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Is Catalina Os Good

Is Catalina Os Good
macOS Catalina updates improve the stability, performance, or compatibility of your Mac and are recommended for all Catalina users. To get these updates, choose System Preferences from the Apple menu , then click Software Update. Learn more about updating the software on your Mac.
For details about the security content of these updates, see Apple Security Updates.
macOS 10.15
macOS Catalina 10.15.7Read all the technical details about macOS Catalina in the deep-dive. MacOS Catalina review: macOS Catalina Beta. Quick note: If you've been on the macOS Catalina Beta train but now, with the official release, you want to get off, just launch System Preferences, click on Software Update, click on the tiny Details text at the bottom left under the big gear icon, and then click on Restore. From the desert to the coast: macOS Mojave has given way to the next major version of the Mac operating system, called macOS Catalina.Revealed during Apple's 2019 WWDC keynote in June, Catalina. To judge by the reception of macOS Catalina, aka macOS 10.15, it appears Apple's quality push was more aspirational than actual. 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.
macOS Catalina 10.15.7 provides important security updates and bug fixes for your Mac.
Resolves an issue where macOS would not automatically connect to Wi-Fi networks
Fixes an issue that could prevent files syncing through iCloud Drive
Addresses a graphic issue that may occur on iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020) with Radeon Pro 5700 XT
Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices.
macOS Catalina 10.15.6macOS Catalina 10.15.6 introduces local news in your Today feed in Apple News and improves the security and reliability of your Mac. 
Apple News
Local news in your Today feed provides extensive coverage of San Francisco, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City
More stories available from local news providers with a subscription to Apple News+
Your daily newsletter from Apple News can now be personalized with stories that reflect your interests
This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements.
Adds a new option to optimize video streaming on HDR-compatible Mac notebooks for improved battery life
Fixes an issue where the computer name may change after installing a software update
Resolves an issue where certain USB mouse and trackpads may lose connection
Enterprise content:
When using the built-in keyboard with a non-U.S. keyboard layout on some Mac models, passwords with certain characters are no longer rejected at the Mac login window
Allows command-line tools that don't use CFNetwork, such as curl(1), to continue connecting to TLS servers that use certificates issued by the recently expired AddTrust External CA Root
Major new releases of macOS can be hidden when using the softwareupdate(8) command with the --ignore flag, if the Mac is enrolled in Apple School Manager, Apple Business Manager, or a user-approved MDM.
This change also affects macOS Mojave and macOS High Sierra after installing Security Update 2020-004.
Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices.
macOS Catalina 10.15.5macOS Catalina 10.15.5 introduces battery health management in the Energy Saver settings for notebooks, a new option to disable automatic prominence in Group FaceTime calls, and controls to fine-tune the built-in calibration of your Pro Display XDR. The update also improves the stability, reliability, and security of your Mac. 
Battery Health Management

Battery health management to help maximize battery lifespan for Mac notebooks
Energy Saver preference pane now displays battery condition and recommends if the battery needs to be serviced
Option to disable battery health management
For more information, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211094
FaceTime Prominence Preference 
New option to control automatic prominence on Group FaceTime calls, so video tiles do not change size when a participant speaks
Calibration Fine-Tuning for Pro Display XDR
Controls to fine-tune the built-in calibration of your Pro Display XDR by adjusting the white point and luminance for a precise match to
your own display-calibration target
This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements:
Fixes an issue that may prevent Reminders from sending notifications for recurring reminders
Addresses an issue that may prevent password entry on the login screen
Fixes an issue where System Preferences would continue to show a notification badge even after installing an update
Resolves an issue where the built-in camera may not be detected when trying to use it after using a video conferencing app
Addresses an issue for Mac computers with the Apple T2 Security Chip where internal speakers may not appear as a sound output device in Sound preferences
Fixes a stability issue with uploading and downloading media files from iCloud Photo Library while your Mac is asleep
Resolves a stability issue when transferring large amounts of data to RAID volumes
Fixes an issue where the Reduced Motion Accessibility preference did not reduce the speed of animations in a Group FaceTime call
Enterprise content:
Improves performance on certain Mac models when enabling hardware acceleration in GPU-intensive apps such as those used for video conferencing
Addresses an issue where Microsoft Exchange accounts were unable to sign in during account setup when using Conditional Access
Apple Push Notification Service traffic now uses a web proxy when specified in a PAC file via the Proxies payload
Resolves an issue that prevented some displays connected to MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) from waking from sleep when the Mac wakes
Major new releases of macOS are no longer hidden when using the softwareupdate(8) command with the --ignore flag
This change also affects macOS Mojave and macOS High Sierra after installing Security Update 2020-003.
macOS Catalina 10.15.4macOS Catalina 10.15.4 introduces iCloud Drive folder sharing, Screen Time communication limits, Apple Music time-synced lyrics view, and more. The update also improves the stability, reliability, and security of your Mac. 
