back to article How bad is Catalina? It's almost Apple Maps bad: MacOS 10.15 pushes Cupertino's low bar for code quality lower still

Amid Apple's attempt to fend off criticism for its removal, restoration, and re-removal of an app used by pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, the company is also facing particularly voluble criticism from users of its latest desktop operating system, macOS Catalina. Since at least 2015, developers and other technically- …

  1. Totally not a Cylon
    Happy

    No problems here!

    But I do only use my MacBook for email, web browsing and light MS Office work......

    iTunes still works as does Apple TV.

    Was hoping it would fix my issue with bootcamp but no, though this is due to me putting a 1TB NvMe drive in a 2013 MacBook Pro... ;)

    1. Andy Mac

      Re: No problems here!

      I think it’s a bit of a stretch to suggest iTunes worked in the first place.

      1. mmccul

        Re: No problems here!

        Actually, iTunes works well for me -- for organizing and listening to music. The grouping feature and shuffle by grouping allows me to organize my multi-movement pieces of music correctly, listen to them in the correct order when I want, or separately when I want, without breaking albums. I have never owned an iPhone, never an iWatch, and my last iPod was discarded over ten years ago.

        1. jelabarre59

          Re: No problems here!

          Actually, iTunes works well for me -- for organizing and listening to music.

          iTunes has worked adequately for the purpose *I* use it for, which is buying music off the Apple Store. Maybe not necessarily perfectly, but some of that may be down to my not setting it up right.

          Now if they made a way to buy music directly off the website, or created Android and/or Linux clients, that would be even better (as opposed to having to run it in a MSW10 TechPreview VM, a Wine setup, or that 2010 MBP I use to keep semi-updated on MacOS).

          I just use VLC or Audacious to listen to the music, not even iTunes.

    2. el kabong

      So you say.

      That's good to know, I'm so glad for you.

    3. jonnycando

      Re: No problems here!

      NO problems for me either....well none of my macs will even take Catalina, they are stuck at an earlier version...but my phone and my watch are beta devices with latest betas and they are running well....grant you, I don't explore every feature the devices offer so I may not stumble onto every bug....but I have stumbled onto few here lately. I even am privvy to a few beta apps and am lucky they work given that they may have been written by just anyone....

      1. el kabong

        Excellent!

        that's really great. Good job.

    4. macjules
      Gimp

      Re: No problems here!

      No problems here!

      Then try to develop software using OSX Catalina. In particular try to run Docker, Lando, Parallels, VMWare, VirtualBox or Vagrant on it. Luckily I have a Dell running Ubuntu as a backup ..

      1. el kabong
        Gimp

        You're holding it wrong!

        Hold it correctly and everything will work fine, you are not doing it right.

        Don't try to shift the blame to Apple, it is YOUR mistake and you must own it up.

        1. macjules

          Re: You're holding it wrong!

          Ok, so such programmes and frameworks require to change elements of core, or system, functionality, in order to operate. Vagrant, Docker etc often require NFS which means changing /etc/exports for example. If you want to alter the hosts file then you need to change /etc/hosts. Previously it was as as simple as sudo vi /etc/hosts but now the system volume is read only, so you can not do that.

          The blame IS with Apple for a complete lack of information on this matter. Stop hero worshipping failed software simply because it comes from your God.

          1. Wayland

            Re: You're holding it wrong!

            He's taking the piss, he's not actually an SJW like Tim Apple.

          2. Mark 65

            Re: You're holding it wrong!

            Whooooooosh

      2. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

        Re: No problems here!

        Catalina doesn't come up as an update. You have to explicitly install it.

        Don't do that on a professional production/development machine.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        What's the problem with VMware?

        Seems to be working fine here with the latest VMware (the release that supports Catalina).

      4. DenTheMan

        Re: No problems here!

        B, not D.

        Yes, you are meant to B, not Do.

        Apple is about being, and even more so these days

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No problems here!

      iTunes still works as does Apple TV.

      That's interesting then, because iTunes has been split into "Music" for, well, the music part (must have taken their Marketing departments many weeks of meetings and brainstorming to name that app) and everything else now lives in Finder.

      Are you sure you actually updated? :)

      1. Blake St. Claire

        Re: No problems here!

        must have taken their Marketing departments many weeks of meetings and brainstorming to name that app

        I'd guess about as long as it took Microsoft to come up with Windows and Word.

        1. John 104

          Re: No problems here!

          At the time, the Windows name was appropriate. Everything ran on DOS. It was all command line, so having a 'window' to look at your software was pretty revolutionary.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Re: No problems here!

        > (must have taken their Marketing departments many weeks of meetings and brainstorming to name that app)

        It took them that long because the BBC had already taken 'Sounds'

    6. Kebablog

      Smart Mailbox - not so smart

      Only issue I've encountered is the smart mailbox lost the account for secondary mailboxes - added them back in and they were o.k.

    7. Magic

      Catalina Nightmare (DO NOT upgrade)

      After waiting 2 hours for the new upgrade I discovered any and all Microsoft office apps were no longer visible on my Mac and my spreadsheets and business invoices could not be opened. ok easy fix just update on the App Store. Upon attempting to open App store the app will not load and freezes issuing a crash report, after several attempts I contacted live support and with in 4 hours of troubleshooting we finally managed to get the App Store app to function only to discover that when updating the old Microsoft office suite you are in fact downloading the latest time licence subscription version which unless you pay a premium for you can not edit or amend any of your documents or files. so unless your currently using the most updated version do not download Catalina. This was just the Microsoft apps there were around 15 others ie Aperture Pro, Logic Pro wave burner Garage band and more which are also not yet comparable or require the latest version , I can't afford to re-buy any of this and feel why should I I've paid once already, so a hopefully successful solution will be to restore back to the previous OS, I hope this info helps others not to make the same MISTAKE, (Catalina sucks)

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. TRT Silver badge

    Catalina Beta....

    The very first beta release froze a MacBook Pro if the screensaver ran for more than 30 seconds IF the unit was on charger / mains power.

    That is more of an Alpha release bug in my mind. I mean proper paperweight type freezing that needed PMU reset to fix.

    1. Ian 55

      Re: Catalina Beta....

      If Apple think you don't deserve to have a MacBook "Pro" if you don't interact with it constantly while plugged in, who are you to disagree?

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: Catalina Beta....

        Good point.Still it promoted good charging discipline.

    2. chivo243 Silver badge

      Re: Catalina Beta....

      I've been running Catalina beta since the beginning, and yes the shutdown thing was "very" annoying, but it was beta, and I knew from years of beta testing OS X and now macOS that there always issues, always!

      Since the shutdown fix, my only complaints, are it boots slower and tweaking an iPhone (adding custom ring tones) was tiresome with out iTunes.

      I'm sure I will encounter a situation where Apples changes to the OS under the hood will cause me much grief. It will never equal the grief I am living with Win10. Anybody successfully installed Office 2019 from an ISO?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Catalina Beta....

