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Anyone else staying on Mojave and on the path to completely skipping Catalina?

zorinlynx

zorinlynx

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 31, 2007
8,451
19,308
Florida, USA
My primary iMac is still on Mojave and it's February. I feel no pressing need to upgrade it to Catalina; no apps I want to run require it, my system is fast and stable and I just can't be bothered.

Wondering if anyone else feels this way. This is the first MacOS release I'm feeling like skipping since I started using MacOS X in 2003. That's really saying something.

Luckily Apple is still supporting Mojave with security and Safari updates, but of course that won't be forever. Hopefully whatever comes out this year will feel more solid and refined and I'll be more willing to upgrade!

(Note that my work-issued 2015 Macbook Pro IS on Catalina, but I don't use it that much. So I HAVE used Catalina; I'm not "afraid of the unknown" or similar nonsense.)
 
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I am still using a lot of 32-bit applications that there aren't really any 64-bit equivalents for (QTPro, MPEG Streamclip) so I will be on Mojave for the foreseeable future. Before I got the new Mac mini I was running El Capitan on a 2012 Mac mini, and I'm still running it on the 2012 laptops in the household.
 
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I believe that the quantity of users which will post in this thread will be quite large.
I assume you knew it when you started it so it won‘t be a surprise for you.
 
jackerin said:
I am still using a lot of 32-bit applications that there aren't really any 64-bit equivalents for (QTPro, MPEG Streamclip) so I will be on Mojave for the foreseeable future. Before I got the new Mac mini I was running El Capitan on a 2012 Mac mini, and I'm still running it on the 2012 laptops in the household.
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Same here-32 bit drivers.
the only thing I like about Catalina is sidecar.
Mojave for my Mac mini into the foreseeable future.
 
leopard - snow leopard
lion - mountain lion
sierra - high sierra

some releases are focused on stability, I keep those on macs where stability is key

my 2014 mac mini media server is on high sierra
my 2012 mac pro is on high sierra
my 2014 MBP is on catalina
my 2017 iMac pro is on catalina
my 2019 work MBA is on mojave

I like mojave but the benefits/downsides aren't really worth it on my MP 5,1 or Mac Mini. The Mini can have an uptime that stretches into 90+ days. The Mac Pro would likely see a GPU hit moving to Metal with the GTX680 that's in it. I don't feel like spending more money on the machine. I restart the MBP and iMac Pro enough that it doesn't matter.
 
<---- Hand raised.

I have no interest (at least at this time) in moving "beyond 32-bit software".
I still have numerous 32-bit only apps I use that will NEVER be upgraded. I intend to keep using them in the near future. At least for 2, 3, 4 more years. Perhaps longer.

I have Catalina up-and-running on an external SSD to "fool with it", but that's all.
Granted, my copy seems to run well enough for what it is, but again, it can't run my older software, so it's of little real value to me.

With all the problems of Catalina, I regard it as a successor to Mavericks -- the only version of the OS that I thought was so bad that I don't even keep a copy of it in my software archives.

At this point, I can safely say that Catalina will NEVER run as "the main OS" on my 2018 Mini. I'll wait and see what Apple releases later this year...
 
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Fishrrman said:
I have no interest (at least at this time) in moving "beyond 32-bit software".
Click to expand...

I more take a more middle road to this sort of thing. I don't like constantly paying for software where my only benefit to that purchase is OS compatibility. That said, if I take too an aggressive approach to that then the cost, and process, of moving forward when a new purchase happens because too costly and disruptive. I end up making wrong decisions to keep things running rather than taking proper steps forward.

This is not to make comment of whether those steps forward are the right steps to make… rather than there is always a moment when you need to move somewhere to where you're at.
 
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I will be sticking with Mojave until I need to replace my 2014 Mini, or when there is not a functional browser to use. I previously stuck with OS9 until replacing a G3 with a new Mini loaded with …Leapord! I stuck with Snow Leopard until buying my current Mini with El Cap on it. Obviously, I feel no need to get every upgrade.
 
I'm always really hesitant about Mac OS upgrades. It usually causes pain with benefits that don't seem worth it. The upgrade to Mojave was especially bad and required a trip to the Apple Store where they ended up wiping my Mac. I'll put it off as long as I can but last time I needed up to upgrade because I needed the latest OS to run the current version of Xcode.
 
I'm still happily running Mojave on all devices, which isn't unsual. Ever since I made the mistake of jumping early at the free Mavericks upgrade I've intentionally delayed to February-March unless there was a specific feature or driver I wanted. I think Sierra 10.12.1, installed for the Polaris drivers, was the only time I've upgraded early and not had any regrets.

