macOS Catalina and QIIME

[thermokarst]

Thanks @jwdebelius!

@BecksHawaii, maybe the VirtualBox installation would help get you moving?

https://docs.qiime2.org/2020.8/install/virtual/virtualbox/

I will say, I have been using Catalina for a while now, and it all seems to be smooth sailing...

@BecksHawaii

I think its important to recognize that many of us that use QIIME are not “scripters” and there is a learning curve with QIIME2

Certainly! We work extremely hard to ensure that we make things as "accessible" as possible. Sometimes you just have to challenge yourself, though, and work through things that are difficult. Luckily you've got a great resource here on the QIIME 2 forum - we are happy to help! This is also why we have put in so much effort to build an "interface-agnostic" platform, that way GUI interfaces can be supported. We are hard at work on a new q2Galaxy interface that hopefully should launch some time in 2021 ().

@BecksHawaii

You guys changed the language used! Not just the available tools. Now there are “features” and ASVs to learn.

While I appreciate the sentiment, I don't think we are really responsible for changing the language of microbiome science, we are just trying to keep up with the state of the field! Things change - ASVs replacing OTUs is a really great example. I think that is just part of academic/scientific progress.

Regarding QIIME 1 - I think maybe the best way to think of it is as a completely different software package when compared to QIIME 2. Just like mothur is totally different from QIIME 1, you know? As for QIIME 1 support, we announced our plans for ending QIIME 1 support back in 2016, and provided a year-long transition plan for helping people transition to QIIME 2 in as seamless a manner as possible. Change is rough, but the QIIME 2 team is 100% committed to building up the QIIME 2 platform in a way that is easy-to-use, and up-to-date with the latest methods and techniques. This means you might need to put in a little bit of work, too, to get caught up on the latest-and-greatest. Like I said, we are happy to help, just come find us here on the forum! As well, we have assembled a significant amount of written resources at docs.qiime2.org, with tutorials and docs for multiple skill-levels and backgrounds!

@BecksHawaii

Maybe offering more workshops would help?

As @jwdebelius mentioned, we have announced a workshop (CZI-CABANA Microbiome Bioinformatics with QIIME 2 Workshop (our first-ever online QIIME 2 workshop!)) a few weeks ago, and we are gearing up for several more online workshops in the coming months (announcements soon !).

Thanks so much!