        >any of you have succesfully installed Office 2019 from an ISO

        Yes. Like 5/6 times on different machines. Things have gone the same as per Office 2016 (ProPlus) and Office 2013 (Pro). Double click->wait->EULA->select packages>confirm destination->wait 10 minutes->reboot. It's since Office 2007 it goes like this.

        1. AMBxx Silver badge
          Joke

          Um

          Stop it! Some of us make good money clicking next on behalf of our customers.

  4. ITS Retired
    Facepalm

    Scanner problem

    With Catalina, I can only scan with the document feeder. Before I could scan using the glass. I need to be able to use the glass, as some things I need to scan will not go through the document feeder. I tried looking for a setting to change this, but could not find any.

    Other than that, Catalina seems to be working OK for me.

    1. Snapper

      Re: Scanner problem

      Sounds more like a printer driver issue than a macOS issue.

      Did you check on the printer manufacturer's site to see if there is an update like a sensible person would?

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: Scanner problem

        Why would that help? Printer drivers are downloaded and installed automatically by Software Update.

        1. M E H
          Flame

          Re: Scanner problem

          Mine aren't!

          I've got an HP all in one wireless laser thingy and after every MacOS upgrade I have to download the latest driver from HP. Very annoying.

          What annoys me even more is that I've been working perfectly happily with Office 10 for Macs for years while ignoring the warnings that it will have to be upgraded as it is 32bit. Now I'm going to have to bite the bullet and actually pay for Office 365. I've been putting it off for months.

      2. Velv
        Headmaster

        Re: Scanner problem

        If the driver was working fine, and an OS upgrade broke it, then someone has been tampering with the published interface in the OS and it is not a driver problem per se.

    2. Wayland

      Re: Scanner problem

      A few years ago customer of mine bought a new printer from PC World which worked well on his MAC. Then he asked he to help with a major update. After that the printer would not work and was obsolete.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Apple is deprecating Macs

    It seems clear that Apple doesn't really care about Macs and they really wish they'd just switch to iPads. Their hardware "developments" barely qualify as refreshes and are getting more and more drawn out. Their software development is focussed almost entirely on iOS. They have given up on competing with Microsoft. For a company which was once innovative, it's sad.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

      From the screenshot it's pretty obvious they've crowbarred iOS app permissions into Mac OS so they can run dual-build (or whatever it's called... Catalyst... Catastrophe?) Mac/iOS apps.

      So management not having a clue syndrome and fixed launch dates set by marketing pretty much ensures the kind of crap we see before us.

      Their aim seems to be unify the software by iOSifying it but not the hardware, pretty much the opposite of Windows 10's unify the form factors but have different software running (Win32/TIFKAM). Neither idea is going to work.

    2. jonnycando

      Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

      "HildyJ

      Unhappy

      Apple is deprecating Macs

      It seems clear that Apple doesn't really care about Macs and they really wish they'd just switch to iPads. Their hardware "developments" barely qualify as refreshes and are getting more and more drawn out. Their software development is focussed almost entirely on iOS. They have given up on competing with Microsoft. For a company which was once innovative, it's sad."

      They may be doing that, but I hope not.....fwiw my macs are somewhat obsolete so are stuck with an earlier version of MacOS and for the moment that might be a good thing.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

      "Their hardware "developments" barely qualify as refreshes and are getting more and more drawn out."

      They could release new hardware with each Intel refresh, but as Intel haven't really made any performance progress for 3-4 years, I suspect Apple would be crucified for offering pointless upgrades.

      1. Hans 1
        Angel

        Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

        As much as I dislike Apple, blaming them for Intel's failure is a bit much.

        What you can blame them for, though, is

        • "designed-to-fail-early" hardware.
        • slaughtering of macos

        Icon: Jobsian being

        1. laughthisoff

          Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

          "As much as I dislike Apple, blaming them for Intel's failure is a bit much. What you can blame them for, though, is 'designed-to-fail-early' hardware."

          Whilst I could rib Apple on many, many points, long-term personal experience tells me I'd have to disagree with you on this particular one.

          I've been an Apple and a Windows (inc Server) - and Linux - user for more years than I care to remember or tell and, for longevity, Apple's hardware *generally* outstrips anything even Lenovo or HP have thrown at me, at least on the desktop, laptop front. Ditto for phones. Servers are another matter entirely (cut me and I have the letters HP DL through me like a stick of rock :-). Yes, there are exceptions both ways, with odd bits dying early or living extra long on both sides of the fence, but *overall* the Apple stuff has generally had a longer *useful* (or trickle-down) lifespan, in my personal experience (excluding swapping some PCs to 'lite' Linux installs maybe).

          YMMV of course.

          SB

          1. Mark 65

            Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

            Agreed. My iMac 2010 is on High Sierra, a not great but still supported OS. The first time this is out of support and a critical and never to be patched vulnerability arrives I'll have to consider what to do with it.

            As a 2.93GHz i7 with 32GB RAM and an aftermarket 1TB SATA SSD this thing has plenty of life in it. My first choice would be to install Linux on it but Poettering seems intent on p*ssing in that particular pool for everyone. MX Linux may be viable though.

    4. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

      Yeah they rearchitected everything to 64 bit just for fun.

    5. Velv
      Linux

      Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

      Next stop - macOS for sale as an OS in its own right that you can install on any compatible hardware, e.g. that HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, etc hardware commonly known as an x86 laptop.

      Why bother making your own hardware when the margins are minuscule and everyone else does it better?

      1. FIA Silver badge

        Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

        Next stop - macOS for sale as an OS in its own right that you can install on any compatible hardware, [...]

        Not a chance, the support headache would be a nightmare.

        Why bother making your own hardware when the margins are minuscule

        Apple make 'high end' hardware, the margins are probably anything but. :D

        and everyone else does it better?

        Define better?

        In my (very limited) experience, if you get to Apple build quality from another manufacturer then the price different seems to dissapear. My current (second hand) MB Air is lovely, and probably as expensive as the Lenovo Thinkpad it replaced, which was also bullet proof. :)

        1. Mark 65

          Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

          Dell XPS is probably the nearest comparison, as is the price.

      2. red floyd

        Re: Apple is deprecating Macs

        They tried that. It failed. Remember Gil Amelio?

  6. Lost In Clouds of Data
    WTF?

    All’s good here...

    iPhone 7+, iPad Pro 9.7”, Series 3 Watch and 2018 MacBook Pro all updated.

    So far I’ve seen zero O/S bugs - although Hazel on my Mac is a dead duck until the devs release a new version of it (which I knew about going in to Catalina).

    That said, aside from having to give the MacBook a double-tap mid-install, the rest went just peachy.

    Battery life on all mobile devices seems just fine, not noticed any ill-effects. Not saying there aren’t bugs, just that I’ve personally not come across anything obvious - and I’m not alone either: Anecdotal evidence from co-workers (and aren’t most of these issues anecdotal?) also seems to be the case of “all quiet on the Western Front”.

    1. el kabong

      That's fantastic news.

      Quite an achievement, congratulations!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: That's fantastic news.

