Just a quick update on my experience with macOS Catalina and Emacs. Last week, I wrote that after not reading about any significant problems with Emacs on Catalina, I upgraded my laptop. I haven’t seen any problems with Emacs as a result of the update. Quite the opposite. Emacs now seems snappier in general and it’s definitely faster for operations that involve shelling out to the operating system.
For example, before when I followed a URL link from an Org file, there was a significant delay. That started happening when I upgraded to Mojave. With the upgrade to Catalina, that delay is gone and everything is back to being nearly instantaneous. That’s a very welcome change.
The feeling that Emacs is snappier in general is more subjective but I do think things have speeded up a bit. Perhaps that’s wishful thinking but I guess it doesn’t matter. Seeming to be snappier is just as good as being snappier since it’s a matter of perception.
The takeaway is that there doesn’t seem to be any reason not to update to Catalina as far as Emacs is concerned. The biggest problem people are having with Catalina appears to be that 32 bit applications no longer work just as Apple warned us they wouldn’t. If you are absolutely dependent on an old 32 bit app, you may want to hold off upgrading but 32 bit support is never coming back so you’re going to have to make some arrangements sooner or later.