Getting to know my new M4 Mini.

[OldMacs4Me]

I’ll try to keep this brief and simple...

As already mentioned, the OS portion is very protected on Apple Silicon Macs. Additionally, Apple has been moving more and more to the user folder. For example:

About system extensions and macOS - Apple Support

Some system extensions aren't compatible with current versions of macOS or won't be compatible with a future version of macOS. Learn what to do if you see an alert about system extensions or kernel extensions.

support.apple.com

macOS Sequoia System Extensions, Network Extensions, etc

This post gathers info about macOS Sequoia system extensions, network extensions, and third-party app extensions. It also tells how to enable or disable the extensions on macOS Sequoia.

iboysoft.com

Therefore, unlike the past, an OS reinstall is of little or even no benefit. Additionally, with the further sandboxing, experimentation seems easier — though not limited to experimentation. In fact, after upgrading to a new Mac mini, I’ve gone back to multiple accounts (for myself). As of now, one general (e.g., email, broad web surfing, photos, music), one for “work” (i.e., photo and video editing creation, etc), and a test bench account. Because, even though there are utilizes such as AppCleaner or I can manually hunt down app remnants with not a ton of time and effort, organizing by account or deleting and recreating one (e.g., test bench) is a fairly simple way to keep the clutter contained and managed. That and incremental backups (e.g., TM, CCC) are a simple means of versioning (i.e., undo some mistakes).

With that said, as far as I’ve read but haven’t done since (probably) macOS Catalina, you can still install macOS to an external drive to use as a secondary/test system.

In the modern era, erase all content and settings, which (basically) destroys and recreates the Data volume, then restore (i.e., user data migration) from an external SSD or fast network storage is the expected method, and should be fairly efficient. That is, assuming such an extensive ‘wipe’ is necessary.

Agreed, Again the difference in building the OS on an external is an order of magnitude longer than a clone or asr.

 

[OldMacs4Me]

So did an unusually short test drive of ON1 Photo RAW. A crash while I was trying to figure out how to undo or remove a filter effect, was the final thing to convince me this one was not for me. With Photo editors stability is far more important than bells, whistles and AI.

Anyways after running the uninstaller I tracked down over 80 files the uninstaller had left behind. About half were located inside: /Library, and the other half somewhere within the Test users personal library. Did not check to see how many were also invisible.

Thanks Find Any File, as I'm pretty sure Stoplight would have failed to search both of those locations. Hopefully that's the lot.

 

[Alameda]

So did an unusually short test drive of ON1 Photo RAW. A crash while I was trying to figure out how to undo or remove a filter effect, was the final thing to convince me this one was not for me. With Photo editors stability is far more important than bells, whistles and AI.

Anyways after running the uninstaller I tracked down over 80 files the uninstaller had left behind. About half were located inside: /Library, and the other half somewhere within the Test users personal library. Did not check to see how many were also invisible.

Thanks Find Any File, as I'm pretty sure Stoplight would have failed to search both of those locations. Hopefully that's the lot.

That’s nothing compared to trying to uninstall all traces of Adobe. It’s like trying to remove malignant cancer.

 

[OldMacs4Me]

That’s nothing compared to trying to uninstall all traces of Adobe. It’s like trying to remove malignant cancer.

Been trying very hard to avoid installing even PhotoShop Elements. Will definitely have a proper clone together before I attempt anything adobe!

 

[Alameda]

Been trying very hard to avoid installing even PhotoShop Elements. Will definitely have a proper clone together before I attempt anything adobe!

I don’t think it’s an evil plot or anything, and I doubt that it causes any harm. I guess it’s just the nature of modern computer operating systems. It’s the same in Windows.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

If you're trying to uninstall apps, the free "AppCleaner" still works well.
(I use it on both Intel and m-series Macs)

 

[OldMacs4Me]

So an interesting difference in Preview between elCap and Sequoia. In ElCap I can drag a folder onto preview, select contact sheet and the photos display in order (by name). In Sequoia & Sierra the same folder copied to an external drive (formatted APFS) and dragged into Preview displays in a totally random order. Select all the photos and drag them onto Preview and they display as expected.

EDIT: Booted into Sierra and the original folder (formatted HFS+) displays properly, so this seems to be some sort of APFS/Preview glitch that has been ignored for many generations as the Apple engineers kept adding bells and whistles.

For those who are awake I had to boot into Sierra to copy the folder from the old MacPro to the external drive.

FWIW I paid the $20 for Acorn so I now have a photo editor in Sequoia, that will let me do almost everything I chose to do without having to go back to the MacPro. More convenience than anything, will still be using the MP for any heavy lifting involving photos.