Finder
iCloud Drive folder sharing from Finder
Controls to limit access only to people you explicitly invite, or to grant access to anyone with the folder link
Permissions to choose who can make changes and upload files, and who can only view and download files
Screen Time
Communication limits for controlling who your children can communicate with and be contacted by throughout the day and during downtime
Playback control of music videos for your children
Music
Time-synced lyrics view for Apple Music, including the ability to jump to your favorite part of a song by clicking a line in lyrics view
Safari
Option to import Chrome passwords into your iCloud Keychain for easy AutoFill of your passwords in Safari and across all your devices
Controls for duplicating a tab and for closing all tabs to the right of the current tab
HDR playback support on compatible computers for Netflix content
App Store with Apple Arcade
Universal Purchase support enables the use of a singular purchase of a participating app across iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV
Pro Display XDR
Customized reference modes that you can tailor to specific workflow needs by selecting from several color gamut, white point, luminance, and transfer function options
Accessibility
Head pointer preference for moving a cursor on the screen based on the precise movements of your head
This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements:
High Dynamic Range output to HDR10-compatible third-party displays and TVs connected with DisplayPort or HDMI
OAuth authentication support with Outlook.com accounts for improved security
CalDav migration support when upgrading to iCloud reminders on a secondary device 
Addresses an issue where text copied between apps may appear invisible when Dark Mode is active
Resolves an issue in Safari where a CAPTCHA tile may display incorrectly 
Fixes an issue where you may receive notifications for updated or completed reminders
Fixes an issue with screen brightness for the LG UltraFine 5K display after waking from sleep
Enterprise content:
Apple Push Notification Service traffic now uses a web proxy when specified in a PAC file
Resolves an issue where updating the login keychain password after resetting a user password would cause a new keychain to be created
After enabling 'Search directory services for certificates' in Keychain Access preferences, searching by email address in Keychain Access or Mail now locates a user certificate stored in directory services
When setting the DisableFDEAutoLogin key in com.apple.loginwindow, you can now sync your FileVault password with the Active Directory user password after updating the user password
Reinstates the ability to update or restore iOS, iPadOS, or tvOS devices by dragging .ipsw files to the device in an Apple Configurator 2 window
Addresses an issue where sending the EraseDevice MDM command might not cause the device to be erased
When logging in as an Active Directory user after using deferred FileVault enablement, the user is now prompted for their password to enable FileVault
Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices.
macOS Catalina 10.15.3The macOS Catalina 10.15.3 update improves the stability, reliability, and security of your Mac, and is recommended for all users. 
Optimizes gamma handling of low gray levels on Pro Display XDR for SDR workflows when using macOS
Improves multi-stream video editing performance for HEVC and H.264-encoded 4K video on the MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
macOS Catalina 10.15.2The macOS Catalina 10.15.2 update improves the stability, reliability and performance of your Mac and is recommended for all users.
This update adds the following features:
Apple News
New layout for Apple News+ stories from The Wall Street Journal and other leading newspapers
Stocks
Get links to related stories or more stories from the same publication at the end of an article
'Breaking' and 'Developing' labels for Top Stories
 Stories from Apple News are now available in Canada in English and French
This update includes the following bug fixes:
Music
Restores the column browser view for managing the music library
Resolves an issue that may prevent album artwork from appearing
Fixes an issue that may reset music equalizer settings during playback
iTunes Remote
Adds support for using an iPhone or iPad to remotely control the Music and TV apps on a Mac
Photos
Resolves an issue that may cause some AVI and MP4 files to appear as unsupported
Fixes an issue that prevents newly created folders from appearing in Albums view
Addresses an issue where manually sorted images in an album may be printed or exported out of order
Fixes an issue that prevents the zoom-to-crop tool from working in a print preview
Mail
Addresses an issue that may cause Mail preferences to open with a blank window
Resolves an issue that may prevent using undo from retrieving deleted mail
Other
Improves the reliability of syncing books and audiobooks to your iPad or iPhone through the Finder
Fixes an issue where reminders may be out of order in the Today smart list in the Reminders app
Resolves an issue that may cause slow typing performance in the Notes app
Enterprise content
Fixes an issue where the user password might not be accepted at the login window after upgrading a Mac with an Apple T2 Security Chip to macOS Catalina
Improves compatibility with video conferencing apps on MacBook Pro models introduced in 2018
Users logged in as a standard user can now install apps from the App Store
macOS Catalina 10.15.1The macOS Catalina 10.15.1 update includes updated and additional emoji, support for AirPods Pro, HomeKit Secure Video, HomeKit-enabled routers, and new Siri privacy settings, as well as bug fixes and improvements.