        You finally got kicked-off the National Post?

    2. Lost In Clouds of Data
      FAIL

      Re: All’s good here...

      Fascinating that folk downvote personal experiences. One wonders if the downvoters just love to hate on anything Apple and can't handle someone not having issues with an operating system.

      I never said there were no bugs, just simply explained my particular use case and others who work with me. If downvoting allows others an outlet to just hate on Apple then go right ahead. However just know that none of it makes any difference - my devices are still running fine regardless!

      1. mistersaxon

        Re: All’s good here...

        Mine too - the only thing I’ve noticed is a bit of amnesia around my iCloud password. But being able to authorise security actions on the Watch more than saves the time back.

        That said I’m only updating my laptop for now - the others can and should wait.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: All’s good here...

          I've found that same experience with all these hand-wringing update articles on The Register.

          They are usually talking about situations that only happen when certain planets are aligned and the wind blows from all directions at once. I always update and never regret it. People won't want to hear it because it's fun to be snide, but that's how it worked out.

          1. FIA Silver badge

            Re: All’s good here...

            I've found that same experience with all these hand-wringing update articles on The Register.[...]

            My personal favourite was:

            "Then there are the posts that purport to be from Apple employees and describe the company's internal disarray and lack of communication. The Register is unable to verify who these people might be,"

            ooh, that's good journalism right there....

            " but other people posting to the thread confirm that Apple employees they've known have raised similar concerns."

            Ah well...

      2. DavCrav

        Re: All’s good here...

        "Fascinating that folk downvote personal experiences."

        Because it's stupid posting a 'I am not experiencing issues' comment. It would only be useful if the question is whether something was down for everyone or just a portion. But we know the software is buggy, because lots of people have experienced bugs. The fact that you haven't is uninteresting and unimportant.

        1. FIA Silver badge

          Re: All’s good here...

          It's a comment section of a website!! Most of what's posted is uninteresting and unimportant!!

          Plus, the 'Works fine for me' do help to give some balance; and potentially allow a indication of how serious the issue is. (The linked rant was very specific for example).

          Sometimes it's good to know the settings on the internet echo chamber.

          (Apologies, I may still be upset that it got compared to the Vista release.... you weren't there man!!)

        2. Lost In Clouds of Data
          WTF?

          Re: All’s good here...

          "Because it's stupid posting a 'I am not experiencing issues' comment. It would only be useful if the question is whether something was down for everyone or just a portion. But we know the software is buggy, because lots of people have experienced bugs. The fact that you haven't is uninteresting and unimportant."

          Oh, I see, we're ONLY allowed to post something if it increases the volume of the echo chamber! No dissention allowed huh? Good to know...

          Yes, the software is buggy - again, I never stated otherwise. However my post - and other besides - goes to show that the problems are NOT so black and white. I've two MacBooks I upgraded, one's a 2015 Pro, 'tother a 2018. MY 2015 one is chock full of games and home development tools, my work 2018 one is replete with Dev tools, docker containers and code editors.

          The fact that neither have had issues that have prevented me from working is important. Folk often talk about bad things, they rarely talk about the good ones.

  7. sanmigueelbeer

    And I’ve heard personally from folks inside Apple who I’m friends with and others that I just know by reputation, that my comments were hurtful.

    and

    he thought Hall's critique is mostly fair.

    Is Hall not meant to voice out (or criticize) what we all thought of Apple's state of quality control of their software?

    Apple management, it seems, need to grow up if they can't handle the truth.

    Remember: Being number one is different to STAYING number one.

    1. Wayland

      Get Woke, Go Broke

      "Apple management, it seems, need to grow up if they can't handle the truth."

      It's CurrentYear$ and feelings Trump facts. Tim Cooking Apple is an LGBT or something. Apple logo used to be a rainbow apple, I expect they will bring that back rather than fix the bugs.

  8. Joe Gurman

    Funny....

    .... with the exception of one piece of third-party software which is mysteriously missing in action (the dev is promising a beta for Catalina RSN, despite the fact that GM was available a couple of weeks ago), and lingering sadness over the disappearance of Dashboard, everything is pretty much working for me in macOS 10.15. Did the devs not watch the videos from the last WWDC or read any of the related material? Yes, it's different in some ways. No, as far as this end user can tell, none of those differences is a surprise.

    1. MooseMonkey

      Re: Funny....

      Dashboard gone??? Oh crap, it's taken my six years to start using that!

      1. Mike Moyle

        Re: Funny....

        "Dashboard gone??? Oh crap, it's taken my six years to start using that!"

        If you had stickies in Dashboard, they've been imported into the Stickies app. Widget and other preferences are still there.

        https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/364114/how-to-recover-dashboard-stickies-on-macos-catalina?rq=1

    2. Adelio

      Re: Funny....

      T.B.H unless we are talking about a Major upgrade to the OS why should it break ANY existing software.

      If it keeps doing that for every release I would suggest that Apple (Microsoft are NOT exempt) have a deliberater policy of changing things so that they break stuff.

  9. razorfishsl

    Well Apple needs to get off its self masturbating Vaseline covered horse...... or it will be going the way of IBM.

    They might think they are clever by blocking Nvidia drivers over a spat going back a few years or shoving security chips into their kit to stop people running the OS on other hardware.. but let's face it, if they produced DECENT reasonable cost hardware and stopped SHITTING on their user base.... maybe their user base would not have to use other hardware to get the computing experience they think they are due in this day and age....

    1. David 132 Silver badge

      Upvoted, but I am genuinely perplexed/disturbed by your phrase “self masturbating vaseline covered horse”... the mind boggles.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        r/brandnewsentence

      2. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

        “self masturbating vaseline covered horse”

        Mac user version of "correct horse battery staple" ?

    2. macjules

      Can you actually ride a self masturbating Vaseline covered horse? I would have thought that the Vaseline would make it hard to get onto and the constant bucking would make it harder still to stay on.

      Just trying to mind bleach my brain here ...

  10. Dick Kennedy

    Re: Well if the US ships want the Chinese to keep out of the way

    Same old Apple bashing. Take a few disgruntled devs (and when weren't devs disgruntled?), and handful of non-functional apps (mainly because the devs are crap/lazy) and some unsubstantiated rumours, mix together and blow out of all proportion.

    This is a major OS update. When did you know of a major OS update that didn't have snags - including Windows and Linux? For god's sake, half of the Linux world is still blathering on about systemd.

    Alas, this is all too typical for The Reg. I know Apple ignores you, but do try to get over it. If you do that, then maybe one day you can grow up into real journalists.

    1. el kabong

      Brown nosing your way into Apple's heart

      Apple will always love their brown nosers, I'm sure they will appreciate you more for doing it. Keep up the good work!

