I’ve got a late 2014 model Mac Mini which is still putting in sterling service daily as my main desktop computer. It’s currently running Mojave (10.14.6) and I’d like to update to the recently released Big Sur now that it’s reached its .1 release.
Normally I’d just click “upgrade” and let MacOS sort itself out, but I think that the time has come to do a fresh install - there’s a lot of cruft and old software that has built up over the years and I like the idea of starting anew with a freshly installed OS. It’ll be like having a new computer again.
I’ve never done this before, but I’m familiar with the general principles - write an installer file to USB media, boot from said USB media and choose the appropriate options and go for it. I think that I get the installer file from the App Store - I’ll have to look into that.
I’ve got both Time Machine (on an external SSD) and Backblaze (in the cloud) backups, and I’ll take a separate extra copy of any local data that I really care about before proceeding; I fully understand that any data on the Mac’s own SSD will be wiped. I know my AppleID username and password. But still - I can’t help feeling that there might be some gotchas that I don’t know about, so if anyone who has been through this process before has any helpful advice, it would be gratefully received.
From OS Catalina 32-bit apps won’t run. It’s been long enough that pretty much everything has a 64-bit version now, but you might want to scan to check first.
That one was the big one to me. I had a couple of programs that I used almost every day, but had to upgrade to 32-bit versions of them (they’re photo related programs – one is Photo Mechanic, the other is VSCO keys which is shortcuts for Lightroom. I had to buy another piece of software to replace that.)
Other than that, the change went over very smoothly. I have a couple other 32-bit only apps (like Card Rescue, for data recovery) that I’m not all that worried about. If I ever need it, I’ll download the newest 64-bit version.
I have a ton of specialized software that I use on a daily basis that will never be converted to 64-bit. Some of this is software I wrote myself, in Xojo, and I’m not spending the money to buy the latest version of Xojo just to re-compile for 64-bit. Some is “legacy ware,” where the developer is no longer maintaining the software. Some has alternatives, but even if I switched over, I’d still need access to the files for maintenance.
So, if I ever do upgrade, I’d need to run a 32-bit virtual machine. I’ll probably wait until I get an M1 MacBook Pro, and just keep my older machines running, until I’m sure that everything I need is available in some form on the new computer.
(I still have the ability to run Classic Mac OS programs via SheepShaver, and I have a Leopard virtual machine for PPC apps).
Oh wow, yeah, this is relevant to me. And I will not be upgrading this laptop. I’d lose a lot of stuff that I use regularly, or that I care a lot about when I do use it. Some of it I can reinstall (but it will be a lot of work) and some of it I’d have to repurchase, if I even still can. (Can you still buy Adobe Elements, or do they only sell subscriptions?) And while none of the really valuable stuff is legacy-ware, I do have a couple of items that can’t be replaced, and that I’d be sad to lose.
It runs decently in a virtual machine if you’re using SSDs. I’ve been going that route for a while now, to the point that I have as many VMs that are newer than my host OS as I have older ones.
