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macOS Catalina's Biggest Changes: What to Check Out After Upgrading
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I wish MacOS was on a two year release cycle...
Mac OS catalina automatically detects if you have no friends and if so, hides that feature from your view (so you don't feel bad about yourself) ... its a really ingenious innovation of the psyche
overall, I'm impressed w/catalina and have it deployed to my 3 work computers. I lost 1 32bit app that the developers are beta testing right now. I had the initial App Store missing all purchased applications as posted on reddit on 2 of my machines (same Apple ID) ... but there was a work around.
With improvements baked into Catalina I'm venturing out into the following areas:
1. replacing MS OUTLOOK/MAIL/CONTACTS with Apples MAIL/CAL/CONTACTS
2. I'll try replacing word with pages, etc ... this may be a large learning curve.
3. using SAFARI as the default browser instead of CHROME. Can anyone tell me why chrome/firefox/opera are updated weekly if not daily, yet SAFARAI rarely sees an update?
4. attempting to use REMINDERS as my go-to organization product ... initial usage is impressive.
5. TV+ ... I'll give it a go, but would like to see amazon prime integrated into it. I've successfully imported all my local NAS video's w/o incident.
6. HOMEPOD. still just a dumb speaker for me (not doing subscription) ... I would like to see it have the ability to access my local iTunes library. if FREE RADIO is a coming feature, that'll be a monsterous improvement for me!
7. VM wise ... I'm making the switch from PARALLELS to FUSION. this may take a year or so with the 60+ VM's I run. I'm also exploring vbox.
8. see'ing if KEYCHAIN will suffice and replace my proprietary software (dashlane, password+, etc)
I guess with catalina, I'm learning new things and changing the way I do things
With improvements baked into Catalina I'm venturing out into the following areas:
1. replacing MS OUTLOOK/MAIL/CONTACTS with Apples MAIL/CAL/CONTACTS
2. I'll try replacing word with pages, etc ... this may be a large learning curve.
3. using SAFARI as the default browser instead of CHROME. Can anyone tell me why chrome/firefox/opera are updated weekly if not daily, yet SAFARAI rarely sees an update?
4. attempting to use REMINDERS as my go-to organization product ... initial usage is impressive.
5. TV+ ... I'll give it a go, but would like to see amazon prime integrated into it. I've successfully imported all my local NAS video's w/o incident.
6. HOMEPOD. still just a dumb speaker for me (not doing subscription) ... I would like to see it have the ability to access my local iTunes library. if FREE RADIO is a coming feature, that'll be a monsterous improvement for me!
7. VM wise ... I'm making the switch from PARALLELS to FUSION. this may take a year or so with the 60+ VM's I run. I'm also exploring vbox.
8. see'ing if KEYCHAIN will suffice and replace my proprietary software (dashlane, password+, etc)
I guess with catalina, I'm learning new things and changing the way I do things
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Why on earth are you still syncing your phone to the computer anyway? I don't think i've needed to do since this about iPhone 4.
I don't suppose Safari profiles is available, is it? I'd love to ditch Chrome.
What really strikes me about this list of "7 tips you should know" is that 5 of them are largely or totally irrelevant if you aren't using other Apple devices. It would be nice if a MacOS article had more to say about the Mac rather than the "ecosystem": maybe because MacRumors is a fan site its writers don't realise how many people there are who use MacOS but not iOS (I work with large numbers of these people).
Or maybe that's an accurate reflection of what's changed in Catalina? As this is a very bad time for me to upgrade my OS and risk breaking stuff I won't know myself for a couple of months, but it will be pretty boring if so.
Or maybe that's an accurate reflection of what's changed in Catalina? As this is a very bad time for me to upgrade my OS and risk breaking stuff I won't know myself for a couple of months, but it will be pretty boring if so.
The biggest change for me is that now my computer doesn't work very well.
Having used macOS Catalina since its release Monday, I can say it is the buggiest and least polished major release from Apple in a long time. It needs some significant patching to get it to where it should be. I'm spending too much time fixing things and trying to get it to work properly.
It's very below standards for Apple and I'm disappointed.
AND I've been generally very pleased with their releases, especially since they started doing public betas. In fact, the recent iOS 13 release was very solid. This desktop release, though, is pretty awful.
Having used macOS Catalina since its release Monday, I can say it is the buggiest and least polished major release from Apple in a long time. It needs some significant patching to get it to where it should be. I'm spending too much time fixing things and trying to get it to work properly.
It's very below standards for Apple and I'm disappointed.
AND I've been generally very pleased with their releases, especially since they started doing public betas. In fact, the recent iOS 13 release was very solid. This desktop release, though, is pretty awful.
I had the same problem with Mojave and my New 2019 iMac (my old 2011 iMac did not support it). Resetting my Apple Watch solved the problem and now it works flawlessly! 😃
"You may not install to this volume because the device is connected over FireWire."
Really?
I booted up on an install memory stick, erased the internal drive (2012 mini) and just for fun clicked on the FireWire CCC clone that was connected since it was greyed out. That showed up. Is it because it is FireWire, or is it really something like because it is still HFS+ and would need to be APFS'ed for Catalina? The install stick does not use a GUID scheme and it says I would need to repartition it to use it. So that error makes sense.