Emoji
Over 70 new or updated emoji, including animals, food, activities, new accessibility emoji, gender-neutral emoji, and skin tones selection for couple emoji
AirPods support
AirPods Pro support
Home app
HomeKit Secure Video enables you to privately capture, store, and view encrypted video from your security cameras and features people, animal, and vehicle detection
HomeKit enabled routers let you control how your HomeKit accessories communicate over the internet or in your home
Adds support for AirPlay 2-enabled speakers in scenes and automations
Chrome for vista 32 bit download. Siri
Privacy settings to control whether or not to help improve Siri and Dictation by allowing Apple to store audio of your Siri and Dictation interactions
Option to delete your Siri and Dictation history from Siri Settings 
This update also includes the following bug fixes and improvements:
Restores the ability to view file names in the All Photos view in Photos
Restores the ability to filter by favorites, photos, videos, edited, and keywords in Days view in Photos
Fixes an issue where Messages would only send a single notification when the option to repeat alerts was enabled
Resolves an issue that caused Contacts to launch to the previously opened contact instead of the contact list
Adds a two-finger swipe gesture for back navigation in Apple News
Resolves issues that may occur in the Music app when displaying playlists inside folders and newly added songs in the Songs list 
Improves reliability of migrating iTunes library databases into the Music, Podcasts, and TV apps 
Fixes an issue where downloaded titles were not visible in the Downloads folder in the TV app
Enterprise content
When using the built-in keyboard with a non-U.S. keyboard layout, passwords with certain characters are no longer rejected at the Mac login window
When sign in with Apple ID is not allowed by a configuration profile, the Sign In button in System Preferences is now dimmed
macOS Catalina 10.15Let's face it. Macs users are adrift in a sea of iOS devices. Waves of iPhones and iPads break around us, and even an occasional iPod touch floats by. So it shouldn't be at all surprising that the forthcoming macOS 10.15 Catalina focuses on changes that bring the Mac and iOS closer than ever before.
That's not to say that Apple is trying to replace the Mac with iOS or remove those unique capabilities of the Mac that make it special. The Mac and macOS remain first-class, vibrant Apple hardware and software platforms. But what we're not going to see, at least from Apple, are new technologies that set the Mac further apart from its iOS brethren. When it comes to operating systems, it's safe to say that it's one for all, and all for Apple.
In today's Worldwide Developer Conference keynote, Apple's Craig Federighi whipped through the major changes, most of which revolved around individual apps. Unsurprisingly, those changes largely reflect or are matched by similar changes in the iOS versions, but there were Mac-specific enhancements as well.
Ding, Dong, iTunes Is DeadFederighi had a fabulous riff where he discussed all the features Apple was planning to add to iTunes—Calendar! Mail! A dock!—before acknowledging that iTunes is dead, Jim. (Cue the music from the Wizard of Oz.) Or rather, it's dead on the Mac—iTunes will continue to exist, zombie-like, for Windows.
Instead, to match iOS, Apple has split the iTunes feature set into three new apps, called Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple TV. (In fact, Federighi called Music 'Apple Music,' but Apple's preview page for Catalina calls it just 'Music,' which is good since otherwise we'd be talking about subscribing to Apple Music in Apple Music.)
As far as we could tell from the quick presentation, the three apps are similar to their iOS counterparts, although Federighi did say the Apple TV app on the Mac would support 4K HDR video with HDR10 and Dolby Vision and Atmos on sufficiently capable Macs. One new feature—albeit one that extends to the iOS and tvOS versions as well—the Music app's player can show lyrics in real time as music plays.
What about the syncing features of iTunes? macOS Catalina builds them into the Finder. Attach an iOS device to a Mac and it appears in a Finder window's sidebar. Select it and what looks like the standard iTunes sync settings screen appears in the window. You won't get syncing or management of iOS apps, but you'll be able to back up, update, and restore devices from the Mac.
In the 'one more new app' category unrelated to iTunes (and again mirrored in iOS), a new Find My app combines the capabilities of Find My iPhone and Find My Friends to display the location of both devices and people. Location-based notifications can now be scheduled for different days of the week and provide more useful place names. Most interestingly, a missing Mac that's asleep can still report its location via Bluetooth (in a completely encrypted, anonymous way) to nearby Apple devices.
