Contents
10.x, 11.x Releases
- 10.13 High Sierra
- J&P general note: like (liked) it a lot, definitely “good enough” and could run Office 2011, Adobe CS5 non-subscription suite
- J&P systems use:
IM2713(upgr 10.15, ’21-11 (more)), 10 11, MBP17, … - CPU support: 64-bit Intel
- App support: 32/64 -bit Intel
- 10.14 Mojave
- J&P general note: Hated it, due to warning dialogs (32-bit is ending) a la MS Vista, way too many too often!
- Yes, last gen that do support, though w/ lots of irritating warnings (was so bad, actually downgraded to 10.13)
- J&P systems use: Not on any primary system
- CPU support: 64-bit Intel
- App support: 32/64 -bit Intel
- Last macOS that can run Office 2011, Adobe non-subscr. SW, ..
- macworld.com/article/232735/how-to-check-if-mac-software-is-32-or-64-bit.html
- J&P general note: Hated it, due to warning dialogs (32-bit is ending) a la MS Vista, way too many too often!
- 10.15 Catalina
- J&P general note: cannot any longer use favorite and/or specific bought software
- MS Office 2011: due to being 32-bit-only, can’t run on 10.15
- And this version DO re-open all open windows when an application is restarted (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Something Office 365 HAS removed! Yes, it’s true – finally got it confirmed from a 2 hours support call w/ Microsoft and ending up deep into the most advanced support
- And this version DO re-open all open windows when an application is restarted (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Adobe CS5 suite (Dreamweaver, Photoshop, ….), also due to being 32-bit-only, can’t run on 10.15
- And for this we have perpetual license! (Nowadays, Adobe forces these subscription-only licenses)
- MS Office 2011: due to being 32-bit-only, can’t run on 10.15
- J&P systems use: IM2713 (upgr 10.15, ’21-11 (more))
- CPU support: 64-bit Intel
- App support: 64 -bit Intel (NOT 32-bit)
- Change default shell from bash to zsh
- J&P general note: cannot any longer use favorite and/or specific bought software
- 11.0 Big Sur – /is/macos/11/
Comparison Table
10.13 High Sierra | 10.14 Mojave | 10.15 Catalina | 11 Big Sur | |
Initial release | 2017-09-25 | 2018-09-24 | 2019-10-07 | 2020-11-12 |
General J&P Notes | The preferred generation also in 2021 | Hated it. | Was std on IM2720. | NOTE: Not supported on IM2713 or earlier! |
Use J&P | IM2713, MBP17, and more (Sep 2021) | No | (IM2720 (Oct 2020)) | IM2720 (Jun ’21), MBP17 (Sep ’21) |
32-bit support | Yes | Yes, last gen. | No | No |
Ergo 4000 keyboard | ControllerMate | (don’t care) | Special Key Handler | Special Key Handler |
Applications | 10.13 High Sierra | 10.14 Mojave | 10.15 Catalina | 11 Big Sur |
MS Office suite | Office 2011 (32-bit)- love it | (don’t care) | Office 365 – miss 2011!! | <– (Office 2011 in VM) |
Office 2011 | Yes | (Yes) | No | No |
Office 365 Downloaded | No | (Yes) | Yes | Yes |
Office 365 Web-based | Yes | (Yes) | Yes | Yes |
Adobe suite (Dreamweaver,… | CS5 (32-bit) | (don’t care) | CAN’T USE our CS5 license. | <– |
Homebrew (brew) | USED to work fine, but not Sep 2021… | 2021-09-26: min 10.14 for brew | Yes | Yes |
MacPorts (port) | (Not used too much in recent years.) | 2021-09-26: min 10.14 for brew | Yes | Yes |
Apple News+ | No | (10.14.4) | Yes | Yes |
Dashboard (F12) | Yes | Yes | No (removed) (Notification Center) |
No (removed) (Notification Center) |
Default shell | bash | bash | zsh | |
“iTunes” | iTunes | iTunes | iTunes is replaced by separate Music, Podcasts, TV and Books apps | (As Catalina) |
Extensions | kext | kext | An upgrade from Kexts. System extensions avoid the problems of Kexts. There are 3 kinds of System extensions: Network Extensions, Endpoint Security Extensions, and Driver Extensions. System extensions run in userspace, outside of the kernel.[12][13] Catalina will be the last version of macOS to support legacy system extensions.[14][15] | ### |
Support for OS on specific HW, e.g. |
10.13 High Sierra | 10.14 Mojave | 10.15 Catalina | 11 Big Sur |
MacBook 2008 | No | (don’t care) | No | No |
iMac 2011, 2010 | Yes | -“- | No | No |
iMac 2013 | Yes, & used ’21-09 | -“- | Yes, & upgr. to ’21-11 (more) | No |
MacBook Pro 2017 | Yes, & used ’21-09 | -“- | Yes | Yes |
(MacBook Pro 13″ Early 2015) | Yes | -“- | Yes | Yes |
iMac 2020 | (?, came w 10.15) | -“- | Yes, came w 10.15 | Yes, and used ’21-09 |
32-bit
The main reason why sticking to macOS 10.13 High Sierra all the way into September 2021 was the preference to stay with some applications:
- MS Office 2011 – absolutely “good enough” and still had very nice feature of reopening all open docs/windows of application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) was restated (or suddenly died), feature that WAS REMOVED (!!) from Office 2016/Office 365.
