I plan to stay on Mojave. I like Big Sur but it has one small issue that bothers me. I would consider upgrading some hardware to Big Sur if I can get 2.5 GB Ethernet working in my home.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Anyone else staying on Mojave and on the path to completely skipping Catalina?
- Thread starter zorinlynx
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I plan to stay on Mojave. I like Big Sur but it has one small issue that bothers me. I would consider upgrading some hardware to Big Sur if I can get 2.5 GB Ethernet working in my home.
November 2020, almost December, and not the remotest intention of moving *back* to Catalina.
Been a Leopard user 4 years, then Snow Leopard user for 9 years on iMac and MBP, until the lack of software caused me problems with work. I bought an iMac with Mojave in 2019, then "upgraded" to Catalina, and all of a sudden I was using an overly crappy machine. Slow, and I mean it. S-L-O-W, crashing on odd days and kernel panicking on even days, infinite bugs and freezes, changes in files and settings not saved (which still happens with Mojave, tbh)... basically I ended up using my 2010 MBP again.
All considered, it was a new OS, my bad for installing it right away.
Now I moved back to Mojave, which is a more stable, but I must say that it's no match in performance, stability, and reliability when compared to Snow Leopard. Not to mention speed: my MBP starts up, both system AND software, way faster than this crap. Working with this, be it Mojave or Catalina, is a pain in the arse.
The more I use it, the more I can experience Apple's switch of investments from Mac to iOS. I feel like I'm owning a non-portable fricking iPhone.
I'll be with this for some years, I guess. Meanwhile, I'll just try to learn to use Linux.
Been a Leopard user 4 years, then Snow Leopard user for 9 years on iMac and MBP, until the lack of software caused me problems with work. I bought an iMac with Mojave in 2019, then "upgraded" to Catalina, and all of a sudden I was using an overly crappy machine. Slow, and I mean it. S-L-O-W, crashing on odd days and kernel panicking on even days, infinite bugs and freezes, changes in files and settings not saved (which still happens with Mojave, tbh)... basically I ended up using my 2010 MBP again.
All considered, it was a new OS, my bad for installing it right away.
Now I moved back to Mojave, which is a more stable, but I must say that it's no match in performance, stability, and reliability when compared to Snow Leopard. Not to mention speed: my MBP starts up, both system AND software, way faster than this crap. Working with this, be it Mojave or Catalina, is a pain in the arse.
The more I use it, the more I can experience Apple's switch of investments from Mac to iOS. I feel like I'm owning a non-portable fricking iPhone.
I'll be with this for some years, I guess. Meanwhile, I'll just try to learn to use Linux.
I have 2 MBP from 2012, a 13" and a 15", both with 8 Gb Ram and SSD HD. I have too a iMac 2019 with 24 Gb Ram. The 3 systems have run Catalina few days ago, and now they are all running Mojave. The stability is not a problem in any of the 3, except on Photos with a panic than can cause crashes of the app when I am 30 minutes long working on photo editing and organizing. Back to Mojave, no more problems, and the iMac is noticeable faster than with Catalina but the two MBP are marginally faster on Mojave.
If a more demanding OS destroys the motherboard then it should not be approved for upgrade or installation for that computer model.
As bad as Catalina is it shouldn't be -that- bad. Any chance you got the 21.5"/4K with the 1TB 5400rpm HDD? Those drives haven't played nice with MacOS since Yosemite and run even worse if forced to use APFS for Catalina.
If you do have the 5400rpm HDD get yourself an external USB 3 SSD, reinstall Mojave onto that, and watch software fly.
I was forced to upgrade my 2018 mini to Catalina because of Mini/eGPU/Mojave incompatibilities introduced by Mojave security updates but I do believe by my 2015 Air is going to successfully skip Catalina completely.
I've tried various OSX versions in virtual machines and i like, in order, Mojave, High Sierra, Big Sur and Catalina. My iMac is on High Sierra because that's the latest version supports. All of my other Macs are on Mojave.
