Catalina installer bug allows install on unsopported hardware!

[serr]

Did your Mac just slow to a crawl like it's broken, losing all performance after upgrading to 10.15 Catalina? Read on!

I just ran across this.
The OSX 10.15 Catalina installer is allowing install on some genuinely unsupported hardware. I have a late 2012 21.5" iMac in front of me with a HDD spinner for a system drive. OSX 10.15 requires a SSD to be compatible. It just sails through the Catalina installer, allows the drive to be reformatted to APFS and installs Catalina. As you might expect, the HDD performs like it is failing with the SSD optimized APFS disk format and the computer hangs and crawls with every move.

Apparently Apple was so busy blacklisting more of the flagship Jobs-era Macs that ARE fully compatible with 10.15 that they missed a configuration that is truly not supported!

I had a client that I started explaining to how "This was crafty to reformat your drive and grab the Dosdude1 installer patch but the patch is only appropriate for genuinely compatible hardware. It patches the intentional planned obsolescence blacklist for compatible machines." Blank stare... Nope! They simply ran the Apple upgrade and it let them!

I'd avoid this version of OSX for now altogether. About the only thing you'll accomplish is obsoleting any 32 bit apps or plugins you might still be using.

[superblonde.org]

catalina adds beneficial stuff for audio. for example, audio midi setup allows reordering of the device chain for aggregate devices etc.

[serr]

Not sure I can remember the last time I needed to reorder aggregate device components but new features are cool none the less.

The point was more about a bug/omission that allows the installer to install to unsupported hardware (a HDD in this case) and thus cripple the performance of an otherwise fully functional machine.

I sort of suggested it followed to avoid 10.15 altogether and that's fair to call out! I meant that more as: Don't casually upgrade unless you're prepared.

Hmmm...
Might be a good time to start looking for 2012-2014 iMacs on Ebay that are "suddenly slow and crashy after upgrading to 10.15. The genius bar said it couldn't be repaired..." and start sniping!

[Win Conway]

Not sure any OS past High Sierra was even worth installing for audio to be honest, and they screwed the finder up past Yosemite anyway for sample developing.
To be honest it is starting to be nice to be on the Win 10 machines here, which is ridiculous considering how messed up their utter crap updates are.