    2. chivo243 Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Well if the US ships want the Chinese to keep out of the way

      Fanbois gonna love, anti-fanbois gonna hate. But your comment is neutral and quite well thought out. Apple announced a long time ago that 32bit support being discontinued. Any shop that didn't at least make preparations to update is as you said crap\lazy. I'm looking squarely at you Adobe, as you continue to leave 32bit cruft in your wake.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Well if the US ships want the Chinese to keep out of the way

        The main 3 categories of Apple users are

        1. Audio/Video producers.

        2. Graphic designer/Photographers

        3. People who just browse facebook.

        Now, the former two are being let down by the company in this release (you can blame Adobe, but their product works... on Windows). Guess we know who Apple is appealing to.

        1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

          Re: Well if the US ships want the Chinese to keep out of the way

          The main 3 categories of Apple users are

          4. People who are used to using Unix/Linux/*BSD and wanted to have something similar that actually had a usable GUI but couldn't stand having to use Windows..

    3. xanda
      Headmaster

      Re: Well if the US ships want the Chinese to keep out of the way

      ...When did you know of a major OS update that didn't have snags - including Windows and Linux?

      Spoken like a true software 'engineer'.

      Only in this discipline has it been acceptable to say things like "Updates(grades?) are always this bad" or "Everyone else is just as guilty of shoddiness as we are". As an aside, perhaps this is Tesla's reasoning on the smart summon feature? But we digress...

      Given the money Apple receive, their purported prowess and the level of control they wield over their customer base, any reasonable person would conclude that such 'snags' - as you call them - would not reach the level described by so many on this release.

      We're not anti-Apple (we have some of their kit ourselves) but we are pro 'getting the expected quality paid for'.

      1. JimboSmith Silver badge

        Re: Well if the US ships want the Chinese to keep out of the way

        I've just invented a new word "Upgrates" which defines as "People who don't like updates".

        1. FIA Silver badge

          Re: Well if the US ships want the Chinese to keep out of the way

          I've just invented a new word "Upgrates" which defines as "People who don't like updates".

          Sounds like something you do to artisinal cheese.

    4. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Re: Well if the US ships want the Chinese to keep out of the way

      Take a few disgruntled devs (and when weren't devs disgruntled?), and handful of non-functional apps (mainly because the devs are crap/lazy)

      Speaking from an admittedly biased viewpoint here, but maybe the reason the devs you encounter are disgruntled isn't because they are crap or lazy, but is because of teh sheer amount of bullshit they have to swallow from people like yourselves, who can't be bothered to understand what devs actually do, due to being crap and lazy?

      In any ecosystem, there are producers and exploiters. People whining about devs not producing an endless magical supply of stuff for them to sell are the equivalent of garden slugs complaining that there are no cabbages left.

  11. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Why not drop iOS and Windows, and go back to DOS, OS/2 and BeOS?

    Won't be practical or possible for the majority.

    Let us hope that QA processes and procedures in both Apple and M$ coding shops improve and that their consumers will not have to battle allsorts of bugs and issues.

    1. Kibble 2
      Meh

      Kinda doubtful...

      @Anonymous South African Coward

      It would probably require hiring more coders as well as sending them to school which would put a hit to the bottom line.

  12. meanioni

    Non-issue if I've ever seen one...

    Got latest MacOS running on two machines and it has been stable, no bugs. Very nice.

    So the article is based upon removing 32 bit support (which has been known about for years and is not unreasonable) and a couple of devs moaning.

    Well big whoopy do....

    Compared to Windows 10 and the multiple updates it has had to pull because of breaking machines I think this is a non-story....

    1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Re: Non-issue if I've ever seen one...

      which has been known about for years and is not unreasonable

      And which previous MacOS versions have been intermittently warning about when you run 32-bit applications..

      The main issue comes with some old utilities that are no longer supported. Ho hum - that's what Parallels is for - I have a couple of VMs of previous versions just for that reason.

    2. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Re: Non-issue if I've ever seen one...

      Compared to Windows 10 and the multiple updates it has had to pull because of breaking machines I think this is a non-story....

      I'm no eulogiser for Microsoft, but it's worth noting that Windows is a general purpose operating system, designed to work on a wide variety of hardware, for multiple manufacturers, at multiple levels of performance, and MacOs is written to run on a tightly controlled set of hardware.

      You woudln't expect, for instance, a change to an undocumented API to break a third-party driver for a disk controller, graphics card, BIOS chipset, USB root hub, built-in camera, etc. etc. in a situation where you know all the hardware variations, and can test against them all.

      Apple's approach of a tightly-controlled ecosystem should mean that "it just works". It also means that you get a lot less flexibility in what you can use and how you can use it, and you are locked in to what Apple dictates to a greater degree than you would be with another OS. Microsoft aren't entirely innocent when it comes to trying to lock users into their ecosystem either. Guess what? I'm not a fan of that, whoever is doing it.

  13. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

    Update risk

    It seems that late model MacBook Pro laptops have some critical boot code in their non-removable storage. After Migration Assistant did nothing of use, I booted two laptops into Network Recovery mode and streamed one laptop's storage device to the other laptop's using 'nc'. That bricked it to a spinning globe and it needed to be repaired. Think about that when you install freshly-released OS.

    1. mevets

      Re: Update risk

      Quite an achievement, congratulations!

      (sorry, wanted to beat el kabong to it).

  14. Smudged

    Someone's been watching "Silicon Valley"

    “How bad is this, be honest?

    Is this Windows Vista bad?

    It’s not iPhone 4 bad, is it?

    F*&k. Don’t tell me this is Zune bad.”

    “I’m sorry Gavin. It’s Apple Maps bad.”

    1. Wayland

      Re: Someone's been watching "Silicon Valley"

      Windows Vista bad?

      Well even Vista is better than Windows 10.

  15. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    Catalina seems to work just fine for me on my 2014 MBP.

    Shame they don't support Sidecar with this MBP. Great shame, as I have an iPad Pro.

  16. Wade Burchette

    Not Windows Vista bad

    "In particular, these supposed employees raise the same issue cited by Hall, that Apple's marketing group overrides engineering concerns."

    That has been true for a very long time. This is the same company that told us we were holding our phone wrong when they released a defective iPhone. In the US of A, at the time this was found out, the iPhone was AT&T only. Soon after, iPhone went to other carriers. Did Apple fix the flaw before they released a version for other carriers? No. This is also the same company that has no problem lying to you. See the Canadian reports here and here. This is also the same company that released a defective, hard to type on 'butterfly' keyboard on their laptops. When there was a high rate of failure, did they remove the bad keyboard? No, just made it slightly less bad.

    "As Hall argues, "Apple’s insistence on their annual, big-splash release cycle is fundamentally breaking engineering.""

    So, this is not Windows Vista bad. It is much much worse. It is Windows 10 bad. Why do this companies keep copying each other's bad ideas? Who needs stable, well-tested, and easy-to-understand software? Apparently Microsoft and Apple think you don't. Why is it so hard to get what was once standard? Are they so poor that they cannot afford several thousand quality control people?

    1. Tessier-Ashpool

      Re: Not Windows Vista bad

      Hyperbole much? Come on, it’s not that bad. The upgrade was a bit rough around the edges for me - I had to provide my iCloud password about ten times before it stopped badgering me - but I can’t say I’ve encountered any other problems. Some people are reporting that it can mess up Apple Mail. Hasn’t affected me.

