on that computer. On top of that, there may not even be a suitable/comparable "modern and supported" replacement for that hardware.

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