App EnhancementsCatalina brings enhancements—some significant, some not—to many of Apple's included apps. Again, for the most part, these changes also exist in the iOS versions.
PhotosApple continues to tinker with Photos, this time trying a new browsing experience with a lot of machine-learning underpinnings. Previews are now larger to help you distinguish between shots, Photos learns who is in your photos to highlight important shots, and new Day, Month, and Year views summarize what you've done in those time frames by eliminating similar pictures and focusing on key images.
Live Photos and videos now begin playing as you scroll, making them easier to identify and bringing your library to life. You'll also be able to view Memory movies on your Mac and edit the duration, mood, and title—your edits will sync to other devices if you use iCloud Photos.
RemindersWe've criticized Reminders a number of times (see 'Bad Apple #3: Reminders Doesn't Listen to Siri,' 6 April 2018, and 'Bad Apple #4: Reminders Stinks at Sorting,' 3 May 2019) and while it remains to be seen if Apple has addressed those issues specifically, the company has significantly updated the app. A few of the main changes include:
Adding times, dates, and locations no longer requires opening another screen.
You can add attachments such as photos, documents, scans, and Web links.
Smart lists automatically organize upcoming reminders from different lists into categories like Today, Flagged, and Scheduled.
Siri can now suggest reminders when you're making plans in a Messages conversation, and if you tag someone in a reminder, the next time you chat with them in Messages, the reminder will alert you.
You can group multiple lists and capture tasks that are associated with a top-level reminder
For added visual interest, you can customize lists with 12 colors and 60 symbols.
NotesApple's Notes app will feature a new gallery view that displays notes as thumbnails, which could help if your notes are largely graphical. It also offers new checklist options that make it easier to reorder checklist items and reuse checklists without having to uncheck each item individually.
Sharing in Notes will improve as well, with a view-only option that lets you share items so everyone else can see what you do without being able to make changes. And if you do a lot of sharing, you can share entire folders rather than just individual notes, either with full access or view-only permissions.
SafariNot much has changed in Safari, but Catalina brings an updated start page, makes it easier to enable Picture in Picture, warns you about weak passwords, and directs you to open tabs that match the URL of a site that you're typing.
MailAs with Safari, Mail's changes are fairly minor. It will be able to block all messages from specified senders and move their messages to the trash. Or, if that's too extreme, you can mute threads that are being overly active. Finally, mailing list messages will get an Unsubscribe link above the header.
Screen TimeAnother technology that Apple is bringing from iOS to macOS with Catalina is Screen Time, which tracks and reports on your usage, and lets you set usage limits. It's a welcome move since parental controls in macOS had been ignored for years. Screen Time on the Mac will provide the same set of Downtime and App Limits as in iOS, and if you use iCloud, it will sync the same settings across all your devices. A feature that seems to be new is the concept of 'combined limits' that bring together a combination of app categories, specific apps, and Web sites.
Parents will appreciate Screen Time's new capability to manage contacts and set communication limits, and if you have Family Sharing turned on, you'll be able to configure and manage Screen Time from any device for your kids on all their devices.
Everyone who uses Screen Time limits will like the new 'One more minute' option that gives you another 60 seconds to finish up what you're doing.
SidecarWith the new Sidecar feature, Apple is bringing Macs and iPads closer together… literally. Much like solutions such as AirDisplay, DisplayLink, Duet Display, and Luna Display, Sidecar lets you turn an iPad into a secondary display and graphics tablet for your Mac. (Our condolences to the developers of the other screen-sharing apps, who have just been Sherlocked.)
Sidecar will work wirelessly or over a wired connection, and our bet is that the latter will provide better performance. You can use it either to extend your desktop for more screen real estate or to mirror your screen so others can see what you're doing.
If you use an Apple Pencil with your iPad, you'll be able to use it with tablet-enabled Mac apps, and regardless, Apple says you'll be able to write and sketch on PDFs or mark up documents with the Apple Pencil, a feature called Continuity Markup. Or, with Continuity Sketch, just sketch with the Apple Pencil and insert it into any Mac document.
Standard Multi-Touch gestures will work on the iPad while it's displaying text from a Mac app, even the new text-editing gestures in iPadOS. And finally, apps with Touch Bar support will display Touch Bar controls at the bottom of the iPad screen even on Macs that don't have a Touch Bar.
If you're looking forward to Sidecar, you may want to pick up something like a Mountie (see 'Attach an iPad to Your MacBook as a Second Display with Mountie,' 22 February 2019).