      Having said that, Apple are in a bad place by having this strictly regimented annual update of products. They feel obliged to bring out a new iPhone and OS each September. And invariably there are features like hand-off or sidecar that bring with them co-dependencies with MacOS. Meaning that MacOS update really has to come out in October, ready or not.

      I’d care for their attitude a lot more if they just brought out new stuff a) when it’s ready and b) fit for purpose. They’re a trillion dollar company, for feck’s sake. Just tell the moneybags and marketing department to take a hike.

    2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Re: Not Windows Vista bad

      That has been true for a very long time

      And has been true for pretty much every major OS vendor. What we used to call 'bloated featuritis".

    3. MrReynolds2U

      Re: Not Windows Vista bad

      You can't really directly compare Win10 issues with iOS issues.

      iOS is installed on kit that Apple have designed and only that kit.

      Win10 gets installed on all manner of kit in infinite combinations of fun.

  17. TTY

    No problems here

    I'll just stop using the security and privacy features...

    1. John Sawyer

      Re: No problems here

      OK, but I already knew you had.

    2. ClemHarvey

      Re: No problems here

      Enhanced Gatekeeper sounds a bit worrying (I haven't seen the keynote, just the release notes).

      Not a problem if the option is still available to run "untrusted" apps after seeing a scary dialog box, but a huge problem if they hard block anything that hasn't been reviewed or was reviewed and failed e.g. due to an old shared library that can't be updated because it's abandonware but otherwise safe in a properly configured computer/network.

      Gatekeeper will ensure that all new apps you install - from the App Store or the internet - have been checked for known security issues by Apple before you run them the first time and periodically thereafter.

  18. jgarbo
    Flame

    "Apple's marketing group overrides engineering concerns." I read a similar post about Boeing awhile back. Luckily Mac's can't fly...

    1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

      Luckily Mac's can't fly...

      Unlike the Consolidated PBY Catalina

  19. TimMaher Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Different from Sierra and earlier.

    I cloned a Sierra machine running on VMWare Fusion Pro. (out of date version as host is early 2008 Mac Pro running a mountainside or something in a desert).

    It installs, reboots to fruit symbol and stops.

    I shall now delete the clone.

    1. theOtherJT Silver badge

      Re: Different from Sierra and earlier.

      To be fair, that's a pretty weird case for the installer to deal with. Apple have always been adamant that you run their OS only on their hardware* and do provide compatibility lists. I'm fairly certain that isn't going to be on them.

      *I'm not making any comment on the wisdom of that decision, just pointing out that it's a thing they do.

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: Different from Sierra and earlier.

        Apple have always been adamant that you run their OS only on their hardware

        Or in a VM on their hardware. Parallels explicitly makes it easy to run MacOS VMs. Apple don't have an issue running a MacOS VM under a hypervisor on a Mac - they just object to running it under a hypervisor on a non-Mac.

  20. neilo

    Another one with no problems here

    Install was smooth. I made sure my critical apps were updated ahead of time. Lightroom Classic, Office, EndNote all work fine. Dark Mode is a joy. Apart from news.com.au stopping loading images are a free page refreshes (this has been an issue since I bought my 2018 MBP), this has been smooth and seamless.

    Sure, some apps are borked (TomTom: I'm looking at you!), but these are 32 bits apps and I knew ahead of time trouble was heading that way.

  21. Richard Parkin

    The problems I see all relate to syncing

    The problems I see all relate to syncing. I installed the iOS 13 beta on a spare device and it acquired all my iOS 12 Reminders but ‘deleted them everywhere else on iOS 12, Mac Mohave and iCloud in a browser! There were also problems with iOS Mail not downloading messages (OK on Outlook) and some other weirdness that’s difficult to quantify/describe. Made me wonder what else wasn’t syncing. Essentially I was ‘forced’ to update everywhere to get my Reminders back and who knew what else. Now all my devices are on the latest releases and Reminders works fine (I think!) but now Catalina Notes is not updating on iOS Notes. Apple Mail was OK but now the iCloud mail account doesn’t show in the combined iOS Inbox — still OK on the same device with Outlook!

    So I’m still wondering what else could be going wrong without showing up ... yet :-( .

  22. <script>alert('the register');</script>

    Upgraded and can’t connect to my work vpn. Thanks Apple! No work weekend ahead.

    1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge
      Happy

      Hopefully this prospect fills you with joy, not dread.

  23. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "I don't think it was premature, I think it's been in roughly the same state for a while,"

    A bit of a non sequitur here. The fact that it's remained in a given state for a while doesn't mean that that state isn't premature.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is it just me

    or is anyone else wondering whether there may be a connection between Apples' hardware and software problems and the, quite sudden, departure of that pretencious prick Ives? It seems to me that a lot if their problems happened as he got various promotions in the company

    Just sayin…

    Cheers… Ishy

  25. lee harvey osmond

    10.15 Catastrophe

    Took several hours to download and begin install, then hung during 'setting up' phase.

    ssh'ed in from my ancient MacBook, go a listing from /bin/ps

    System apparently idle but for photoanalysisd .

    Went to Apple to report this, but couldn't -- needed to use Chrome because the newest Safari on the ancient MacBook doesn't do TLS past 1.0.

    ... but couldn't sign in, got a Javascript exception logged.

    Currently scraping off all the 32 bit apps I had that no longer work.

    Opening Safari? Hope you bought a book to read.

    1. Snapper

      Re: 10.15 Catastrophe

      Perhaps you should have, you know, checked your apps before updating if your ancient MacBook was still running a lot of non-Apple 32-bit stuff. Free and quick checker here https://is.gd/L2jn5Y (Go64)

      1. lee harvey osmond

        Re: 10.15 Catastrophe

        Read the post.

        The old MacBook was the fallback to which I resorted when the Catastrophe took out my modern MacMini.

      2. Paul

        Re: 10.15 Catastrophe

        Why doesn't the Apple update tool scan for 32 bit and warn you?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Why doesn't the Apple update tool scan for 32 bit and warn you?

          It does, just about as soon as it starts up. I got told about the one app I knew wasn't yet ready for 64-bit.

        2. The Unexpected Bill

          Re: 10.15 Catastrophe

          It does, or at least it is supposed to. I upgraded a test system and while it caught some 32-bit applications, the entirety of Microsoft Office 2011 went unnoticed, as did several other programs.

      3. nicmart

        Re: 10.15 Catastrophe

        Did Apple send an email to every registered Mac owner notifying her/him that 32-bit apps would be rendered obsolete?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Why would they need to do that?

          1) Running 32-bit apps after previous updates resulted in a message along the lines of "be aware, this 32-bit app won't be supported forever - ask the developer for an update".

          2) The Catalina installer warns if it finds any 32-bit apps and asks if you want to cancel the update.

          Either way, people would be aware of the potential issue.