Mojave→Catalina upgrade seemed to go OK on another mini, but it mostly just runs Finder and VLC for my TV. I made the install stick on my HS MacBook. That's as close as Catalina is getting to it.
Anyway...clean install. Here we go...
Really?
I booted up on an install memory stick, erased the internal drive (2012 mini) and just for fun clicked on the FireWire CCC clone that was connected since it was greyed out. That showed up. Is it because it is FireWire, or is it really something like because it is still HFS+ and would need to be APFS'ed for Catalina? The install stick does not use a GUID scheme and it says I would need to repartition it to use it. So that error makes sense.
Mojave→Catalina upgrade seemed to go OK on another mini, but it mostly just runs Finder and VLC for my TV. I made the install stick on my HS MacBook. That's as close as Catalina is getting to it.
Anyway...clean install. Here we go...
Apple is now more about novelty than usability. With Apple no longer viewing themselves as a "computer" company, and people are using idevices instead of laptops/desktops, there is not much improvements given to MacOS.
Still MacOS remains supreme compared to the abomination that Windows is and the complicated free and "you-are-on-your-own" Linux one million and one flavours.
Is there a way I can upgrade just o mojave? I am still on sierra. Would like to keep using some 32-bit apps.
Still MacOS remains supreme compared to the abomination that Windows is and the complicated free and "you-are-on-your-own" Linux one million and one flavours.
Is there a way I can upgrade just o mojave? I am still on sierra. Would like to keep using some 32-bit apps.
just out of curiosity: were there any issues with syncing your existing mp3(AAC or whatever) within the new "music" app on catalina? i don't use the apple music service and have no interest to, but have tons of music files that i use...
This is a difficult hoop for many of us to jump through. Like the death of compatibility for PowerPC apps, many of us hold onto 32 bit apps because they still work and upgrading is expensive for a home user. Like 10.6, I suspect I will be using Mojave for a very long time. I kept it until new programs like TurboTax would no longer run.
I had used About This Mac to see what 32 bit programs I would lose, but it turns out that list is incomplete. Be sure to download Go64 for a complete look of what you will lose.
In the meantime, I have loaded Mojave on VMware Fusion along with MSOffice 2011, only to find that VMware Fusion needs to be updated to run on Catalina. Yet another $50 if I want to move. I have yet to confirm that my ancient Adobe CS4 will run on VMware Fusion.
Not being a power user, not sure what other alternatives I have.
I had used About This Mac to see what 32 bit programs I would lose, but it turns out that list is incomplete. Be sure to download Go64 for a complete look of what you will lose.
In the meantime, I have loaded Mojave on VMware Fusion along with MSOffice 2011, only to find that VMware Fusion needs to be updated to run on Catalina. Yet another $50 if I want to move. I have yet to confirm that my ancient Adobe CS4 will run on VMware Fusion.
Not being a power user, not sure what other alternatives I have.
Not too impressed, to be honest.
Not keen on the spltting of iTunes; the new "Music" App managed to delete my entire Album Art from every single local Album on my Mac, and - Surprise! - it cannot find Art for 608 of those Albums. Thanks, Apple!
Also, Catalina for some reason deleted my desktop wallpaper on multiple screens, and reset it to a default dynamic wallpaper (no thanks!)
The App Store is frankly rubbish. It insists there are "No Updates" available, but when I search for a particular app I have installed, it shows against the App that there is an update.
Do they actually test this stuff?
Not keen on the spltting of iTunes; the new "Music" App managed to delete my entire Album Art from every single local Album on my Mac, and - Surprise! - it cannot find Art for 608 of those Albums. Thanks, Apple!
Also, Catalina for some reason deleted my desktop wallpaper on multiple screens, and reset it to a default dynamic wallpaper (no thanks!)
The App Store is frankly rubbish. It insists there are "No Updates" available, but when I search for a particular app I have installed, it shows against the App that there is an update.
Do they actually test this stuff?
<shrug> Run Mojave. It will have security updates at least for another year, most likely two (given Apple's security stance over the last few years). The only one who thinks you need to run the new shiny is you.
Ditto - Went into Time Machine and all previous backups before installing Catalina are there on the drive, but I can't see them. When Catalina tried a back up my Mac, the error message was not enough space on my 3 Tb HD. Come on Apple - you can do better than this.
Can't disagree with this... I won't go back to Windoze and find the various Linux offerings difficult to manage (I struggle to find quality comparable software) ... I just wish that Apple didn't treat macOS as a "hobby" - their attention to detail is sorely lacking... IMO, the Cook/Federighi/Cue/Schiller team has jumped the shark, and is busy resting on past accomplishments.
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NOT for this train wreck, IMO.
No, they didn't start doing that on Oct 7, you just haven't followed. Apple's decision spawned several threads on MacRumors about that, one of them I follow reached 13 pages in a short span: Dashboard Feature Eliminated in macOS Catalina
Similarly, not everyone in the least was happy about breaking up iTunes into 3 separate apps. I disagree strongly with that and find that the unified experience of having all media in one place is for the better. As for 32-bit apps, other people might have used many fine and fun old apps and games for years before the developers dropping then altogether without re-writing as 64-bit. The most significant of this group are Dashboard and iWork' 09 which I still prefer, especially Keynote v. 5.2.
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Good for you. "Why do you do the way you do when I don't" is never going to make into a good mechanics of the discussion.