It Had To Happen Eventually

[Minuteman3]

As a long time computer masochist (aka "beta tester"), I took the plunge today for the first public betas of macOS 10.15 Catalina and iOS 13 on some spare devices.

They are surprisingly rough, and I would not recommend them yet for the feint of heart!!

However, I did find one thing that saddened me a bit ... Aperture 3.x has been finally killed off!! Unless Apple decides to update something, it comes up as "incompatible with 10.15". It is also grayed out with the slashed circle symbol in the Applications folder. Also cannot download it from the App Store anymore. Aperture 3.8, although not "updated" did continue to work OK under the previous macOS versions and currently still runs OK on my iMac under 10.14.x.

I reluctantly moved to LR Classic about a year ago as Aperture would not read any RAW files from my Canon 6D MkII. It would, however, work OK with JPEGs. I still prefer many things about Aperture vs LR, but alas, it appears time has moved on.

RIP

Cheers ... from the "bleeding edge"!!

Ken

 

[Clix Pix]

You are far braver than I am, being a beta tester! That is something which I’ve never done and never intend to do. Yes, when Mojave was announced and there was talk about apps which were 32 bit being nonfunctional, at that point not all of them were so, and I was pleasantly surprised that I could still use Aperture, but knew the day would come when the death knell would sound..... The day they announced Catalina was pretty much the final death knell for Aperture, and I’ve been in mourning ever since.

Actually, over the past several years, ever since Apple stopped supporting Aperture, I’ve been trying out various editing programs and yet always found myself going back to good old Aperture. Last summer I tried out Capture One Pro and Luminar 2018, and found that while I just couldn’t seem to get comfortable with C1 Pro, for the most part I liked Luminar 2018 except for being able to only load and work on one image at a time. Only once n a while would I find a need to go back into Aperture to tinker a little more, especially when I needed to do some cloning, as the cloning tool in Luminar just isn’t as precise as I like. (I probably just haven’t learned the secret of getting it to what I want.).

Since I have more than one computer in the household, I’m seriously tempted to keep one of them still on Mojave so that the once in a while when I want to use Aperture I still can, but I know that’s silly. I just need to bite the bullet, move on into the future..... I’ve clung to Aperture for far too long. I will sure miss that wonderful software, though!

In the meantime, just last week I finally got around to downloading and installing Luminar 3, having waited a while after its initial release for them to get any bugs out, and so far I’ve been very pleased with it, especially being able to load an entire folder of images into it and get right to work reviewing/culling/editing. I haven’t had a need to do any fine-tuned cloning-out yet so don’t now if there have been changes to their clone tool. Just as with Luminar 2018, most of the time their “erase” tool has been fine for my purposes.

Probably shortly after Catalina has been released, one day while still in Mojave on each of my computers, I will go through my applications and just go ahead and delete any which I know are going to be incompatible with Catalina; I suspect that the day when I move Aperture to the trash bin that there might be some tears in my eyes......

 

[Minuteman3]

...
Probably shortly after Catalina has been released, one day while still in Mojave on each of my computers, I will go through my applications and just go ahead and delete any which I know are going to be incompatible with Catalina; I suspect that the day when I move Aperture to the trash bin that there might be some tears in my eyes......

I also used Aperture for a LONG time, since 2.0, but have found LR to be a reasonable alternative. I have Luminar 3 as well, and have used it a few times, but I find the combination of LR Classic and DXO Pro 2, to handle everything quite well. I hate paying Adobe every month, but it seems I have no choice.

Interestingly, I'm pretty sure the last known version of Aperture (3.8, I believe) was actually 64-bit. So it looks something else makes it inoperable in Catalina.

On another note, so far the iOS 13 beta on my old iPhone 7+ is running quite nicely. I don't have any apps on it, just iOS, but it seems pretty stable.

Ken

 

[Allan]

Capture One MediaPro is the one 32 bit app I will miss. There are no plans to update.

 

[Walter Rowe]

Apple officially announced earlier this year that Aperture would NOT run on Catalina. Apple announced cease of development 5 years ago in June 2014. That Aperture continued to run for this long is a miracle. When Apple announced this in 2014 I immediately sought a new home and Capture One Pro was it.

Migrate your Aperture libraries to Photos or Adobe Lightroom Classic

Aperture won't run in versions of the Mac operating system after macOS Mojave.

 

[Minuteman3]

Apple officially announced earlier this year that Aperture would NOT run on Catalina. Apple announced cease of development 5 years ago in June 2014. That Aperture continued to run for this long is a miracle. When Apple announced this in 2014 I immediately sought a new home and Capture One Pro was it.

Migrate your Aperture libraries to Photos or Adobe Lightroom Classic

Guess I had missed that announcement. I knew development had stopped of course.

Ken

 

[Clix Pix]

Many years ago I briefly checked out Lightroom and although it seemed to be (and still is) popular with many photographers, for some reason I just never really clicked with it and so haven’t explored it again since. I go through periods where I take a lot of photos and process some of them and then don’t do anything for months, so for me the subscription concept isn’t really a feasible one, paying for a service I may or may not use for months at a time. Although Luminar 3 has its quirks (which I am still discovering) for the most part it seems to be doing what I want and need and although it will never quite the same as Aperture, I guess it will have to do......

 

[Minuteman3]

Many years ago I briefly checked out Lightroom and although it seemed to be (and still is) popular with many photographers, for some reason I just never really clicked with it and so haven’t explored it again since. I go through periods where I take a lot of photos and process some of them and then don’t do anything for months, so for me the subscription concept isn’t really a feasible one, paying for a service I may or may not use for months at a time. Although Luminar 3 has its quirks (which I am still discovering) for the most part it seems to be doing what I want and need and although it will never quite the same as Aperture, I guess it will have to do......

