Apple has released its latest operating system macOS Catalina this week and is now encouraging users to wait before they update their iMac's and MacBooks including the Pro. The reason you ask? well its because in the latest update, Apple has decided to drop iTunes from their apps. Which has a major impact on DJ's who use their MacBook Pro's with playlists and mixes that are used in their gigs. These have been tied to iTunes’ underlying XML database. But after nearly 20 years, iTunes has been discontinued in macOS Catalina, and the XML file no longer exists to index a local music collection.
Tons of popular DJ apps read XML Files over the years. iTunes became the bridge for DJs to sort through their massive libraries and quickly find tracks while performing. This means updating to Catalina will replace iTunes with Apple Music, and that in turn will break the communication between the app and many of the existing DJ Softwares.
Media Creatives and Web Designers should also wait to update as Catalina also drops support for 32-bit applications. They simply will not run under the new system, this version of macOS is a 64-bit only world. If you are a Mac user that is reliant on a 32-bit app, such as older versions of Adobe programs like PhotoShop which are run on 32 bit will no longer be supported. I had to learn this the hard way as I updated and lost access to my CS6 Master collection which cost me quite a bit a few years ago. The only choice I had to make was to update to the newest version of Adobe and just toss the old software or go back to macOS Mojave.
Although you can step back from Catalina to the previous version of macOS (Mojave), that is a destructive process that requires you to erase your hard drive and have a back-up from before the upgrade to Catalina. Again, it’s something that is possible at a technical level but not communicated clearly during the upgrade process.
Apple wants to leap forward with its newer platforms, and to extinguish the older versions so that subscription based services lead the way. But if that plan is a goal for the future. Apple needs to remember that their hardware needs to work in the real world today. Apple should be consistent in what features it offers, it should provide clear and accurate information to developers and users, and it should ensure at the very least that its own house is in order.