Is Catalina as bad as it looks on this board?

[oldmacs]

I think Apple considers an update an update, and of equal weight whether we agree with that approach or not. You can also select and look at the details of the pending update to see exactly what it would do, then decide from there.

And I think that is wrong given there is a clear difference between a stability/security update and Catalina which is a stability downgrade.

The way this was done in the past was much better, it led to less people upgrading by mistake.

We are talking about basic users here, not tech savvy ones.

 

[Richard8655]

And I think that is wrong given there is a clear difference between a stability/security update and Catalina which is a stability downgrade.

The way this was done in the past was much better, it led to less people upgrading by mistake.

We are talking about basic users here, not tech savvy ones.

There is validity to your point. I'd only add if Apple somehow differentiated between small and major upgrades, it might look like they have less confidence in one over the other, implying degrees of risk. I'm sure they don't want to have that perception.

 

[panzer06]

No it has not.

The major 10.x update has never been in system preferences prior to the Catalina update on Mojave.

In the past, the major MacOS update has appeared as a new app in the App Store, making it far more clear that it is a large update to the system, not just a small update.



Because it makes Catalina look like another small update, which has led to plenty of people install Catalina that wouldn't have otherwise because they think its a small security update.

The red dot pushes people to do the update as it is a notification that there is an update that should be done.

Perhaps I'm misunderstand you but Catalina is in my System Preferences and not the App Store and I don't remember seeing OS updates in Settings until I went to Mojave. Prior to that it was lumped in the App Store with everything else. I don't personally have an issue with that except I don't want it constantly nagging me to upgrade.

 

[oldmacs]

There is validity to your point. I'd only add if Apple somehow differentiated between small and major upgrades, it might look like they have less confidence in one over the other, implying degrees of risk. I'm sure they don't want to have that perception.

They always differentiated in the past when updates were through the Mac App Store.
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Perhaps I'm misunderstand you but Catalina is in my System Preferences and not the App Store and I don't remember seeing OS updates in Settings until I went to Mojave. Prior to that it was lumped in the App Store with everything else. I don't personally have an issue with that except I don't want it constantly nagging me to upgrade.

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Yes. This is my point. Previosuly, the major yearly MacOS upgrade was in the Mac App Store and it was not treated like another update. While there were suggestions to update, it did not appear as an update that you couldn't remove the reminder from.

 

[honestone33]

Perhaps I'm misunderstand you but Catalina is in my System Preferences and not the App Store and I don't remember seeing OS updates in Settings until I went to Mojave. Prior to that it was lumped in the App Store with everything else. I don't personally have an issue with that except I don't want it constantly nagging me to upgrade.

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I am not getting nagged that much. Also, if you do a search of Catalina in the App Store, you will find it (but for me, I wanted the full installation Catalina file, which is what the search came up with).

Also, I have done a clean, fresh installation of Catalina on an external SSD, and then migrated/copied needed items from a SuperDuper! backup. Restarted my Mac from it, and it was fine. Except for some (expected) 32 bit apps being incompatible (it also flagged some that I no longer need/use), just about all my third party apps work fine: VLC, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Google Chrome, FireFox, Opera, Quicken 2017, Transmission, EasyFind, AppCleaner, TrashIt!, ClamXAv, and 1Password. And my Canon printer works fine with the printer drivers built into Catalina. But as expected, SuperDuper! and TechTool Pro are not yet compatible with Catalina. (There is a recently released second beta of SuperDuper! V3.3, but I am not going to mess with a beta release). Finally, Titanium Software did release V3.7 of Onyx the other day (Catalina version), but I have not tried it yet. Expect it works, though.

I'm sticking with Mojave, most likely for at the least the next 2 months, as that should be when a Catalina version of TechTool Pro will be released. And if it's anything like it was with Mojave, that will be after V10.15.2 of Catalina is released, and maybe just before V10.15.3. That is what happened earlier this year, as TTPro was released for Mojave compatibility in January, and OS 10.14.3 was released only a week later.

 

[fisherking]

No it has not.

The major 10.x update has never been in system preferences prior to the Catalina update on Mojave.

In the past, the major MacOS update has appeared as a new app in the App Store, making it far more clear that it is a large update to the system, not just a small update.



Because it makes Catalina look like another small update, which has led to plenty of people install Catalina that wouldn't have otherwise because they think its a small security update.

The red dot pushes people to do the update as it is a notification that there is an update that should be done.

if you say so

 

[jgbr]

Mojave will end up like snow leopard.

 

[leman]

Mojave will end up like snow leopard.

The Snow Leopard that would delete all user data during upgrade? ?
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Nothing is as bad, as it is made out to be on this board.

You madam or sir have won the forums. Mind if I use this as my signature, its just too good?

 

[jgbr]

The Snow Leopard that would delete all user data during upgrade? ?
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You madam or sir have won the forums. Mind if I use this as my signature, its just too good?

More so that snow leopard was kept by many for its stability and backwards compatibility, as Mojave will.

I can’t say personally I think Catalina is that much of an upgrade. iTunes to music seems a step down to me.