          1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

            Re: Why would they need to do that?

            2) The Catalina installer warns if it finds any 32-bit apps and asks if you want to cancel the update

            Didn't with me. Mind you, there were only a few 32-bit applications I was using and I can live without them.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 10.15 Catastrophe

      @Lee Harvey Osmond

      "Opening Safari? Hope you bought a book to read"

      Huh, that's nothing. I need a book to open Spotify and then bloody War and Peace to read whilst waiting for Spotify search results.

      I would dump Apple if there was any alternative. I won't use windows and sadly Linux is out of the question as I can find no Linux software that is at least distant cousins to the 2 absolutely vital programs I need for my business.

      Maybe one day.

      Cheers… Ishy

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 10.15 Catastrophe

        >won't use windows

        Why? I dual boot win10 and debian and never had any issue, with both. Yes, sometimes that crap updates, but until now I've always managed to make it do what I want it to do the way I command. With MacOS, that's not often the case.

  26. Randy Hudson

    Production machine?

    “ I’m not updating a single machine yet. Definitely not production ones ”

    WTF is a production Mac?

    1. lee harvey osmond

      Re: Production machine?

      One on which you are conducting business and doing your job and where, consequently, unscheduled downtime will cause you or your employer money; lost earnings, penalties for failure to maintain contracted quality of service standards, stuff like that

    2. Gaius

      Re: Production machine?

      If your business is say video production, then the desktop macs are production machines. Or if you use them for DTP, CAD, or anything similar.

    3. I sound like Peter Griffin!!
      IT Angle

      Re: Production machine?

      Same thing as a PRODUCTION windows machine?

  27. Tachisme

    I installed Catalina on my Mac Mini, and immediately lost all screen output. Apple support could not help me, and I was going to have to take my machine into an Apple Store in London, when I stumbled across an answer on a Reddit forum. It transpires that Catalina doesn’t like some 4K monitors. I had to completely remove the power from my Mac Mini, and then reconnect it, and my monitor started working again. Not a great user experience...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I've see a lot of problems like this with screens in the past (though not with Apple) - generally caused by non stanadards-conforming EDID processing within the screen that sometimes only shows when the other end uses a different (conforming) way to process the data.

  28. ITS Retired

    Too soon to check. Catalina just came out. It takes a while for everyone to catch up on broken stuff.

  29. fidodogbreath
    Meh

    Disaster!!!!!!!

    The article content doesn't support the breathless headline and dumpster-fire graphic.

  30. cjcox

    The "elements" of the dumpster fire

    So... really, there are some things in Catalina to be aware of.

    1. No more 32bit support. If you're holding on to old software, like a bought copy of Office 2011, you will be frustrated. Also, even venerable apps like Creative Cloud have had some problems with add-ons that are still 32bit. So, IMHO, this is probably the biggest thing to be aware of as "important" stuff might not work for you on Catalina. Is there a list of software somewhere? Not sure. There might be some kind of "checker" program out there.

    2. Apple's version of UAC. More things are going to ask your permission. Interesting that during the MS Vista days, Apple ran ads mocking the UAC feature of Windows and now, they sort of have the same thing. Hopefully this is just more of a nuisance.

    3. Protected OS area. With Catalina you can lock down the OS areas from external modification. This might cause problems for some software, but usually not.

    (there are other "big things"...)

    Anyway, like most Apple shops, we have been kicking the tires so to speak, and at least for our users, we don't view much of Catalina to be a big problem, sure... we have some rough things relating to TCC (#2) that we still need to work through, but in general, we're ok. Has Apple been making some fairly radical changes in Mojave and Catalina... definitely. And some of these changes can frustrate an Apple shop where processes and procedures for "imaging" or "network install" were used. Probably nothing big for the user community. With that said, not sure there's anything terribly great or awesome forcing you to upgrade. You might just wait until you need a new device (talking home users) and accept whatever OS version it comes with.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The "elements" of the dumpster fire

      Apples version of UAC as you describe it is nothing of the sort. It is a single one time question as to whether to allow a program to access potentially sensitive areas of your computer.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The "elements" of the dumpster fire

        Downvotes are interesting. Do you disagree with a statement of fact or are you just so rabidly anti Apple you will downvote anything?

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    that my comments were hurtful

    Welcome to Silly Valley in 2019, where not offending a dev who writes shit code trumps them actually fixing it.

  32. Trollslayer
    Flame

    Surely they have the money

    to put the right resources into this.

  33. Updraft102

    In two posts this week, macOS developer Tyler Hall, from Nashville, Tennessee, savaged Apple's macOS Catalina update, likening it to the reviled Windows Vista and subsequently detailing its many alleged faults.

    What about the reviled Windows 10? Why go back into the past so far for an example when there's a much more contemporary example?

    "And I’ve heard personally from folks inside Apple who I’m friends with and others that I just know by reputation, that my comments were hurtful.

    Notice they didn't say the comments were inaccurate. If the comments made were hurtful but accurate, perhaps some introspection into how that particular combination of attributes came to be is indicated.

    Experienced macOS users users of any OS tend to advise waiting a few months for updates and bug fixes before installing a major operating system revision.

    FTFY.

    As Hall argues, "Apple’s insistence on their annual, big-splash release cycle is fundamentally breaking engineering."

    So what you're telling us is that releasing on a set schedule, without regard to product readiness or anything else besides the calendar, is bad. Microsoft, of course, does the same thing now, committed as they are to copying Apple in every way possible, except that MS does it twice as often.

  34. Billy Bob Gascan

    XCode 11

    As horrible as Catalina is, it's great compared to XCode 11 / 11.1. This is a real travesty.

  35. TVU Silver badge

    "Same old Apple bashing. Take a few disgruntled devs (and when weren't devs disgruntled?), and handful of non-functional apps (mainly because the devs are crap/lazy) and some unsubstantiated rumours, mix together and blow out of all proportion"

    In this instance though, Apple does deserve every bit of criticism it gets. My own view is that they need to do much more quality assurance testing before significant OS and update releases. I also think they should be releasing a new macOS version every other year with bug fixes in between. That should give them ample time to iron out the great majority of the issues.

    In an era of flatlining phone and tablet sales, Apple needs a broad user base to survive and thrive and that means catering for their developer and professional users who have been neglected this past five years or so. I want Apple to be remain relevant in the 21st century and to provide a viable alternative to Microsoft's offerings but in order to do that, they've seriously got to up their game.

  36. ReadyKilowatt

    A number of little issues here. The iOS/WatchOS remote app no longer controls Apple Music. iCloud issues that required an Apple ID logout/login (which broke a lot of things). HostName changed to name of another device on the network somehow, which might have caused issues with Time Machine backups, but not sure.