Project CatalystWith Mojave, Apple gave us Mac versions of Home, News, Stocks, and Voice Memos, thanks to a technology codenamed 'Marzipan' that made it easy to convert an iOS app to macOS. That was the first phase of Apple's master plan, and with Catalina, we're moving into the second phase. The technology now has a real name—Project Catalyst—and this year developers are getting access to the Catalyst technology to create Mac versions of iOS apps.
Several prominent third-party developers were quoted on stage as to how quick and easy it was to make a Mac version of an iPad app, maintaining a single code base and with the same development team. I expect nothing less from a keynote.
What remains to be seen, however, is if Apple has enhanced the Catalyst technology sufficiently so the Mac apps built with it don't suck. Home, News, Stocks, and Voice Memos run, but they're lousy Mac apps.
That will mostly be an issue with productivity apps that we expect to look, walk, talk, and quack like Mac apps. For games and Web apps, just having something native on the Mac rather than having to switch devices or run in a browser tab will be welcome.
Security and SafetyApple continues to improve the security of its platforms, and Catalina receives some enhancements in that area:
Dedicated system volume: To prevent system files from being tampered with, Catalina runs in a dedicated, read-only system volume. That also keeps it separate from all other data. We're curious how this will impact macOS setup and troubleshooting.
Enhanced Gatekeeper: We're guessing this bullet point from Apple involves notarization, about which Howard Oakley has written a great deal at his Eclectic Light Company blog.
Activation Lock: Macs with T2 chips gain support for Activation Lock, just like iOS devices, so if one is lost or stolen, only you can erase and reactivate it.
Separated kernel extensions: To increase security (and probably reliability), Catalina requires peripherals and low-level apps that relied on kernel extensions to run separately from the operating system. We're betting this will cause compatibility issues with older devices and software.
More data protections: Apps running in Catalina will have to ask for permission to access even more of your data or to perform actions like key logging or video recording that could be privacy violations.
The feature that most intrigues me is that Catalina will let you approve any dialog that asks for your Mac's login password by double-clicking the side button on your Apple Watch. At last!
Accessibility Improvements with Voice ControlIn 'Nuance Has Abandoned Mac Speech Recognition. Will Apple Fill the Void?' (21 January 2019), I wrote about the problems Mac users faced after Nuance discontinued Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, and TidBITS reader Todd Scheresky called for Apple to add support for custom words, speaker-dependent continuous speech recognition, and cursor positioning and mouse button events. Google com exe.
Happily, it seems Apple was listening, since Catalina features a slew of accessibility improvements, including everything Scheresky asked for. The new Voice Control capability offers full control over your Mac and any iOS devices. You can rely entirely on your voice to navigate an app via navigation commands, names of accessibility labels, numbers pointing at controls, and grids.
Anyone interested in reducing their typing will appreciate Voice Control's enhanced dictation, and it builds in a rich set of text-editing commands that let you correct words, replace phrases by name, select text, or navigate within text. Even better, if you wish to use voice commands to control your Mac, it will seamlessly transition between text dictation and commands.
Frankly, Voice Control may be one of the most important improvements in Catalina and iOS 13.
But that's not all the accessibility improvements in Catalina, others of which include:
The option to tint your entire screen, which could help people with various visual difficulties and migraines—see Charles Maurer's discussion of the topic in 'Better than the Printed Page: Reading on an iPad' (15 March 2018)
The capability to use the new text-to-speech Siri voice for VoiceOver and Speech
Hover Text, which displays a high-resolution zoom of text, text fields, menu items, buttons, and more in a dedicated window
An option to use a second display to zoom a portion of the same screen
Simplified tab navigation via VoiceOver
Other FeaturesAs you would expect, Apple has plenty of other small features slated for Catalina. The most interesting ones include:
iCloud Drive folder sharing makes Apple's file sharing solution more competitive with services like Dropbox.
File sharing services gain a new way to integrate with the Finder without needing a kernel extension.
If an update causes problems, you'll be able to use macOS Recovery to restore from an APFS snapshot taken just before the installation. That should reduce the stress involved with installing macOS updates.
Improvements in QuickTime Player include Picture in Picture, movie creation from a folder of sequentially numbered stills, more technical information about movies, and timecode support.
HomeKit Secure Video will record security video to iCloud. Look for HomeKit-enabled security cameras to appear soon.
Unified Apple ID account information will be available directly in an app on the Mac. This is probably another aspect of iTunes that Apple needed to break out.
DetailsBetas of macOS Catalina for developers are available now, and Tim Cook said that a public beta would arrive in July 2019, with the final release due in the 'fall,' probably meaning September of this year.
Is Catalina Os GoodCatalina has the same hardware requirements as Mojave, running on MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac models from 2012 and later, Mac Pro models from 2013 and later, and all models of the MacBook and iMac Pro.