 

[vfontjr]

I'm having constant crashes and kernal panics on a brand new maxed out iMac. There's a lot of threads going on that it's happening with machines that have the Radeon Pro Vega 48 card as mine does. Just this morning, Firefox kept causing the iMac to reboot. I turned off hardware acceleration and Firefox has been stable so far since.

 

[Ethosik]

I'm having constant crashes and kernal panics on a brand new maxed out iMac. There's a lot of threads going on that it's happening with machines that have the Radeon Pro Vega 48 card as mine does. Just this morning, Firefox kept causing the iMac to reboot. I turned off hardware acceleration and Firefox has been stable so far since.

Yes this is very irritating. My computer is useless with Catalina.

 

[honestone33]

Just to let folks know that the third beta of oS 10.15.1, the first update for Catalina, was released yesterday:

Apple releases third developer beta of macOS Catalina 10.15.1 - 9to5Mac

Following the release of the second beta last week, Apple today has released the third developer beta of macOS Catalina...

9to5mac.com

I would not be surprised to see OS 10.15.1 released soon. Still, it might be better to wait until OS 10.15.2.

 

[JHy]

There is just a page of people posting issues with new replies every few minutes. Is catalina as bad as it looks form this forum?

I was going to install it but now i am not so sure at all.

Thanks!

Do not install it yet.
It really is awful.
They'll get it right, but give them more time.

 

[sugargliderdude]

Just to let folks know that the third beta of oS 10.15.1, the first update for Catalina, was released yesterday:

Apple releases third developer beta of macOS Catalina 10.15.1 - 9to5Mac

Following the release of the second beta last week, Apple today has released the third developer beta of macOS Catalina...

9to5mac.com

I would not be surprised to see OS 10.15.1 released soon. Still, it might be better to wait until OS 10.15.2.

would be even better to wait until 10.15.6
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More so that snow leopard was kept by many for its stability and backwards compatibility, as Mojave will.

I can’t say personally I think Catalina is that much of an upgrade. iTunes to music seems a step down to me.

i loved snow leopard, had no problems what so ever, even with Mojave, its been great from the moment i have installed it.

 

[Richard8655]

The more I read here, the more I must be lucky with Catalina running fine on my 2012 Mac Mini. I would have thought older Macs like mine that just made Catalina eligibility would have the most risks and issues.

 

[panzer06]

would be even better to wait until 10.15.6
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i loved snow leopard, had no problems what so ever, even with Mojave, its been great from the moment i have installed it.

Definitely Mojave has been very stable for me

 

[vfontjr]

So far, turning off hardware acceleration for all browsers that support it, removing Avast, turning off enable power nap, and never letting the computer go to sleep, seems to have stabilized things somewhat. At least I was able to work all day without a KP and the last crash report was from 9am this morning. Let's see how things go overnight.

 

[Martyimac]

I'm having constant crashes and kernal panics on a brand new maxed out iMac. There's a lot of threads going on that it's happening with machines that have the Radeon Pro Vega 48 card as mine does. Just this morning, Firefox kept causing the iMac to reboot. I turned off hardware acceleration and Firefox has been stable so far since.

Sorry to hear this. I too have a maxed out brand new iMac and haven't had ANY issues. Firefox is set up to use the recommended settings which includes hardware acceleration. What version of Firefox are you using? Mine is v70 now but was also running just fine on v69.

 

[Segev]

No issues here on two macs. I still need to update my main one.. looks like I'm going to wait a bit.

 

[fiwiki]

I hate Catalina. It's a pinwheeling POS! Bought a new iMac and upgrading ram requires removal of the display screen..... WTF APPLE!?!?

 

[Richard8655]

I hate Catalina. It's a pinwheeling POS! Bought a new iMac and upgrading ram requires removal of the display screen..... WTF APPLE!?!?

That's why Mac Mini is a good alternative. The display is independent of the computer.

 

[JBaby]

I hate Catalina. It's a pinwheeling POS! Bought a new iMac and upgrading ram requires removal of the display screen..... WTF APPLE!?!?

That’s only true if you bought the small iMac. The biggest iMac has always been user accessible. I always go biggest size for solely this reason.

 

[revmacian]

There is just a page of people posting issues with new replies every few minutes. Is catalina as bad as it looks form this forum?

I was going to install it but now i am not so sure at all.

Thanks!

From a person who has used Macs since 2014, I would say the current version of Catalina is enjoyable. You have to remember that the complaints come from people with issues.. so there are likely several happy users for every frustrated user - I can't possibly be the only person with zero complaints about Catalina. Completely bug-free software doesn't seem to be possible so it shouldn't be expected.

 

[JBaby]

From a person who has used Macs since 2014, I would say the current version of Catalina is enjoyable. You have to remember that the complaints come from people with issues.. so there are likely several happy users for every frustrated user - I can't possibly be the only person with zero complaints about Catalina. Completely bug-free software doesn't seem to be possible so it shouldn't be expected.

This is my experience too. I installed Catalina on a Late 2013 iMac and it’s working so well.

 

[Retromac2008]

I have big problems with Preview, but i reported em at apple and they re going to fix em. (they re real bugs easy to replicate)