Apple Dropping Time

The Guardian of Computer Hell

I’m going through the change. The last few days made a decision for me. I am doing a full conversion to Windows 10 and Linux (Ubuntu Studio 19.04) as quickly as possible. 

I discovered that the problem is not simply the conflict between the Apple and Adobe “phone home” requirements - checking through the internet to see if I am “authorized” to use that specific machine, that specific piece of software. It required delays at the start of every work session. Every time I used Adobe InDesign or Photoshop using the Macintosh with MacOS 10.15.2 there was a delay rom 15- to 45-seconds after my first mouse click or typing a single character before it had a response. The next few strokes or clicks had less delay and after a few minutes I was able to do my work. 

The problem was not with “phone home” codes, but a new disk formatting schema that Apple instituted. APFS replaced the old options. You can no longer format using the previous standard Mac HFS+ schema through the “extended - journaled” format. Nor Ex-FAT. Nor any other option than four APS variants. 

Even the Disk Utility program from previous distributions of the OSX program cannot format the disk that has been taken over by MacOS Catalina. 

While on the phone for five hours with Adobe while I attempted to work on a freelance assignment, he let slip that Adobe does not work with Apple’s new APFS. I had been using since the release of MacOS 10.15.0 called “Catalina.” It worked badly. It worked horribly. It robbed me of the one thing that can never be replaced - my time. I will be able to install it in Windows for those jobs that must have Adobe - like the Acrobat, which is used for forms and programming functions. 

But I am redirecting to Ubuntu Studio 19.04 with a host of programs like Audacity for audio production, several options for simple video editing for the new YouTube channel (MDJoeStuff), writing with LibreOffice or other word processor, page layout with Scribus… there will be no lack of options for getting my work done with the training taking less time that Apple has been wasting with the APFS irreversible shift.

Apple has used a series of scenarios to enforce its stranglehold on its imagined superiority. It has gone from “planned obsolescence” of American manufacturing in the mid 20th Century to a new “forced obsolenscence” or the 21st. Replacing your desktop, your laptop, your phone, your tablet, your watch, and now your AppleTV is no longer an option because they can put in a change in system or software that will render the old hardware obsolete. 

That thing that used to work, well it don’t work now.

Years ago Apple began crippling their software to integrate the computer and device operating systems. The intent was to move OSX and iOS devices to work under an uber-system. My first contact was with Pages, which had become my preferred word processor. Overnight they removed the ability to use Search/Replace to seek out and change such things as tabs, paragraph returns, page- and column-breaks. Since I was having an enormous amount of necessary translations of old MacWrite and ClarisWorks documents to work in the new MacOS world, it stopped my access to useful work. Going through and changing those formatting codes one by one by one by one by one by one…

Just something pretty for sanity's sake.

Another day, I thought. 

I had already started using Open Source software. MacOS 10.15 does not allow me to install Audacity, which has become my standard tool for the audio work I do. Podcasts, video soundtracks. I could not use it AT ALL. LibreOffice worked, but Apple blocked installing the other Open Source packages I wanted to learn.

I can still use Audacity with OSX 10.13.6, which I kept installed on an external disk (which is how I am able to post this entry). I can use LibreOffice, the Open Source version of the Microsoft Office suite that dominates the computer world. But LibreOffice comes with several hundred useless and frankly ugly fonts and there is a couple of hours to be spend uninstalling the uglies and reinstalling fonts I actually use. But I can only install TruType fonts, and OTF fonts had become my preferred. 

So I will have to translate a few hundred OTF into TTF for installation on Linux. It will take time.

But a friend provided me with a one-year subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud. People have helped me with my projects that do not provide more than taco money (so far). There is an option for picking up on the significant body of previously created projects and work on the new - I’ll explain that in a moment. 

A friend provided me with the MacMini on which this drama has unfolded. The problem is not the MacMini - when I boot in Linux it is as zippy and functional as you would want a computer to be. The hardware is fine.

I will be able to boot this hardware into a USB installer and format the APSS disk to something that can be used. It will become a server where I will I will still be able to use it. Her contribution made it possible to come back from the destruction of my previous system, which we now know was the result of the Duke Energy meter shorting and sparking, sending little lightning like surges through my wiring. 

But the MacMini is a 2014 model and another friend is providing me with a box on which will come with Windows 10, on which I will be able to use the Adobe Creative Cloud package. That will require work translating Apple-based documents to those to be opened with Windows based programs or the new world of Linux.

I am writing this using the old system of High Sierra, 10.13.6 from an external disk that works. I do not have any Adobe products installed except the free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. I can work on a slide presentation for tomorrow night’s class - more edits - but it just took almost 15 minutes to open the slide presentation on iCloud, with both the document and the software running through iCloud. 15 minutes. 

I have been a Mac user since 1985. I stood by it through many “Mac is already dead campaigns” in the 1990s and early 2000s. It was a great system or artist or designers. It was fast and reliable.

Over the past few years, it has become none of these. It has become an actual detriment to getting my work done. 

So it is time to make the crossover. I delayed because the learning curve will take more time, but I have several projects that can’t take those kinds of delays. The projects will be print, electronic, audio, and video - all of which can be handled with good Open Source software on the new box. Which should arrive in the next few days. 

If you need information on the process of converting into Open Source, I’m willing to share what I know. There are many people who know much more than I do. 

I may not be very visible while I re-school myself into using the new operating system, GUI and command line, to do the job I used to be able to do quickly and easily. Time for some grieving. But not much time for that.

Deep breath. Time to start.