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Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it’s worth

morrick.me

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

#161

Post by noncoml »

morrick wrote: post #80
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".

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…

So, have you tried Catalina?

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

#162

Post by lilyball »

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".

I read a few paragraphs, got the same impression, and closed it, because the author admitted they're using practically none of the Apple ecosystem and therefore have already discounted the overwhelming majority of the improvements in Catalina.

It's certainly disingenuous to have a clickbait headline "Mac OS Catalina: more trouble than it's worth" when it's missing "as explained by someone who doesn't use music, photos, TV, reminders, notes, or really anything else from the Apple software ecosystem".

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

#164

Post by dmix »

FWIW I installed Catalina from the first beta and it's worked flawlessly for me. Maybe because I'm on a newish Macbook Pro and I don't use shitty Adobe software, produce music on this machine, or have a complex testing setups with purposefully old stuff.

If you mostly use a browser/terminal for everything its nothing to worry about.

I will say that Podcasts app kinda sucks, just like the iPhone one it's needlessly confusing when trying to open the show's page with the episode list, instead of just "recently played" or w/e you've downloaded. It tries too hard to be clever, while abandoning simple descended by when the show was added. idk why they can't do both.

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

#165

Post by pazimzadeh »

dkonofalski wrote: post #128
johnisgood wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was wrong with being able to run both old and new software? I thought that was a perfectly fine middle ground, and now the customer MUST decide between old vs new. Does not sound good to me, at all. I would pick Linux instead. :)

>What was wrong with being able to run both old and new software? There's wasn't much wrong with being able to run it but there's a hell of a lot of technical debt that comes with being able to support and maintain it . Every binary that needed to run on 32 and 64 bit OSs had double the code in it, double the dependencies, and literally double of everything. Developers were all notified about the change more than 3 y…

Not really. 32-bit apps run on Mojave and below without needing 64-bit code. Unless an app needs to address more than 4 GB of RAM, there's no great need to make it 64-bit. On the other hand, going from 32 to 64 bit requires work up front.

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

#167

Post by woutr_be »

I've upgraded to Catalina on my 2015 MacBook Pro the day it released (didn't run the betas), and I haven't experienced any problems.

I mostly use it for development, everything still works.

My only annoyance so far has been SideCar, it just never works the first time, I have to switch from second display to mirror, then back to second display to make it work.

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

#168

Post by vinni2 »

morrick wrote: post #69
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…

Hello! I am the author, and no, I haven't tried Catalina because, as I state at the very end of my article: "Both my main Macs are really working flawlessly at the moment, and Catalina is beta-quality software that’s likely to give me headaches I don’t need right now. Who knows, maybe down the road I could acquire a cheap used Mac that can run Catalina (something like a 2014 Mac mini) and use it as a test machine. As…

Can you give me the TLDR version of MacOS Catalina’s downsides? Apart from mail layout change of course. I tried to read your blog but it was too difficult to find the points you were making too much rant with actual points hidden here and there.

Personally for me this has been the smoothest upgrade ever! Literally no apps are broken and no data lost.

Edit: typos and clarified that I read the blog.

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

#169

Post by birdyrooster »

"Apple Music, TV, Podcasts, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Screen Time, and Apple Watch"

Apple has, for the entirety of Mac OS X and macOS, has spent a substantial amount of time enhancing media and mobile quality of life. Catalina is no different. Take a stroll down memory lane: iTunes (was the amalgamation of the first three apps you mentioned), DVD playback, iChat, .Mac syncing, Dashboard (Widgets), Back to My Mac, MobileMe, Front Row, Photo Booth, App Store, iMovie, iPhoto, iChat, AirDrop, Messages, FaceTime, Game Center, and iCloud.

Some of the apps you mention have been getting updates for longer than just Catalina. Photos was launched in Yosemite, while Notes and Reminders launched in Mountain Lion.

I am sure we can both imagine people who were disappointed in 2007 when Apple redesigned Mail and were posting on digg about how Lion is more trouble than it's worth.

As for the lack of 32-bit support, this is really not a sticking point for customers who pay to have their applications supported. If a product is no longer being developed, why is it that you blame Apple's software update?

Oh, and another thing that isn't new: initially buggy releases of macOS

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

#170

Post by plorkyeran »

newnewpdro wrote: post #58
mullen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Catalina does break a lot of games. I am pretty sure that if you get on Steam, the list of games that Catalina breaks is longer than the list of games that work on Catalina.

Is that just because of the signing requirement on executables?

No, it's because for some reason there's a bunch of 32-bit only games on macOS.
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