If you were already using Cocoa, and were heeding deprecation warnings for the last 10 years, there should be zero issues.
Of course, with lots of software (especially projects started decades ago) it might have been difficult to do this. But the only paths forward were
(A) expect to drop support once 32-bit was removed
(B) gradually replace components which were dependent on things without 64-bit versions
(C) wait until 32-bit support was removed, then have a terrible time updating
And the writing on the wall has been there for a very, very long time.
This is fine for the producer, who can drop support for old software. It's not fine for the consumer, who may not want to pay yearly for their software and therefore don't want to upgrade to the latest versions.
I don't see why Apple couldn't provide an optional compatibility solution, even if it were something I had to download separately.
I'm actually sad because I wanted to find a replacement that had:
- layers - Good text engine - good magic wand
I use Photoshop/Illustrator for very basic collage style works and those are the tools I need.
I was excited to try gimp, but it was slow enough on this Mac that I gave up. Inkscape is on the list, but my hopes are low.
That said, I think its low price point has started working against it. New releases come at a glacial pace, and a few broken features have literally had fixes in the works for years (expand stroke is the standout). When the last thing I bought from the company was a $50 purchase four years ago, I can’t really complain, but in retrospect, I wish Affinity had gone the Sketch route with an annual upgrade program. I’d like to pay more to see Affinity Designer advance faster, but presently there’s no option to do so.
Also, while people are even more likely to forget Graphic Converter since it first came out in 1859 or something (this may be a slight exaggeration, but my point is, it's been around a long time), it has some neat tricks up its sleeve. I sent business cards to a print shop that required CMYK PSDs by doing the work in Acorn and converting in Graphic Converter.
Installing macOS on a separate APFS volume https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208891
“APFS makes it easier than ever to switch between versions of macOS, including a beta (prerelease) version of macOS.”
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208891
I've done this to install a beta, but not to try to install an older macOS version from a newer release. If for some reason, the Mojave installer won't launch from Catalina, then you could create a bootable Mojave installer:
I still think I'd rather dual boot though.
Parallels is, perhaps not coincidentally, not as terrible at running macOS as some other solutions, but it's still fairly poor.
It's not. I've run macOS under a hypervisor with GPU passthrough and it's essentially as fast as on metal (I think you can see a single digit percentage difference in benchmarks). I don't think anyone has a soft 3D driver though for macOS guests. Parallels and VMware have both put a lot of work into getting some level of soft VM based 3D acceleration working for Windows guests, presumably because that's where the demand is. At the same time macOS has been built heavily around GPU for everything for a very long time now, initially as a way to improve even basic interface smoothness in Aqua back in the day. So it's a dog in pure software on a VM. It really needs a GPU.
FWIW, in the past VMware did officially have Mac Pros on the hardware compatibility list for ESXi (up to 5.5 I think? maybe the trashcan lasted longer). And that in turn would be legit for running a Mac guest. I've read you can sort of get it to work on other Macs like the Mini, though secure boot must be disabled and the T2 causes other issues. Otherwise you need to patch it, or go with KVM or some other alternative.
[1] https://notebook.yasithab.com/macos/disable-sip-in-macos-vm-...
Think CS6 is still a viable option for Windows 10 users though.
For example, I know there is a contingent of people who are stuck at Adobe CS6, whose certain critical components are 32 bit. Since Adobe no longer sells permanent licenses, opting to only rent their software instead, it's impossible to get these updated. And these expensive and still-in-use licenses are going to die the moment people update to Catalina.