I'm pretty much going to stay with Mojave till my Mac Pro 5,1 needs a update which I don't really see the need to go on to Catalina nor Big Sur. More junk added and taken away as you progress forward.
I did try Catalina for a few weeks, and then I was offered Big Sur. Did some research and Big Sur’s use of a signed system volume, along with the use of IPSW files to restore M1 Macs was the end of updating for me. That’s just the trend of modern operating system development. I really don’t want a phone; I want a computer. I‘ve also blocked Catalina, Big Sur and Security Updates 2020-003 through 007. Any Security Update since -003 will end the use of “sudo softwareupdate -- ignore“ as a method to block. After -003, you’d have to join a MDM to not get Catalina...
Update (Mar 7, 2021): I have tried Big Sur (clean install) for a few weeks, and it went well and I had no problems with it. Developers can do less and less that is unique. The more I looked at that...I went back to Mojave. Runs a little bit cooler once Spotlight is done indexing.
Update (Mar 7, 2021): I have tried Big Sur (clean install) for a few weeks, and it went well and I had no problems with it. Developers can do less and less that is unique. The more I looked at that...I went back to Mojave. Runs a little bit cooler once Spotlight is done indexing.
Last edited:
I suggest you make a bootable clone to an external SSD and upgrade the latter to Catalina to try it out. That would like your normal internal boot drive in its current state.
I tried every single version of Catalina but always reverted back to my Mojave boot disk with a couple of hours.
It is important to remember that Catalina won't get any better. Sure it will receive occasional security updates over the next 22 months but Apple certainly won't be adding any new features or eradicating any long-standing bugs.
Of course, other side of the coin is that Catalina is relatively stable in its current state unless Apple bungled it like they did with Mojave Security Update 2020-005.
After some installations and tests, I now have Mojave on the 2012 MBP 13", Catalina on the 2012 MBP 15", and BigSur on the 2019 iMac with Fusion Drive. If I want to stay on BS, the iMac demands a change of the internal mechanical HD to a more fast SSD, but actually the boot takes 1 minute, so I could live with it during the time test. I am working with the 3 OSes, without problems. Now I am tempted to downgrade de MBP 13" to High Sierra, and see if it booms the performance. I will see.
I found it easier to test macOS operating systems using virtual machines. I tried El Capitan to Big Sur but skipped Catalina.
I am with you, but if you have 3 machines with 3 different specs, they are a cool bank of tests.
I have stuck with Mojave on my Intel Macs as Catalina offered no obvious benefits with the very obvious downside of dropping 32 bit compatibility (some of my apps are still 32 bit).
On my M1 Mac I have Big Sur of course and it's fine and offers the benefits of running iOS apps and widgets that partially replace my still-missed dashboard. It is of course the only option for Apple Silicon anyway.
Catalina just fell between two stools - neither a compelling nor required upgrade.
On my M1 Mac I have Big Sur of course and it's fine and offers the benefits of running iOS apps and widgets that partially replace my still-missed dashboard. It is of course the only option for Apple Silicon anyway.
Catalina just fell between two stools - neither a compelling nor required upgrade.
my question may be off topic, can big sur and the M1 chip run any ipad app? I have a great drawing app on the ipad that i would love to run on any macbook. And Would that be up to the developer as well?
Part of the reason why I chose to update to Catalina was that safari on Mojave was kind of broken. No matter what I was doing, the dGPU would be on because safari was using “significant energy”.
I think that I've seen that. I use Firefox 98% of the time and will try Brave, then Safari, then Chrome if Firefox isn't working. I like Brave a lot better than Safari because of all of the add and tracking blocking that they do.
Observations:
1) Catalina worked much cooler when I did a clean install and migrated.
2) Microsoft Edge is pretty performant, but I'd only recommend Chrome if you have a Google account.
1) Catalina worked much cooler when I did a clean install and migrated.
2) Microsoft Edge is pretty performant, but I'd only recommend Chrome if you have a Google account.