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So, I am starting to feel like Catalina is Apple's Windows ME

E

Ethosik

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Original poster
Oct 21, 2009
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I have had more lockups and kernel panics in Catalina alone than all my other macOS and OS X experience combined. This is a widely known issue, and we are still treated like its bad hardware. Mojave NEVER has any issues (partition), yet every single day without an eGPU attached, my 27" i9 iMac Vega 48 freezes or kernel panics. I have had this happen only once or twice in the last few months with the eGPU attached.

What is the status of this issue? Has Apple even acknowledge it? It appears like it is GPU related as an eGPU causes this issue to almost nearly not generate again. Are the Vega's just bad?
 
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Yor're not alone. My 2018 Mini is running HOT with Catalina. Something in the OS is pegging a task to run a CPU core at 25%. All of the software and apps are stock
 
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I think they graphics drivers at least for the Vegas are hot garbage. I have the same iMac 27" I9 with the Vega 48 and so many of the games I've played crash out.

FFXIV crashes occasionally
WC3 Reforged crashes constantly (Actually got a refund for it)
Civ 6 crashes a lot as well

It's getting a little annoying with Catalina, I really hope the drivers are better with 10.15.5 and I just hope it isn't a heat issue with the Vega in the iMac or I'll eventually have to get an eGPU as well.
 
Catalina is a bag of hurt. One of the reasons I haven't "upgraded" (oxymoron) from High Sierra is that I still have my hard drives on HFS+. I'm convinced that APFS is the root cause of much of the problems everyone is reporting. So until Apple gets around to finally releasing ALL the information that 3rd parties need to build utilities for repairing and optimizing APFS volumes I'm staying away from the dumpster fire of an OS that Apple is foisting off on unsuspecting users.
 
rpmurray said:
Catalina is a bag of hurt. One of the reasons I haven't "upgraded" (oxymoron) from High Sierra is that I still have my hard drives on HFS+. I'm convinced that APFS is the root cause of much of the problems everyone is reporting. So until Apple gets around to finally releasing ALL the information that 3rd parties need to build utilities for repairing and optimizing APFS volumes I'm staying away from the dumpster fire of an OS that Apple is foisting off on unsuspecting users.
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"I'm convinced"... always good to make judgements based on fact. :rolleyes: meanwhile, lots of macusers are on catalina, and doing just fine...
 
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I'm not having any problems (knock on wood) but I'm running 10.15.3. Reading all these problems with 10.15.4 on this forum I believe I'll hold off updating until the next version comes out. :)
 
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Project Alice said:
No issues with Catalina whatsoever on my Mac Pro 5,1. From 10.15.0 to the current 10.15.4. Everything has worked as it should. I did have an issue burning an ISO image to CD once, in 10.15.0. Not sure if that has been fixed yet but I consider that a minor issue.
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Pretty much the same here.

I've had one odd reboot when SAP Hana Studio went haywire and took my login session with it, but aside from that, no other issues to talk of.

And yes, I lived through Windows ME as well. Having used 2000 Beta (3?) for a long period of time I thought that ME would be as rock solid as 2000 was. I was horribly horribly wrong.

My ME days were replete with all manner of odd issues that dropped me back to MsDos, or froze Windows in its tracks, etc.

Catalina has had none of these issues for me.
 
rpmurray said:
Catalina is a bag of hurt. One of the reasons I haven't "upgraded" (oxymoron) from High Sierra is that I still have my hard drives on HFS+. I'm convinced that APFS is the root cause of much of the problems everyone is reporting. So until Apple gets around to finally releasing ALL the information that 3rd parties need to build utilities for repairing and optimizing APFS volumes I'm staying away from the dumpster fire of an OS that Apple is foisting off on unsuspecting users.
Click to expand...

iOS has been using APS for a couple years now and it seems pretty stable from my daily usage of iOS 13. Now granted I don’t have one of the latest Mac computers, both my 2015 MacBook Pro are very stable running the latest 10.15.4 supplemental release. I have not seen any issues attributed to APFS on Mojave or Catalina. I gather the crashes have to do with the AMD graphics drivers.

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xWhiplash said:
I have had more lockups and kernel panics in Catalina alone than all my other macOS and OS X experience combined. This is a widely known issue, and we are still treated like its bad hardware. Mojave NEVER has any issues (partition), yet every single day without an eGPU attached, my 27" i9 iMac Vega 48 freezes or kernel panics. I have had this happen only once or twice in the last few months with the eGPU attached.

What is the status of this issue? Has Apple even acknowledge it? It appears like it is GPU related as an eGPU causes this issue to almost nearly not generate again. Are the Vega's just bad?
Click to expand...

I remember reading in another thread that there is an enterprise case open with Apple and Apple is aware of the crashes and are working on it.
 
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Things on Catalina are mostly amazing and butter smooth perfect for me honestly.

But - I'm on an OpenCore Hackintosh.
One always wonders how many issues are tied to Apple's own hardware decisions and implementations these days.
 
I just got a new Mini last week and it came with 10.15.3, and I have no intention of updating it for now.

Currently I am not having any issues, and I don't see any reason to update it for now. I guess we'll see how good 10.15.5 is when it comes out.
 
Bending Pixels said:
No issues here either.

