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Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

morrick.me

161–170 of 248 posts

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

#161
post #11

Am I the only person that doesn't have any significant issues with Catalina? I'll admit, some of the permissions-related pop-ups are a bit annoying, but overall it's been a rather stable macOS version for me (developer, working mostly in Xcode and JetBrains IDEs).

Mostly fine for me. Every major update has some bugs and issues, but I haven't found it to be substantially worse than any of the others over the many years I've been using OS X.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

#162

I never been an Apple fan. When iPhone launched I was skeptical, and didn't wanted one, and so on... I often argued with apple fans, and one thing that was clear to me, is that people that tried apple products around 2008 or so often would just love it, and many would become apple fans too. I used my first Mac around that time, and although I found some stuff just silly (mouse with only one button...) I overall liked…

>Then the fact upgrading it's RAM was unecessarily hard and expensive and needed urgently Isn't it impossible? It's soldered to the board.

Exactly.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

#163
post #11

Am I the only person that doesn't have any significant issues with Catalina? I'll admit, some of the permissions-related pop-ups are a bit annoying, but overall it's been a rather stable macOS version for me (developer, working mostly in Xcode and JetBrains IDEs).

I only have one problem with it. After disconnecting external monitors, it sets the brightness of the laptop monitor to 100%.

You know... plus the normal random osx crash that we're used to. Windows and Linux are more reliable these days on the desktop.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

#164
post #11

Am I the only person that doesn't have any significant issues with Catalina? I'll admit, some of the permissions-related pop-ups are a bit annoying, but overall it's been a rather stable macOS version for me (developer, working mostly in Xcode and JetBrains IDEs).

No, you're not the only one. Thankfully, I don't think I've ever ran into any serious issues with any OS release. I'm always a bit surprised when I see others report show-stopping issues.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

#165
post #4

I've actually kept postponing upgrading to Catalina (I'm still on Mojave) because I want to keep iTunes. I have a lot of stuff there I don't really want scattered all over the place, and I always felt iTunes was underrated.

There's a Mac app called Retroactive [1] that enables you to run iTunes (and Aperture) on macOS Catalina. [1] https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive

There are also forum threads on Macrumors with AppleScript scripts that make it possible to run older versions of iTunes (the one with the App Store) on Catalina (works with Mojave too). [1]

[1]: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/itunes-12-6-5-3-on-maco...

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

#166
post #4

I've actually kept postponing upgrading to Catalina (I'm still on Mojave) because I want to keep iTunes. I have a lot of stuff there I don't really want scattered all over the place, and I always felt iTunes was underrated.

How are you going to solve this? I'm in a similar position, having several music apps I bought a while ago that won't work in Catalina. But I have to upgrade because it's my development machine. So far my plan is to upgrade my MacBook Pro to continue develop software, and leave my Mac Pro with Mojave to compose music. I wonder how others deal with this.

See my comment above [1] with a link to a Macrumors forum thread that allows you to run iTunes and older versions of iTunes on Catalina and Mojave. It might probably break at some point in the future, but people seem to be managing so far.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22326724

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

#167

Even if I wanted to upgrade my old Mini (by having a new OS on an external HD), Mojave and Catalina won't let me because required APFS support for EFI comes only as part of the 6GB Mojave (or Catalina) download/install, rather than as separately downloadable BIOS upgrade. Even bought a flash drive and ordered to have Mojave installer copied to it at an Apple retailer only to find out that it doesn't work like that an…

Someone somewhere must have faced the same issue as you. I’d suggest searching on Reddit and the Macrumors forums. Worst case, you can install Linux and continue using it (though the experience may not be the same in many ways).

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

#168
post #6

I have heard enough horror stories about stability and security prompts that it’s the first macOS release I’ll probably skip. Can’t afford to lose a day or more of productivity to fiddling with my OS.

You do you, but the relentless flow of horror stories didn't stop me from upgrading and it was flawless for me. I'd recommend reading these critical pieces and seeing whether any of it actually applies to you.

The security prompts apply for everyone who has and uses more than a few applications. There is no scope for individual differences there except for the number of prompts.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

#169
post #11

Am I the only person that doesn't have any significant issues with Catalina? I'll admit, some of the permissions-related pop-ups are a bit annoying, but overall it's been a rather stable macOS version for me (developer, working mostly in Xcode and JetBrains IDEs).

I have not personally had any issues with it at all via upgrading, mainly 2 Macbook Pros, 1 2018 ed and 1 2015 ed so not sure if maybe it's has more to do with hardware compatibility issues some are experiencing which doesn't doesn't help your confidence level of Apple and future releases but I'm sure there can be fixes and lessons learned.

Re: Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth (Part 2)

#170

Yeah, there's been some pain to upgrade to Catalina, but for me as a developer it was worth it, just because of Project Catalyst. Also, they were making some serious (and necessary) changes to the iCloud / File API, and I would have been very surprised if that went without lots of bugs ... To be honest, the transition went much smoother than I expected.

Project Catalyst trades off some developer pain for a few thousand or tens of thousands of developers with pain imposed on millions or tens of millions of users. A rushed and half baked system that breaks Mac conventions isn’t worth it for the users. Not now. It could turn out to be something worthwhile next year or the year after.
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