- Adobe CS5 suite (including e.g. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and many more apps) – with perpetual license (no annoying subscription, which is only choice for many Adobe apps nowadays)
64-bit
See
More – not (yet) here…
… but on local desktop and Dropbox file share
Trickier subjects…
- /mlabs/audio/
- Keyboards! (Lots off-line, only, for the time being)
Most materials so far are not in this CMS.
- -documents by J&P
- -general guides
- 10.x-diff releases
- Alias
- AppleScript – /is/dev/sw/programming/languages/applescript/ AppleScript!
- Applications
- Automator – /is/apps/macos/automator/
- Automount
- Boot Camp,virtualization
- Booting
- CLI
- Configuring a Mac – J&P-Style
- Dashboard
- Disks and Files Utilities – /is/apps/macos/disks-files/
- Disk utilities
- DNS! – on Mac
- Dock
- File systems
- Finder and Finder Alternatives – /is/apps/macos/finder – Notes on standard Finder, Finder alternatives, navigating the file system
- GUI
- Help
- HW-Own Apple Computers over the years
- Installers
- Kernel
- Keyboards, Keyboard Shortcuts
- MAMP!-MacOSX! (~LAMP!)
- New Mac /is/macos/new-mac/
- Open With – contextual menu
- Printing
- Problems
- processes
- QuickLook (Quick Look)
- Remote Desktop Software, Remote access
- Screen Sharing
- Screenshots
- Security
- Services – see Automator
- Sleeping- Terminal 101- Prevent your Mac from Sleeping | TechRadar
- Spotlight desktop search
- StartupItems
- System Extensions (some below)
- SystemLog
- Terminal
- Time Machine
- UNIX
- Virus-Malware… macOS
- VPN Virtual Private Networks
- Windows-Mac
- Workflows – see Automator
- zArch
Hidden Things
(Called them Hidden just because both /Library/ and ~/Library/ are commonly hidden in Finder for users.)
- Contextual Menu Items ###
- iCloud – this one is a little bit interesting
- ~/Library/Mobile Documents/
- -JohanWasHere
- Automator
- ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~Automator/Documents/
- Desktop
- Documents
- ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Documents/
- ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Documents/gpxparser/
- Downloads
- FileExplorer
- GarageBand for iOS
- iMovie
- Map Plus
- Pages
- Preview
- Shortcuts
- TextEdit
- ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~TextEdit/Documents/
- ~/Library/Mobile Documents/
- QuickLook
- /Library/QuickLook/
- IM2713 (2020-12) iBooksAuthor.qlgenerator, iWork.qlgenerator
- ~/Library/QuickLook/
- IM2713 (2020-12)
- Archive.qlgenerator
- DropboxQL.qlgenerator
- mpo.qlgenerator
- qlImageSize.qlgenerator
- IM2713 (2020-12)
- /Library/QuickLook/
- $HOME/, ~/Library/Mail
- Scripts
- /Library/Scripts
- Services
- ~/Library/Services/
- IM2713 (2020-12): quite a few, incl. Email Archive2FSx.workflow, New Text File.workflow
- ~/Library/Services/
- Spotlight
- /Library/Spotlight/
- Widgets
- /Library/Widgets
- Workflows
- ~/Library/Workflows
- Applications/ ( ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/ )
- Calendar/
- Folder Actions/ ( ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions/ )
- IM2713 (2020-12):
- Camera Uploads organizer.workflow,
- MetaDataMover-tests.workflow,
- Navionics-exports-processing.workflow
- Screenshot-Filename-Cleaning-FolderAction.workflow
- IM2713 (2020-12):
- Image Capture/
- Applications/ ( ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/ )
- ~/Library/Workflows
/System/Library
There are actually three ‘Library’ areas:
- ~/Library – user’s own
- /Library – shared
- /System/Library – shared
/System/Library/Automator/
/System/Library/Components/
AppleScript.component AudioCodecs.component AudioDSP.component AUSpeechSynthesis.component CoreAudio.component IOFWDVComponents.component IOQTComponents.component JavaScript.component PDFImporter.component QuickTimeAudioComponents.component SoundManagerComponents.component
/System/Library/Fonts/
Input Methods
iCloud
- Manage your iCloud storage – support.apple.com/en-us/HT204247
- google.com/search?q=what+can+be+stored+in+icloud
- iCloud: The ultimate guide – imore.com/icloud
- google.com/search?q=access+photos+on+icloud
- setapp.com/how-to/access-icloud-on-mac
System Extensions
About system extensions and macOS – support.apple.com/en-us/HT210999
Some system extensions aren’t compatible with current versions of macOS or won’t be compatible with a future version of macOS. Learn what to do if you see an alert about system extensions or kernel extensions.
System extensions work in the background to extend the functionality of your Mac. Some apps install kernel extensions, or kexts—a kind of system extension that works using older methods that aren’t as secure or reliable as modern alternatives. Your Mac identifies these as legacy system extensions.
In 2019, Apple informed developers that macOS Catalina will be the last macOS to fully support legacy system extensions, and we’ve been working with developers to transition their software.