morrick

I'm the author of the article, and I would like to add a few things to hopefully make my point clearer.

- While I'm flattered by the attention my piece got by 'making Hacker News', it is simply a personal view and a personal disappointment towards the direction Apple is going with Mac OS. It's not a prescriptive article. I'm not telling people to avoid upgrading to Mac OS 10.15. It's your Mac, it's your work, it's your data, it's your time. Do whatever you please.

My decision to not upgrading is the result of a lot of time spent gathering information and evaluating costs and benefits of the upgrade. And my conclusion, as I clearly stated in the article, is that I'm not upgrading because "what Catalina takes away from me is more than what it gives me."

I also took the opportunity of sharing a few reflections and my criticism towards Apple's recent treatment of Mac OS. Whatever the underlying causes, it's undeniable that Mac OS is not as robust, consistent, and well-designed as it used to be. It wasn't bug-free before. Nothing is bug-free. But I remember past versions very well. I use a variety of Macs of older vintages, so I still use older Mac OS X versions. The degrade in software quality and system stability isn't a matter of opinion. It's out there to see.

And yes, I don't like the direction Apple has been moving after Steve Jobs's passing. That's an entirely personal preference, and I respect the point of view of those who, instead, love what Tim Cook & Co. are doing. I'm not really 'complaining' that Apple's not doing things 'my way'. However, as someone who has been using computers for 38 years and Macs for 30, as someone who knows a thing or two about user interfaces, user interaction and user experience, I think I'm allowed to share a few criticisms about the direction Mac OS is going without being called a 'whiny entitled teenager'.

I try to approach technology by focusing more on the forest than a single tree, and sometimes I struggle to see all this 'progress' and 'future' other tech geeks keep talking about.

Technology should adapt to us, not the other way round. Progress should mean making things better, improve what we do with the help of computers and devices. Instead, as I wrote, "I also notice that — for everything to keep working smoothly — you have to do more work than before. It just works, with Apple products, has lost the frequency and consistency it once had. It is a strange progress when you keep feeling the sting of two steps back for every step forward."

I'd prefer if more people read my 3,300 words and actually understood my point. :-)

You know why I haven't actually used it? Because I've read enough experiences from tech-savvy people and power users who actually used it, and based on what I've read, plus all the things that Catalina would disrupt for me, my work, and how I use my Macs, I've made my cost/benefit analysis and decided that no, I'm not going to upgrade to Catalina.

It has been a perfectly informed decision from someone who has been using Macs since 1989. I haven't got out of bed on the wrong side the other day and just decided I didn't like Catalina.

When it was time to get that 4K retina iMac, I only had money for one built-to-order upgrade. It was a tough decision. It was either leaving the internal 1TB hard drive and choose to have 16GB of RAM instead of the base 8GB, or choosing a 256GB internal SSD and keeping the base 8GB of RAM. Since RAM in that 21.5-inch retina iMac is only upgradable at purchase, not down the road, I opted for the 16GB of RAM and staying with the hard drive. My reasoning is that I can upgrade to an external Thunderbolt SSD at a later date when I can afford it. RAM is not upgradable later.

I am the author, and I may be guilty of writing an extremely long blog post; but judging by your response, you didn't bother to read it that thoroughly. The new layout in Catalina's Mail.app is actually my smallest complaint.

I don't like change when it unnecessarily breaks things that used to work just fine. I don't like change when it is haphazardly imposed on a yearly basis by a company which has clearly stopped caring about Mac OS as far as management is involved.

I used to like change more when it actually made me work better, when the advantages clearly outweighed the downsides, when progress and improvements were noticeable and thoughtfully implemented.

But hey, that's me.

Hello! I am the author, and no, I haven't tried Catalina because, as I state at the very end of my article:

"Both my main Macs are really working flawlessly at the moment, and Catalina is beta-quality software that’s likely to give me headaches I don’t need right now. Who knows, maybe down the road I could acquire a cheap used Mac that can run Catalina (something like a 2014 Mac mini) and use it as a test machine. As things are now, I absolutely do not want Catalina to mess with my current setups and data."

I'll add — I'm in a position (work-wise) where I can't afford to risk Catalina messing with my current setups and data.

Thanks! Maybe it's because I was overwhelmed by the transcription work itself, but while I know this meaning of 'foils', I was totally misled. Tesler was talking about this drawing program and all I did was fixating on geometric shapes, haha. Cheers!

Thank you. I'll make the necessary changes to my commentary in the transcription. Cheers!

Thank you: to the person who posted the link to my blog; and to all the people who came and checked it out. I'm glad that my transcription efforts have been of use!

Cheers, Riccardo Mori