    Just general weirdness really. But still looks sloppy.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    comments were hurtful

    "I’ve heard personally from folks inside Apple who I’m friends with and others that I just know by reputation, that my comments were hurtful"

    what a great business, software. you can ship a completely defective product with virtually no liability. if it was a car, toaster oven or medicine, the trial lawyers would be all over it.

    burning dumpster fire indeed. steve jobs is long dead and the woke culture at apple places no responsibility for quality on anyone.

    remember when mobile me was released and was a disaster and jobs fired the guy responsible, and publicly berated him for doing such a shitty job?

    now everyone is worried about hurt feeling while a sh*tty walled garden is shoved down our throats.

    but hey, those shiny icons...

    1. Ross 12

      Re: comments were hurtful

      Wow, so your explanation is that management are no longer bullying arseholes and that they need to bring back a culture of fear amongst staff?

      1. juvenihil

        Re: comments were hurtful

        Yes. It used to work, this snowflake version doesn't. Better would be to learn how to manage a softwarehouse from somebody who actually know how to do it.

        1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

          Re: comments were hurtful

          Better would be to learn how to manage a softwarehouse from somebody who actually know how to do it.

          Ah, the old manglement technique of shouting and bullying at everyone, because they can't do their jobs without micromanaging them. This is, of course, because all the capable people left long ago because of their arsehole manager who didn't bother to understand what their job is, and found it much easier to bully and harangue them.

          I've vworked for companies that employed people like you. I use the word "employed" in the past tense, because none of these companies are still trading.

  38. Maelstorm Bronze badge
    Facepalm

    And there's your problem....

    "that Apple's marketing group overrides engineering concerns."

    And there's the problem folks. Marketing shouldn't be in charge of anything...except marketing. Seems like the company has been going downhill ever since the passing of Steve Jobs.

  39. illuminatus

    Well...

    I ran lots of the betas, and of course there were issues there - they were betas after all. And it's not like they haven't been saying that 32 bit support was going. If you were prepared for this, then that part's not a big deal

    Catalina has been installed now on my both work and home machines (work got a late beta a couple of weeks before realise, my one a bi earlier - it's usyaslly sensible to hold off the Mac OS bets until around 4 or 5 revisions in, usually around early- mid august; by then they seem to put most major plumbing changes in ) and is generally solid. My only issue has been there since mid-summer - manually syncing photos libraries to an iPhone, because I don't want to use iCloud photos, thanks. And it's an issue that has cropped up on earlier os versions too. My phone is actually running the 13.2 beta now, and is actually fairly solid. I think the phone stuff was generally better than last years cycle tbh, even allowing for the reminders issue, which in fairness they did flag quite heavily in the dev docs for the betas

  40. Michlo2004

    Macbook working fine

    I have a Macbook pro 2012 so an old one.

    Not one of these issues has manifested since Catalina, all my photo editing software is still working as it should, my web development software is running fine.

    The demise of itunes wasn't an issue as the replacements are working better than itunes ever did.

    My Macbook is very happy apart from losing some of the old 32 bit applications which was fully expected, i've had none of the authorisation messages or apps wanting to tank control, on the contrary everything is working much better than under the older OS.

    In fact the battery and running time on battery is better, the utilisation of memory is much better and i could be a much happier bunny.

  41. nicmart

    I have about 130,000 music and audiobook files, mostly ripped, in two iTunes libraries. I've been feeling great uneasiness about how Catalina would reallocate those libraries, created over more than two decades. Now I read on Macintouch that some Catalina users are finding that their ripped music files are simply disappearing, leaving nothing but the music files purchased from the Apple store. So, I'll prevent Catalina from inhabiting the Mac mini I have dedicated solely to all things iTunes. If this is not promptly corrected my 35 year long relationship with Apple will end.

    1. Snapper

      Reall?

      Did you miss the comments from experienced people saying it was a good idea to have a backup or preferably a clone of your boot drive before upgrading to a brand new point zero upgrade of the OS?

      Why are you reading a technical website, especially one that dramatizes any issues about Apple?

    2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Catalina users are finding that their ripped music files are simply disappearing

      Didn't happen to me.. All (formerly)-iTunes stuff is working as expected post-Catalina.

      (I did have to update the application that I use to sync iTunes playlists to my Android phone though - the older version didn't detect Apple Music..)

      1. elgarak1

        Ehhh, no.

        As I'm residing in Germany, I currently cannot buy English language TV shows with Catalina's TV.app, but I can buy them with iTunes (on an appropriate macOS version.)

        (TV shows are split into separate, extra to buy and separate to download, versions of only English and only German. They are not, like most movies, one buy and one downloaded file with multiple language tracks. TV.app does not show you those separate language versions, only the German one. Unless you haven't bought the English language version, that is, which you cannot do using TV.app. Perfect bureaucratic roundabout.)

        So far, Apple iTunes support doesn't believe me. Go figure.

  42. Ryan Kendall

    Broke just by updating

    It broke for me, with the infinite "Setting Up Your Mac..." screen.

    Had to Turn Off and On again, just to get it into the OS.

    Regards

    Ryan

  43. bbb1212

    No Probs here......

    Downloaded the update a day ago. It took a few times to do but I figured that was coz Im in China but all works well.

    I wonder sometimes about news reports : P

  44. cathy247
    FAIL

    Catalina has rendered the majority of my GameManager and MacGame store games inoperable

    Catalina has rendered the majority of my GameManager and MacGamestore games inoperable to the extent I am considering reverting to the pre upgrade backup because very little works now. My iMac just keeps getting slower and less responsive over time and is incredibly frustrating, but this OS upgrade has wrecked nearly everything and the sluggishness is even worse, like it's operating underwater

  45. zoltronix

    Free updates.

    Honestly I don’t understand what The Register are complaining about.

    Apple don’t charge for their OS updates, in fact the only update I paid for was around 10.8 Mountain Lion for the paltry sum of £20.

    If folk were paying for buggy software as they do whenever MS release an update then that’s understandable. But folk pay zilch for effectively freeware.

    Me personally I never update at the first offering, I always wait until 10.x.1, just so any major bugs are ironed out. It ain’t my problem the impatient can’t wait for stable releases.

    1. Updraft102

      Re: Free updates.

      If folk were paying for buggy software as they do whenever MS release an update then that’s understandable. But folk pay zilch for effectively freeware.

      Are you under the impression that people have to pay for each Windows 10 update that comes along?

      Most people who use Windows buy a new PC with Windows preinstalled. Its cost is part of the PC's product price, just as it is with MacOS. By your example, people who bought PCs with Windows 10 preinstalled, or with 7 or 8.1 and who used the free Win 10 upgrade deal, are now paying "zilch" for "effectively freeware" too, which you are apparently suggesting makes it okay to release beta-quality crap to the public.

      The only difference in how one pays for MacOS and Windows 10 is that Windows 10 is available as a purchasable standalone product, while MacOS is not. Otherwise, both are commercial software obtained by buying a computer that comes with the OS installed already. That doesn't make MacOS free... it just means that the cost is part of the computer's purchase price, as with Windows. Neither one is freeware, and neither one costs "zilch." If it's unacceptable that Microsoft releases crap (and it is), then it's equally unacceptable when Apple does the same. For the company that charges more for its products because things are supposed to "just work" and not have the problems Windows has, perhaps even more so.