So my 2018 mini will be getting Catalina sometime this spring. I may not feel any rush, but I also plan on keeping that mini for longer than Mojave will stay relevant and don't see any reason to skip 10.15 entirely. My 2015 Air, however, may stay frozen on Mojave.

ssls6 said:
leopard - snow leopard
lion - mountain lion
sierra - high sierra
Click to expand...
I'd argue the Sierras are an exception to the usual implied feature/refinement chain. Sure 10.13.0 started about where 10.12.6 left off, but the rest of its life felt like a beta test of planned Mojave features.
El Capitan - Sierra
High Sierra - Mojave
 
I like Mojave. My only complaint with all the modern systems is that all of them are CPU hungry. I mean, why Mavericks can effortlessly breath through the 1080p HD video with only 2GHz Core 2 Duo? Why this ability never made it to Mojave or other modern systems? Planned obsolense?
Running older machine definitly helps to keep things honest, I find it funny that some people with i5 or i7 don't even know if their machine have "acceleration" or not.

But going back to the topic, all things considered, Mojave has a lot going for it and is here to stay.
 
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avz said:
I like Mojave. My only complaint with all the modern systems is that all of them are CPU hungry. I mean, why Mavericks can effortlessly breath through the 1080p HD video with only 2GHz Core 2 Duo? Why this ability never made it to Mojave or other modern systems? Planned obsolense?
Running older machine definitly helps to keep things honest, I find it funny that some people with i5 or i7 don't even know if their machine have "acceleration" or not.

But going back to the topic, all things considered, Mojave has a lot going for it and is here to stay.
Click to expand...

What video player are you using?

I've found almost all my video playing woes went away when I started using IINA. IINA is heavily optimized; in fact it was the only video player that could play 4K video (scaled down of course) on my previous iMac.

A lot of people swear by VLC but it's not super-efficient; it's just able to play *EVERYTHING* (given enough CPU power). If IINA can play it, I guarantee it'll use less CPU than VLC playing it.
 
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I would say when people like Gruber hate Catalina, and cant even think of a single reason its a worthy upgrade, and the security strongholds are coming at the expense of the experience, it's likely MANY people are staying on Mojave or older
 
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zorinlynx said:
What video player are you using?

I've found almost all my video playing woes went away when I started using IINA. IINA is heavily optimized; in fact it was the only video player that could play 4K video (scaled down of course) on my previous iMac.

A lot of people swear by VLC but it's not super-efficient; it's just able to play *EVERYTHING* (given enough CPU power). If IINA can play it, I guarantee it'll use less CPU than VLC playing it.
Click to expand...

Yes, IINA can play 4K video even on my late-2008 unibody MacBook(with stuttering of course but that's kinda duh). VLC is unable to do it at all. For normal playback VLC is a bit more efficient though.

In Mavericks, I just hit a Spacebar on a 1080p mp4 video file and it plays it effortlessly, utilising only 15-25% of 1GHz Core 2 Duo. I believe Apple went as fast as they possibly could with Mavericks. Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion are all choking even on 720p using Spacebar method of playback.
 
Staying with Mojave for my MBA. I am afraid, very afraid of Catalina.

As Fishrrman above says “With all the problems of Catalina, I regard it as a successor to Mavericks -- the only version of the OS that I thought was so bad that I don't even keep a copy of it in my software archives.”
 
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I'll also be staying on Mojave with my aging MBP:

-access to 32 bit apps

-no subpixel font rendering issues on my non-retina MBP

-Catalina has nothing that I want. Sidecar? I have Duet Display which I barely ever use anyways. Catalina's updated Reminders app doesn't have one feature I want: tags.

I also skipped High Sierra and that worked out ok for me.

I would only go to Catalina because it's on whatever new MacBook Pro Apple unveils later this year that I might buy
 
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I want to update to Catalina because I miss Reminders syncing and also I just like being on the new OS, but my media collection is the most important data on my computer. Based on the Music app thread in Catalina, there are still issues with the new application that weren't present in iTunes and I don't want to risk my carefully organized music library getting messed up.
 
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jackerin said:
I am still using a lot of 32-bit applications that there aren't really any 64-bit equivalents for (QTPro, MPEG Streamclip) so I will be on Mojave for the foreseeable future. Before I got the new Mac mini I was running El Capitan on a 2012 Mac mini, and I'm still running it on the 2012 laptops in the household.
Click to expand...
QuickTime X has the features of QuickTime 7 Pro.
Handbrake and Compressor do a better job than MPEG Streamclip.
 
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