How can I delete the bloatware on macOS Catalina?

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Level 1

5 points

How can I delete the bloatware on macOS Catalina?

There are numerous bloatware apps on my new MBP like Books, Calculator, Calendar, Chess, Dictionary, Home, Image Capture, Mail, Maps, Music, News, Photo Booth, Podcasts, Stocks, TV and Voice Memos that are now installed in /System/Applications and I can't seem to delete them. Sure, I could use the sudo command, but I'm worried that somehow these apps might have deeper roots in the OS.

It's bad enough that the computer comes with bloatware. These should be optional installs. No OS *ever* needed Chess as an integral part of their OS. If it's not critically necessary, it should be removable, or not even come with the OS in the first place.

The reason I prefer macOS to Linux is because it provides a better interface and better overall compatibility options with mainstream apps. That's why I pay so much more for a high-performance Mac than for a standard PC laptop: ease of use and full control of my system. This goes completely against that paradigm by taking away my control from my own system.

How can I remove these apps?

Thanks for your time!

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Dec 18, 2020 8:43 AM

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Answer 1

Barney-15E

Level 10

124,308 points

Dec 18, 2020 8:57 AM in response to jvriese

There are numerous bloatware apps on my new MBP like Books, Calculator, Calendar, Chess, Dictionary, Home, Image Capture, Mail, Maps, Music, News, Photo Booth, Podcasts, Stocks, TV and Voice Memos that are now installed in /System/Applications and I can't seem to delete them.

They are part of the macOS operating system.

Sure, I could use the sudo command,

No, actually you cannot. The OS is mounted on a Read Only volume. You would need to boot from another source and delete them from there. However, it's possible they will be reinstalled when you update the OS.

It's bad enough that the computer comes with bloatware.

You can let Apple know how you feel on the Feedback page.

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Answer 2

steve626

Level 6

16,333 points

Dec 18, 2020 11:28 AM in response to jvriese

I understand your concern, but if you add of the space taken by those apps, it's a small fraction of your storage. Many of them are quite small (Music is one of the larger ones, as is Photos). "Bloatware" is a great term, but what does it mean -- these programs aren't running in the background or using up resources or slowing down your Mac unless you execute them. And the disk space they use is fairly small when you add them up, assuming you have at least 256 GB internal drive.

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How can I delete the bloatware on macOS Catalina?

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