The CCC 6.0 beta 5 release came after I posted. However when you say
It's pretty much a "bells & whistles" type upgrade, but there's some useful stuff.
I have to disagree. There are significant enhancements and changes in CCC 6.0 as well as several cosmetic bells and whistle changes.
- A backup that took 25 to 30 minutes using CCC 5.7.1 takes 9 minutes 26 Seconds in CCC 6.0 thanks to the significant improvements in the file copy mechanism
- Creating a bootable backup in CCC 5.7.1 took roughly 20 minutes while using the legacy utility in CCC. 6.0 it only takes 6 minutes. Unfortunately...
- My M1 Mac recognizes CCC 5.7.1 bootable clones and boots from them. So far I am unable to coax my system into recognizing any CCC 6 clone as bootable (but that is subject to further testing and experimentation).
- CCC 6.0 offers significant enhancements in managing and restoring from APFS Snapshots which IMO raise it to the level of being a credible competitor to Time Machine as a backup utility.
I'll qualify my "bells & whistles" characterization of CCC 6...
Yes, it
is faster - Cloning my installation took 4 minutes with v 5 and takes only 2 1/2 minutes with v 6. - and the enhanced snapshot functionality is a plus, perhaps even a major plus, but they and all the other enhancements are no more than bells & whistles in the face of what may be the end of CCC's historic functionality: cloning. They are NOT the stuff of which a paid upgrade is made!
Judging from the hasty implementation of the v 6 upgrade procedure - without its even having been updated from the v 5 procedure - I've gotten the feeling that it's a "panic" move made while perpetuating CCC's cloning functionality remains at least a possibility.
Unlike TechTool Pro, Disk Warrior, and others of their ilk, CCC doesn't provide functionality to which users can cling even when it's no longer necessary. When it can no longer do its job, well...it's done.
I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last paid CCC upgrade we ever see.