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: Free updates.

        people have to pay for each Windows 10 update

        Apples/Oranges. Mojave->Catalina is more akin to Windows 7 to Windows 10. Which was (mostly - unless you were one of the early tranche that MS bribed to update) a paid upgrade.

  46. imanidiot Silver badge

    Too many cooks.

    It seems to me this is also at least in part caused by the loss of their central great magnificent jesus Jobs. Shit like this would get people yelled at, so they had a central focus point of: "It has to work well enough for me not to get yelled at by Jobs".

    Without that central focus point everybody is working for some manager or another that is not really communicating with anyone else. Meaning there is no focus at all.

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cisco AnyConnect 4.8 req'd

    Catalina breaks Cisco AnyConnect. More specifically if split tunnel is configured and the client network is in the same subnet as the vpn network.

    Fix is AnyConnect 4.8 which as of now is only available for Mac.

  48. Alan Bourke

    But ... but I thought it was only Microsoft ...

    who ballsed up the occasional update and everything was roses and unicorns in Apple and Linux land.

    1. Updraft102

      Re: But ... but I thought it was only Microsoft ...

      Nah... Microsoft ballsed up every update, not just the occasional one. Lack of a QA department will do that to ya!

  49. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Issue for me as a dev.

    I use terminal a lot... noticable changes:

    1) bash replaced by zsh (meh)

    2) no access to root directory, not even softlinks (groan)

    3) all apps must have explicit one-time approval to access doc folder (nice).

    4) broke securecrt (F#&8!k!).

  50. David Gosnell

    Two pesos (approx 8p)

    I remember a charming story when I was little called "Two pesos for Catalina". Half a century on, who'd have thought the title would be so prescient of the worth of what should be a market-leading operating system?

  51. jason_derp

    "...my comments were hurtful. I’d rather not say anything else."

    Hey, I'm certainly no fan of unnecessary cruelty. But I read this guy's blog entry, and there's this fun little gem in there: "But after I ended up with (not joking) two-hundred duplicated ~/Documents directories – each with a random assortment of duplicated files of different revisions..." You know what? Maybe they should feel hurt. Maybe hurt is the lowest level of negative feeling they should have.

  52. jelabarre59

    2010

    Well, not a problem here. My mid-2010 flea-market MBP can't run anything above High Sierra, so as long as that revision is still supported it will be fine (not that I use it for much more than "let's see how this piece of open-source software works on MacOS"). When that expires I'll run it in a VM, find another 8-yr-old flea-market MBP, or I'll have found I've never need to look at MacOS for anything approaching serious work, and not bother with it at all.

    1. Philip Lewis
      Megaphone

      Re: 2010

      http://dosdude1.com/catalina/

      I have been using the mojave version for quite some time on 2010 era machines, with no issues of which to speak. I expect the Catalina version will work just fine as well.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 2010

        Tried to install Catalina yesterday. That's Saturday wasted I will never get back. I thought my problems stem from the fact that I have an unqualified hardware and use DosDude1's wisdom to install latest systems. But it looks like I am not the only one who struggles with authentication in music/tv (a.k.a. itunes). System is overheating for no reason. I lost access to my backups because Migration Assistant hangs in random places.

  53. GrizzlyPete

    Complete Crap

    IMHO Catalina is a bunch of complete crap! Finder repeatedly crashes to the extent that i need to restart my macbook every hour or so. Shame on you Apple! I am even tempted to return to using Micro$oft which is quite something!

  54. deejinoz

    It's an industry wide (almost) problem...

    With Microsoft essentially sacking the majority of their QA teams, over the last several years and the sh!tfight that Microsoft patching has become since (let's face it, their bar hadn't been set all that high originally); I'm a firm believer that what we have seen, over the last 10 or so years is a shift, from the all the major tech companies. Several things they have realised:

    1. Consumers (corporate or consumer) are, essentially, addicted to technology. We just love that "new phone" or "killer app" feeling.

    2. Like all addicts, we can't handle the lows and are forever seeking those little hits of the shiny new thing.

    3. Tech companies have realised this and have taken advantage to maximise profit.

    4. Tech companies are, essentially, addicted to our data (money/value - They're businesses, after all).

    5. Like all addicts, they are prepared to forgo any real ethics, in their pursuit of our good stuff.

    6. Tech companies have realised this, resulting in their technology development, over the last decade or so, being more focussed on hooking us into their ecosystems and extracting maximum revenue stream and profit than producing quality technology that makes our lives better or easier (or that even works, as it says on the freakin' tin!).

    So, yes, Apple's development quality has tanked. So has Microsoft's. I could go on, with the software tech giants (Google and Adobe are worth a special mention)... So have most of the OEMs and all the bloat/adware that they put into their factory images.

    Companies are, essentially, morally and ethically agnostic. Their primary reason for existing is to make money. So, we can hardly blame them for this state of affairs. We only have ourselves to blame, as consumers of this substandard sh!t-storm of crappiness that technology has become.

    Have you realised that tech company ads are all focussed on lifestyle and less quantifiable or nebulous concepts (intended dig at "The Cloud") these days and not the actual technology and what it is actually doing for us, in real life, directly?

    1. AllstonDude

      Re: It's an industry wide (almost) problem...

      I agree with you completely. My problem with Apple is that they continue to present themselves as the company where everything "...just works", when in fact, we know it doesn't. Folks have MacBooks that die because of design flaws, and Apple refuses the fix them under warranty. The Genius Bar will often tell someone that they should just buy a new MacBook - that the old one can't be fixed, when, in fact, a non-Apple repair tech can often fix the problem for next to nothing. I could go on, but you get my drift.

      Bottom line: they continue to promulgate the Apple "Mystique" (cult), when in fact, as you point out, they are no better or worse than any other tech. giant.

  55. Barnet

    CATALINA SUCKS!!!

    My Mac Pro - which ran rock solid under Mojave now crashes or just magically decides to restart with no warning 10 to 15 times a day now. No joke! Catalina is ABSOLUTELY the WORST product ever produced by Apple. The engineers that worked on this TOTAL PIECE OF CRAP are an insult to everything Steve Jobs ever stood for.

  56. AllstonDude

    My Catalina experience

    Late to the table here, but I waited about a year before installing Catalina. I was warned by an Apple (non-company) shop that it might blow up my machine (i.e., not complete the install), and to make sure I was backed up. The install went perfectly, but Time Machine stopped working, and Carbon Copy Cloner was none too happy either. I simply began a new Time Machine backup, and started a new CCC backup on a fresh hard drive. TM is certainly not my first-line backup strategy. I've always found it to be twitchy. After the most recent Catalina update (bringing me to 10.15.6) TM again slowed to a crawl. Once again, I blew it away, and started fresh.

    I'd posted to the Apple community board, describing my experience, and got my post trashed by an Apple zealot who essentially told me that I was doing it wrong. That attitude is troubling to me. I love the Apple platform, but...

    Anyway, thanks for listening.

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