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Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

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Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

#31

Post by 3JPLW »

oneplane wrote: post #16
Nicci00 wrote: post #4

Selling a computer with spinning rust as main drive in 2017 is extremely shameful.

Why? Time and I/O speed isn't as relevant for everyone as you might think. I sure don't want a system without flash memory, but I know not everybody is me and not everybody will care.

My mother bought a spinning rust iMac two years ago, sold to her as a "fast" machine. It was not fast. It took 15-30 seconds+ to do the most basic of tasks. It was unusable. I did what I could to remove background tasks and it was still painful to work on. She hated it.

I cloned the drive onto an external SSD with no other changes. Immediately she had a usable machine, and she now enjoys using it again.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

#32

Post by pram »

dkonofalski wrote: post #15

That reads less like a reasonable, well-thought breakdown and more like a whiny diatribe coming from an entitled teenager. If the entire argument boils down to "I don't wanna!", then what's the point? Don't upgrade. Apple isn't forcing anyone to upgrade at all. If you need to run all your old software, don't upgrade. That's not a fault of the new OS. Technology changes. That's a fact of life. Even the example of Aper…

He also hasn't installed Mojave. Was that not worth the trouble, either?

It's a pretty typical graybeard rant about the halcyon days. Except since we're in 2019, replace System 7 with Snow Leopard.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

#33

Post by Shivetya »

asperous wrote: post #5

"why mess with Mail’s classic layout? It’s been my preferred layout since Mac OS X 10.0, and that type of layout has basically been the one I have used since I started using email more than twenty years ago" This seems to be the heart of the post. I see the value in stable, unchanging things, but I also have to believe the designers at Apple are trying to make things better, and I think that is honorable.

Mail on Catalina has no visual difference to me, but this may be because it preserved my layout. now itunes being broken up into multiple apps was more annoying

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

#35

Post by woadwarrior01 »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #11

They totally destroyed audiobooks in what used to be iTunes. No smart lists, can’t edit MP3 tags, can’t delete or listen to single tracks, can’t store files on external drive. I don’t understand how anybody could think this was a good idea. Why destroying functionality that worked and replace it with something that barely works? This is a huge disappointment.

I don’t use iTunes for audiobooks (I had an audible subscription that went unused and I finally unsubscribed, I’ve realised that I prefer reading physical books), but there’s this free OSX app called AudioBookBinder[1] that can bind a set of mp3 files into an m4a file and add it to iTunes as an audiobook. That might help in this case.

[1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/audiobook-binder/id413969927

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

#36

Post by semiotagonal »

dkonofalski wrote: post #15

That reads less like a reasonable, well-thought breakdown and more like a whiny diatribe coming from an entitled teenager. If the entire argument boils down to "I don't wanna!", then what's the point? Don't upgrade. Apple isn't forcing anyone to upgrade at all. If you need to run all your old software, don't upgrade. That's not a fault of the new OS. Technology changes. That's a fact of life. Even the example of Aper…

> That reads less like a reasonable, well-thought breakdown and more like a whiny diatribe coming from an entitled teenager.

A customer is legitimately entitled to upgrades that aren't actually downgrades.

> Apple isn't forcing anyone to upgrade at all.

> Just don't act surprised and attacked when it doesn't work anymore years from now.

Well... if Apple isn't forcing people to upgrade now, but will later, then there's still grounds for complaint.

An unhappy customer always has the right, nay, duty, to publicly complain until the business changes its behavior.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

#37

Post by saagarjha »

amiantos wrote: post #21

Author hasn't tried Catalina, and their biggest complaint appears to be that the email app allegedly has a new UI--but I don't think it does. Mail app looks the same in Catalina, doesn't it? I can't say I noticed any differences. Either way, this is an extremely long blog post to say basically just "I don't like change, and I'm not willing to see change as a potential improvement to try to accept it".

The author is talking specifically about the classic layout, which appears to be missing in macOS Catalina.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

#38

Post by amiantos »

throwaway1777 wrote: post #26
mark_l_watson wrote: post #3

I couldn’t tell from the article if the author had actually tried Catalina. I have been running the beta since day one of the beta release and the only issue is that applications have to be signed or built locally. Apple wants macOS to be a safe walled garden like iOS and Chromebooks. I am fine with this, but I also have a very nice Linux laptop to play with. I expect organized crime and most governments to continue…

What about all the iCloud bugs? https://tyler.io/broken/

Countering a personal anecdote with another personal anecdote. Here's another: I've been using Catalina since release on multiple Macs and haven't had any problems. I'm also an extensive user of iCloud services, Photos and Drive are very important to me and if I had any issues with either I'd probably lose my mind.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

#39

Post by chmaynard »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #11

They totally destroyed audiobooks in what used to be iTunes. No smart lists, can’t edit MP3 tags, can’t delete or listen to single tracks, can’t store files on external drive. I don’t understand how anybody could think this was a good idea. Why destroying functionality that worked and replace it with something that barely works? This is a huge disappointment.

Exactly. I use iTunes every day to manage a very large music library. It works very well and has the features I need. I spent years learning how to use it well. I see no reason to give it up now. Could Apple have kept iTunes intact and simply removed the non-essential components? Of course, but it would have been expensive and time-consuming. If iTunes is truly obsolete, Apple should release the source code and let a community of users and developers continue its development.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

#40

Post by pazimzadeh »

dkonofalski wrote: post #15

That reads less like a reasonable, well-thought breakdown and more like a whiny diatribe coming from an entitled teenager. If the entire argument boils down to "I don't wanna!", then what's the point? Don't upgrade. Apple isn't forcing anyone to upgrade at all. If you need to run all your old software, don't upgrade. That's not a fault of the new OS. Technology changes. That's a fact of life. Even the example of Aper…

The point is it's always slightly risky to upgrade, and if there aren't life-changing new features this time around (which there aren't) then in the short term you're simply rolling the dice and simultaneously losing compatibility with all 32-bit apps. It's for these reasons that for the first time in years, I'm not immediately updating.
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