To save anyone reading 10,000 tedious words: It’s always a wise decision to wait till till the new OS matures before upgrading.
I'd prefer if more people read my 3,300 words and actually understood my point. :-)
Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth
141–150 of 327 posts
Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth
#142I have a Korg Microsampler. It's a common music synthesizer (er, sampler) keyboard manufactured in 2009. The only way to upload and download samples to this device is via a piece of proprietary software made by Korg USA. Which is 32-bit. So I'm in the situation that OS X Catalina will not only break my various 32-bit applications, it will also obsolete external hardware that I use regularly. I am lost as to why Apple…
The legacy option is to remain on an older OS. Or you could say it's Korg's responsibility to provide a 64-bit version of the software.
Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth
#143That 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…
I agree with the "entitled teenager" feel of the article. The author sees a change in Mail's look and a change font. A software developer sees Apple finally busting up iTunes which was an overloaded monolithic beast. A software developer sees Apple dropping 32-bit to reduce complexity. This is all refactoring which we'd love to do on our own projects.
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Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth
#144Author 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".
I am the author, and I may be guilty of writing an extremely long blog post; but judging by your response, you didn't bother to read it that thoroughly. The new layout in Catalina's Mail.app is actually my smallest complaint. I don't like change when it unnecessarily breaks things that used to work just fine. I don't like change when it is haphazardly imposed on a yearly basis by a company which has clearly stopped c…
Alternative possibility: you just got old.
In all seriousness, older people are more opposed to UI and other types of change.
Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am the author, and I may be guilty of writing an extremely long blog post; but judging by your response, you didn't bother to read it that thoroughly. The new layout in Catalina's Mail.app is actually my smallest complaint. I don't like change when it unnecessarily breaks things that used to work just fine. I don't like change when it is haphazardly imposed on a yearly basis by a company which has clearly stopped c…
Alternative possibility: you just got old. In all seriousness, older people are more opposed to UI and other types of change.
He is evidently NOT opposed to changes, read these quotes from him:
> I don't like change when it unnecessarily breaks things that used to work just fine.
> I used to like change more when it actually made me work better, when the advantages clearly outweighed the downsides, when progress and improvements were noticeable and thoughtfully implemented.
He is opposed to changes that 1) break things that used to work fine, 2) do not make him work better, and so on, you get the idea. If those changes make him work better, or when the advantages clearly outweigh the downsides, and when improvements are noticeable and thoughtfully implemented, then he is all in favor of those changes, i.e. not opposed to changes in general, just some changes that do not meet some criteria.
Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, as long as they keep fixing bugs and issuing security updates for the older OS's. But Apple Support articles start with "Update to the latest version of macOS and try again" There is also no particular reason that I can tell why certain features are only added to the latest OS, though we have become desensitized to this. For example - why can't the ability to extend the Mac desktop to the iPad be added to Mojav…
>why can't the ability to extend the Mac desktop to the iPad be added to Mojave Likely because there's a part of the iCloud stack that was set up by code that's not in Mojave. Additionally, that was never advertised as a feature of Mojave so I fail to see why there would be any expectation that this would be added to Mojave.
> Likely because there's a part of the iCloud stack that was set up by code that's not in Mojave
That's my point - if it's a software requirement then it can in theory be added to say Mojave 10.14.7.
> that was never advertised as a feature of Mojave so I fail to see why there would be any expectation that this would be added to Mojave
This is software, so I highly doubt that the real reason is technical (why can't the code be added to Mojave?) just that Apple feels they may suffer long term if they reward people for not updating to major releases, or it's too costly to maintain so many forks of macOS.
I wouldn't care nearly as much if Catalina didn't drop support for 32-bit apps.
Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth
#147They 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.
Yep, destroying functionality is what Apple has been doing for a while now. I am unable to understand how anybody could think that this is a good idea. Do not break what works!
Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth
#148I'm the author of the article, and I would like to add a few things to hopefully make my point clearer.
- While I'm flattered by the attention my piece got by 'making Hacker News', it is simply a personal view and a personal disappointment towards the direction Apple is going with Mac OS. It's not a prescriptive article. I'm not telling people to avoid upgrading to Mac OS 10.15. It's your Mac, it's your work, it's your data, it's your time. Do whatever you please.
My decision to not upgrading is the result of a lot of time spent gathering information and evaluating costs and benefits of the upgrade. And my conclusion, as I clearly stated in the article, is that I'm not upgrading because "what Catalina takes away from me is more than what it gives me."
I also took the opportunity of sharing a few reflections and my criticism towards Apple's recent treatment of Mac OS. Whatever the underlying causes, it's undeniable that Mac OS is not as robust, consistent, and well-designed as it used to be. It wasn't bug-free before. Nothing is bug-free. But I remember past versions very well. I use a variety of Macs of older vintages, so I still use older Mac OS X versions. The degrade in software quality and system stability isn't a matter of opinion. It's out there to see.
And yes, I don't like the direction Apple has been moving after Steve Jobs's passing. That's an entirely personal preference, and I respect the point of view of those who, instead, love what Tim Cook & Co. are doing. I'm not really 'complaining' that Apple's not doing things 'my way'. However, as someone who has been using computers for 38 years and Macs for 30, as someone who knows a thing or two about user interfaces, user interaction and user experience, I think I'm allowed to share a few criticisms about the direction Mac OS is going without being called a 'whiny entitled teenager'.
I try to approach technology by focusing more on the forest than a single tree, and sometimes I struggle to see all this 'progress' and 'future' other tech geeks keep talking about.
Technology should adapt to us, not the other way round. Progress should mean making things better, improve what we do with the help of computers and devices. Instead, as I wrote, "I also notice that — for everything to keep working smoothly — you have to do more work than before. It just works, with Apple products, has lost the frequency and consistency it once had. It is a strange progress when you keep feeling the sting of two steps back for every step forward."
Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth
#149I have too many 32bit games that will never be updated to 64bit. For the first time in 18 years, I am not going to upgrade to the latest mac os. Apple orchestrated a much smoother transition from OS 9 to OS X and RISC to x84 than from 32bit to 64bit.
the ppc -> intel upgrade was amazing in that it was ho-hum.
There was a whole machine architecture change, and most people didn't even notice.
Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth
#150I still love macOS but Catalina has been the buggiest beta and release that I can recall. When we saw betas of x.1 before there were even GMs/release candidates of x.0 we knew it was going to be rushed out the door. Even after release it's still randomly losing files. Just yesterday my purchased music downloads just disappeared. No explanation (unless I trashed and emptied them in a fugue state). They were still show…
I got to say, my Windows 10 PC at work, with an 8 year old CPU, has been rock fucking solid.
So has my 2013 MBPr at home.