Can you still use macOS Catalina in 2025?

(27 June 2025) Not TOO long ago, I got a Mac mini from late 2012 with macOS Catalina installed. While I intend to put its original OS of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion back on to it some day, what's macOS 10.15 Catalina like on it, and what is it like to use it in 2026? Support for macOS versions goes by much quicker compared to its sloppy windowed counterpart, and macOS Catalina, released in 2019, is now already redundant.

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Software used

- DaVinci Resolve 20.0

- Paint.NET 5.1.x

- Audacity 3.7.3 and Audacity 3.7.4

Music (in chronological order)

- "Wutif" by Lauren Duski

- "Alaska Sky" by Patrick Patrikios

- "Luge" by Geographer

- "Chasing Down a Vision" by Bail Bonds

- "Know Myself" by Patrick Patrikios

Works Cited

- "MacBook Pro Diary: The upgrade to macOS Catalina is going to involve a lot of work", Ben Lovejoy, 9To5Mac. 2019 Oct. 8, accessed 2025 Jun. 14. https://9to5mac.com/2019/10/08/upgrade-to-macos-catalina/

- "Apple previews macOS Catalina", Apple, Apple Newsroom. 2019 Jun. 3, accessed 2025 Jun. 14. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/apple-previews-macos-catalina/

- "macOS Catalina is available today", Apple, Apple Newsroom. 2019 Oct. 7, accessed 2025 Jun. 14. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/10/macos-catalina-is-available-today/

- "macOS 10.15 Catalina: The Ars Technica review", Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica. 2019 Oct. 7, accessed 2025 Jun. 14. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/10/macos-10-15-catalina-the-ars-technica-review/

- "MacOS Catalina is killing off 32-bit apps. Here's what that means for you", Katie Teague, CNET. 2019 Oct. 13, accessed 2025 Jun. 14. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/macos-catalina-is-killing-off-32-bit-apps-heres-what-that-means-for-you/

- "macOS Catalina preview: It's all about the apps", Dana Wollman, Engadget. 2019 Jun. 24, accessed 2025 Jun. 14. https://www.engadget.com/2019-06-24-macos-catalina-preview.html

- "Ubuntu 19.10 Release, Features & Download", Joey Sneddon, OMG! Ubuntu. 2019 Oct. 18, accessed 2025 Jun. 14. https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/05/ubuntu-19-10-release-features

- "macOS Catalina review: transition period", Dieter Bohn, The Verge. 2019 Oct. 7, accessed 2025 Jun. 14. https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/24/18701200/apple-macos-mac-os-catalina-first-look-features

- "macOS Catalina first look: goodbye, iTunes; hello, iPad apps on Mac", Chris Welch, The Verge. 2019 Jun. 24, accessed 2025 Jun. 14. https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/7/20902020/macos-catalina-review-apple-music-podcasts-catalyst-ipad-apps

- "macOS Catalina", Wikipedia Contributors, Wikipedia. 2025 Jun. 14, accessed 2025 Jun. 14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_Catalina

- https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_mini/specs/mac-mini-core-i7-2.3-late-2012-specs.html#macspecs1

Media used

- Dashboard_OS_X.svg by Chabe01, CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 - via Wikimedia Commons

- LibreOffice_Logo_Flat.svg.png by Christoph Noack - https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/File:LibreOffice-Initial-Artwork-Logo.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34369081

- Firefox_logo,_2019.svg.png By Mozilla Corporation - https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D41016, MPL 2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81490422

- Safari_2020_logo.svg.png By Cătălin Mariș, MIT, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=148194093

- Santa_Catalina_Island_(California)_by_Sentinel-2,_2019-03-30.jpg By Copernicus Sentinel-2, ESA - https://scihub.copernicus.eu/dhus/#/home, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95522403

- Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg Version 1 by Nohat (concept by Paullusmagnus); Wikimedia., CC BY-SA 3.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0 - via Wikimedia Commons