Daniel, thank you for being again very frank on this. I know that transition to the newer OS is unavoidable.
I’m perfectly aware of this, and have been looking for alternatives for years. But it’s not so easy.
The move to a subscription has convinced/forced many companies to stay with CS6. These companies are not prepress services or other firms that have to be open to the most up-to-date file format. They just have to make the factory go on.
There are publishing companies still using old Macs with an old version of Quark XPress installed. It works, costs nothing to maintain, has no new issues to solve.
My business ecosystem is made of internal documentation workstations, that don’t need anything new introduced after CS6. Most Macs can stay at the old version, and PCs have no issues with CS6, even if updated to newer versions of the OS. And then, there are the translators, who only use InDesign for final retouching the documents translated with Trados or Wordfast.
I’m a bit more problematic, since I use both InDesign and music software, and they are often integrated. To be more precise: wasn’t it for Dorico, I could stay with High Sierra with no problems. The new EDM features of Logic don’t appeal me. New emoj and TV shows in the new Mac OS are of very little interest.
So, I have to find solutions for myself. None of them include subscribing to CC, if not as a last (and still problematic) resort.
A first solution I’m looking for is virtualization. VirtualBox is not working, yet, but Parallels Desktop is promising. Just experimenting. It is not very expensive, and if working it can be the right solution.
Another solution is having my old Mac connected via Ethernet to the new Mac. Just two cables: Ethernet and power. Switch it on, and run the older MacOS in a window inside the new Mac. Work on a shared folder. Smooth and fast, if I can solve an issue with the screen always defaulted to a small window. If the old Mac fails, I can look on the 2nd hand market for a new one (or rely on the Mac laptop).
Of the above, I prefer virtualization, because everything sits in a single machine. Very elegant. But they are both viable solutions.
As for alternatives, there are two: waiting for the Affinity series to be completed (but I guess this will happen in no less than a couple years, possibly more); or switch to a markdown solution, not aimed at book publishing. My clients still want a book, and a printed one for at least part of it. Maybe things will change in a few years.
In the end, the bad font rendering will be the real unresolved issue, and I’m here wondering how the others have learnt to live with something so big.
Paolo