why does a spinning colored ball appear with some programs, which then freeze

Please download and run Etrecheck  It is a diagnostic tool that's very useful to us in finding problems. Also it will give us further specs on your Mac. After it runs post the log file here. It will contain no personal information. Allowing full drive access will improve the quality of the report.

To post the log file click on share report and use the Page icon in your reply window.

Called the "spinning wheel of non-response" -- that's what I call it anyway. Usually means the program is in a non-responsive state and isn't responding to the OS. Take a look at this article for more explanation...

https://macflypro.com/blog/mac-spinning-wheel.html

Good luck...