Testing Catalina
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 10:01 am
I decided to set up my usual test partition with Catalina, and came across some things I sort of knew but hadn't given much thought to.
First, DiskUtility reminded me that it is better to set up a new Volume that a new Partition. While Partitions require their own dedicated space, Volumes share whatever space is available on the drive. So Catalina only takes up about 12G on my drive instead of the 60-80 I would have set aside on a test Partition.
Second, this procedure added two Volumes, one for the OS and one for "Data". The Volume for the OS is not writable, or more to the point, won't let me erase anything, so I'm stuck for now with all the junk apps that come with the OS. I suppose this could be an issue when setting up some apps that write to the OS folders. I'll be looking for a workaround to get rid of the junk.
Third, I found I didn't need to install the apps that are already on the other volume. They can be run from where they are. I tried DP, Logic, DSP-Q, Numbers, MuseScore, BBEdit and a few more. In all cases they went through their first run setup (e.g. DP asked for email, SN, etc). I don't know if everything will run but this is a nice capability. I recall in previous OS versions being told by the Apps they had to be in the current Applications folder.
Fourth, I found that both Volumes share a backup folder if the TM backups are placed on the same external drive. That's a potential problem (e.g. it has backed up my Photos lib after it was converted to the new Photos version, so probably not usable any more with the old Photos version). So probably a good idea to use a separate volume for TM on the test Volume.
I don't know whether Apple planned it this way, but it is a lot more practical to have multiple OS versions on the internal drive than it once was.
First, DiskUtility reminded me that it is better to set up a new Volume that a new Partition. While Partitions require their own dedicated space, Volumes share whatever space is available on the drive. So Catalina only takes up about 12G on my drive instead of the 60-80 I would have set aside on a test Partition.
Second, this procedure added two Volumes, one for the OS and one for "Data". The Volume for the OS is not writable, or more to the point, won't let me erase anything, so I'm stuck for now with all the junk apps that come with the OS. I suppose this could be an issue when setting up some apps that write to the OS folders. I'll be looking for a workaround to get rid of the junk.
Third, I found I didn't need to install the apps that are already on the other volume. They can be run from where they are. I tried DP, Logic, DSP-Q, Numbers, MuseScore, BBEdit and a few more. In all cases they went through their first run setup (e.g. DP asked for email, SN, etc). I don't know if everything will run but this is a nice capability. I recall in previous OS versions being told by the Apps they had to be in the current Applications folder.
Fourth, I found that both Volumes share a backup folder if the TM backups are placed on the same external drive. That's a potential problem (e.g. it has backed up my Photos lib after it was converted to the new Photos version, so probably not usable any more with the old Photos version). So probably a good idea to use a separate volume for TM on the test Volume.
I don't know whether Apple planned it this way, but it is a lot more practical to have multiple OS versions on the internal drive than it once was.