I had been really hopeful when Luminar announced they would add a database module as that seemed to be one of the things I missed the most about Aperture. Alas I did not like the way it worked, although that’s mostly due to the size of my library (~65k images). That’s also why Photos is a poor substitute for Aperture!!

I totally agree about the subscription model. I owned LR 6 (the last stand alone version) but they stopped updating it, so not only is it missing features, in some cases it simply won’t work any more (it too won’t read my 6D RAW images) so there’s no choice but pay the dang fee!!

Ken

PS I did hear about one fellow photog who refused to give up his old LR6 and found ways to keep it running. He then used DxO or maybe Luminary’s plugins for a lot of his processing. Hmmmmmmmm

 

[Clix Pix]

Luminar 3’s DAM is still very much in its infancy. When I installed the program I avoided the default of it grabbing all of my images and now have it set up so that only the folders and files I add are part of the “library.” I am not particularly concerned about that whole DAM thing at this point, and figure that eventually they’ll get their act together, but in the meantime I can at least use the program the way I want and need to do so and hopefully get the results I want.

 

[Growltiger]

I totally agree about the subscription model. I owned LR 6 (the last stand alone version) but they stopped updating it, so not only is it missing features, in some cases it simply won’t work any more (it too won’t read my 6D RAW images) so there’s no choice but pay the dang fee!!
Ken

Don't forget you could download the free Adobe DNG converter, which is kept up to date and supports all cameras. Then you can convert your 6D raw files into raw DNG files (a whole folder at a time). That way you can go on using LR6 forever without paying more.

 

[Replytoken]

Don't forget you could download the free Adobe DNG converter, which is kept up to date and supports all cameras. Then you can convert your 6D raw files into raw DNG files (a whole folder at a time). That way you can go on using LR6 forever without paying more.

You can use the DNG converter to convert files, but LR6 will not be able to offer you camera profiles that later versions do. This matters to some and not others, but it does need to be pointed out for those considering this approach.

--Ken

 

[Minuteman3]

Something else I just found out after playing a bit today ... LR6 (non CC) will also not install/run on Catalina! Just like Aperture, only a different rationale.

Apple wants us to use Photos to replace Aperture.

Adobe wants $$$$ from their subscription.

Tough to be a dinosaur sometimes!!

I have been reluctantly paying my $10 LR fee but was hoping to figure out how to stretch LR6 and stop paying, but alas it’s probably not in the cards.

Ken

 

[vinman]

I’m surprised you’re finding ios13 “rough”. I’ve installed the profile on my iPhone, and iPadOS on my iPad Pro and I’m thrilled, so far. That said, I’ve never had a Mac, so my only experience has been with iOS devices. Seems like the iPad Pro and iPadOS is becoming pretty close to a full-on computer os!! Very exciting!

 

[Replytoken]

Adobe wants $$$$ from their subscription.

In this case, my understanding is that it it a 32-bit compatibility issue. My understanding is that some parts of LR6 still run 32-bit code and that is not compatible with Catalina. It is fine to not like Adobe or subscription software, but it is important to be clear about why products are no longer compatible.

--Ken

 

[F15Todd]

Make the move to Capture One.

 

[Clix Pix]

Last summer I took a stab at Capture One Pro 11 and really tried to love it but somehow it just never clicked with me and eventually I moved on to Luminar 2018, which seemed to be more intuitive and accommodating to my particular way of working...... Now I'm using Luminar 3 and so far very satisfied with it. I think Capture One was just a little too much for my fairly basic needs, as it seemed more complex and filled with features and functions that I'd never use. I think for many people it is an outstanding program and one which really suits their workload and particular needs.

 

[Minuteman3]

I’m surprised you’re finding ios13 “rough”. I’ve installed the profile on my iPhone, and iPadOS on my iPad Pro and I’m thrilled, so far. That said, I’ve never had a Mac, so my only experience has been with iOS devices. Seems like the iPad Pro and iPadOS is becoming pretty close to a full-on computer os!! Very exciting!

I was actually referring more to Catalina on my Mac. It's more than a bit funky!! You're right about the iOS being more stable. Maybe not "daily driver" yet but pretty close!!

Ken

 

[plugsnpixels]

To keep legacy OS's and apps alive even on your current hardware, do this:

Option 1: If it's large enough, partition your internal hard drive (which might currently be running High Sierra or Mojave), then clone your working OS and apps to the new partition using SuperDuper (free for basic use). Then update the cloned partition to Catalina beta or final release. Depending on what apps or features you need to use, boot from the appropriate partition (legacy or current OS).

Option 2: Do the same thing except for cloning your system to an empty external hard drive (SSD is ideal). Then space is no issue. Boot from the external as needed (hold down Option upon restart, or use System Preferences>Startup Disk). This is also a great way to test beta OS's without messing up your current system, or for servicing the internal hard drive when something goes wrong with it. It also serves as a backup to your entire system.

Another nice thing about Macs is you can run Windows and/or Linux as virtual machines without affecting your macOS install. Use VMWare Fusion, VirtualBox (free), etc. The guest OS just resides as a file in a folder and can be easily backed up and moved elsewhere:

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[plugsnpixels]

PS: I took the VM screenshot (posted above) today on my MacBook Air but I see as usual Windows doesn't know what time or day it is! This also happens on a triple-boot Hackintosh I tinker with.