I'd bet the biggest issue people are running into is app's that are still 32bit
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Nope. Brand new base i9 MBP 16". No 32 bit apps installed. Kernel panics and crashes every night.
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xWhiplash said:
I have had more lockups and kernel panics in Catalina alone than all my other macOS and OS X experience combined. This is a widely known issue, and we are still treated like its bad hardware. Mojave NEVER has any issues (partition), yet every single day without an eGPU attached, my 27" i9 iMac Vega 48 freezes or kernel panics. I have had this happen only once or twice in the last few months with the eGPU attached.

What is the status of this issue? Has Apple even acknowledge it? It appears like it is GPU related as an eGPU causes this issue to almost nearly not generate again. Are the Vega's just bad?
Click to expand...
Agreed.

Honestly, for all the people going through issues, and debating whether to send our machines back, I'm now starting to think we all should. Apple has extended their return window. While it does seem like a software issue, given the number of users dealing with issues, and Apple's lack of communication or clarity on a fix, why not just request refunds and new machines, everyone citing kernel panics as the cause.
 
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I've had experiences with both Catalina and Windows ME.
Thanks for the good laugh, you couldn't compare them in a million years.
I rely on a 2013 Macbook Air and never had problems with any macOS, ever, since it was new, including Catalina.
On the other hand, I hear a lot of users complaining about BridgeOS- and T1/T2-related bugs.
So I wonder if that would be the real problem.


turbineseaplane said:
Things on Catalina are mostly amazing and butter smooth perfect for me honestly.
But - I'm on an OpenCore Hackintosh.
One always wonders how many issues are tied to Apple's own hardware decisions and implementations these days.
Click to expand...

I have no problem believing this. Apple's hardware engineering is nowhere as good as it used to be.
 
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converse320 said:
I've got Catalina running really well on Macbook Pro 5.2. This is a 2008 machine. It's noticeably quicker and more stable now than it has been for a long time. I used the Dosdude Patcher.
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I got the Catalina running on 2011 Mac mini as well, it runs OK. I can't say it is 100% buttery smooth, but it is stable enough for daily drivers.

This makes me to wonder if my 2011 Mac mini and your 2008 machine runs reasonably well, why does Apple choose to cut these machine from support list. I mean you don't need a patcher app to install Windows 10 on 2008 era machine, it just works (as on my Phenom II X4 with 8GB RAM and Nvida 560).
 
Bending Pixels said:
No issues here either.

I'd bet the biggest issue people are running into is app's that are still 32bit
Click to expand...

Catalina won’t even execute 32-bit apps:

how-to-run-32-bit-apps-in-macos-catalina_xqp7.1200.jpg

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LovingTeddy said:
I got the Catalina running on 2011 Mac mini as well, it runs OK. I can't say it is 100% buttery smooth, but it is stable enough for daily drivers.

This makes me to wonder if my 2011 Mac mini and your 2008 machine runs reasonably well, why does Apple choose to cut these machine from support list. I mean you don't need a patcher app to install Windows 10 on 2008 era machine, it just works (as on my Phenom II X4 with 8GB RAM and Nvida 560).
Click to expand...

I think you answered your own question by stating “I got the Catalina running on 2011 Mac mini as well, it runs OK. I can't say it is 100% buttery smooth”. If Apple did move the hardware requirement to older hardware like yours, people would complain that the software does not run well. There needs to be a cut off on what is considered reasonable user experience. I think nine years is pretty good for hardware. I suspect that 10.16 will also run on the same hardware requirements as 10.15.
 
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Taz Mangus said:
Catalina won’t even execute 32-bit apps:

how-to-run-32-bit-apps-in-macos-catalina_xqp7.1200.jpg

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I think you answered your own question by stating “I got the Catalina running on 2011 Mac mini as well, it runs OK. I can't say it is 100% buttery smooth”. If Apple did move the hardware requirement to older hardware like yours, people would complain that the software does not run well. There needs to be a cut off on what is considered reasonable user experience. I think nine years is pretty good for hardware. I suspect that 10.16 will also run on the same hardware requirements as 10.15.
Click to expand...

Catalina ISN'T supposed to run 32bit app's. Apple started notifying developers almost three (3) years ago to update their app's to 64bit.
 
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Bending Pixels said:
I'd bet the biggest issue people are running into is app's that are still 32bit
Click to expand...
Taz Mangus said:
Catalina won’t even execute 32-bit apps:
Click to expand...
Bending Pixels said:
Catalina ISN'T supposed to run 32bit app's.
Click to expand...
Taz Mangus said:
What cases have there been where Catalina HAS executed a 32-bit app?
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I think there is a bit of confusion here. I think @Bending Pixels meant that the biggest issue people are having is that people are trying to use 32bit apps, which 32bit apps are no longer supported by Catalina and will not work.

I think that @Taz Mangus took the comment made by @Bending Pixels as that the biggest issues people are having with Catalina is that some 32bit apps will not run.

I think they both agree with each other, they just don't know it. Or, maybe I am completely wrong...
 
Every version of every OS known to mankind is the "worst" to someone. Individuals have a poor experience and expect that everyone else is having an equally poor experience. Maybe the OS is truly to blame, maybe there are other factors. One way or the other, there aren't enough tales of woe to classify this version of macOS as any worse than any previous version I can recall.
 
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