You also have to keep in mind two things, Martin.
1. You’re case is solely unique. I’ve actually done some asking around with
friends who belong to various Mac user groups in the sighted world and no one,
thus far, has reported losing their Admin account when upgrading to Catalina.
2. With that being said, your next attempt with a clean install would work
perfectly fine most likely without a similar result. There is always the chance
that something small can go wrong during an install or upgrade, but my
experience, unless you include Beta testing, is that a serious issue in the
process like you experienced is few and far between in normal cases.
3. Again, I agree with your comments about security and how it’s a complete
quandary for Apple. I am not a fan of the “nannie state” approach to
computing. For example, what was done to the Airport Utility prior to Apple’s
decision to stop making routers still burns me up as they slowly removed
features and locked administrators out of various helpful utilities for those
of us who wanted the latitude to toy with their settings and network.
Unfortunately, it is the direction Apple has chosen to go. Microsoft may
eventually take a similar turn as I have spoken to people who claim there may
be a change or complete rewrite to Windows coming. I think even Microsoft
realizes that the 600000 or so known viruses and malware in the Windows world
is getting to be a problem for them.
As a final note, based on a story a good friend who is an IT director for
a company just told me last night, users are their own worse enemies. As tight
and thorough as you can make your system, it only takes one user to invite
something bad onto the network to undo your best efforts. Someone’s bad
judgement literally forced him to have to take the entire network down for half
a day to rebuild everything because of an email an employee should have known
better not to open. I’m simplifying things quite a bit, but that is the essence
of what happened.
Take Care
John D. Panarese
Director
Mac for the Blind
Tel, (631) 724-4479
Email, john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Website, http://www.macfortheblind.com
APPLE CERTIFIED SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL (ACSP)
Apple Certified Trainer (ACT)
Apple Performance Partner
MAC and iOS VOICEOVER TRAINING AND SUPPORT
On Jul 16, 2020, at 11:00 PM, Martin McCormick <martin.m@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
You may be totally surprised at what I am saying or think that I
am one of those who just goes whichever way the wind blows at the
time, but i agree with everything you said. There's nothing like
having worked in a university network operations group for 25
years to alert one to the fact that yes, the bad folks are out
there and yes, they are really out to get you.
Having said all that, I also know what security theater
feels like. It's intrusive, stifling and like working with lead
weights on your feet and one hand tied behind your back and still
people answer phishing emails and social engineering pleas for
help and all the careful design is for not because when the
security gets too bothersome, folks start taking short cuts and
essentially leaving the door key under the mat.
When you can't get something to work because of security
procedures gone wrong, the bad guys have won by denial of service.
They didn't touch a thing, but we couldn't get our login or data
stream to work so the end result is the same.
By locking everything down, all you can do is what the
company who made the system lets you do.
I understand why Apple is trying to protect us from
ourselves as well as those who try to get in for some kind of
gain but when I had to completely erase my Mac and start from
scratch due to no way to remove that completion confirmation
file, I just said that this isn't the kind of technology I want
to associate with.
It's an almost impossible quandary to answer the
question, When does it stop being security and become a trap?
One can't rely on stuff with traps deliberately designed in.
There's enough stuff that blows up due to nobody's fault to have
this kind of an issue and have it not be considered as a problem
to be fixed.
Einstein reportedly said, "Clever people solve problems.
Wise people avoid problems."
Sometimes, if one knows that a certain technology is
vulnerable if due caution isn't observed, we may take extra care
if we know what's good for us as we know that the designers can
only do so much to protect us and the rest is our responsibility.
Martin
John Panarese <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
It’s unfortunate that your experience has soured you on upgrading. I************
have done plenty of upgrades for clients and myself since Catalina was
released without any issues at all. You are the first person I have ever
heard about who didn’t get an admin account when upgrading. I’ve
heard of many funny things that have happened over the years to users,
but nothing that dramatic. I have had installs while Beta testing go
completely south and I have, as a Beta tester, learned how to deal with
any number of oddities or complete reinstalls that have been necessary
over the last fifteen years.
As for Catalina, unfortunately, Martin, this is the world we live in.
Apple has gone the direction of locking down the system to prevent
malicious software and viruses from taking over the system. Windows has
been and will continue to be plagued by this, and I am assuming Apple is
trying to stay ahead of the game by making system folders and resources
off limits to just about anyone. You can, though disable SIP and get
access to those folders or files, and I know of several people that have
done this without issues. I’ve not done it myself as of yet, but you
can find info in many places explaining how to do this and the caveats to
doing it.
Do I agree with the tightened security? No, I am an old school guy who
likes to have access to under the hood stuff. However, at this point in
my life as I support clients and deal with the average consumer more and
more, in all honesty, I see why Apple is doing what it is doing. It,
unfortunately, protects the user from him or herself at times. It’s a
sad reflection on the world, but seeing in many instances how a user can
be their own worse enemy and invite trouble onto their system, especially
as the level of hackers and people who mean harm to users grow in their
sophistication of carrying out their desires, I guess Apple has decided
to raise the bar in their own system security.
I’d just do a fresh install of Catalina on a drive and not update
from a previous system and then manually update your data onto the new
system disk. That’s what I get around to doing with every MacOS update
in the end and always did that with Windows as well.
Take Care
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