Apple will ship macOS Big Sur on Thursday

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in macOS edited November 2020
Apple will be releasing macOS Big Sur on Thursday, enabling existing Mac owners to upgrade to the new version of the operating system ahead of the release of the new M1-based Mac range.




Announced after the reveal of the M1 chip, the new Mac mini, MacBook Air, and 13-inch MacBook Pro, Apple will be providing macOS Big Sur's update for download from November 12. The download will be free to all users, as usual.

The release takes place almost two months after Apple issued iOS 14, iPadOS 14, tvOS 14, and watchOS 7, with it undergoing an extensive beta-testing period. It has undergone ten rounds of testing, with the release candidate issued on November 5.

The delay is likely down to how macOS Big Sur has to cater to both Macs running on Intel processors as well as those using the just-announced Apple-designed M1 system-on-chip. The main goal of macOS Big Sur is Apple Silicon compatibility, but there's also some other changes coming in the version.

Visual design changes include more curvature in window edges, with widgets made to be similar to the iOS 14 designs. Menu items will fade into and out of view depending on if they are needed, while icons will receive design upgrades across the board for Apple's major apps.

The Control Center is also being ported to Mac, with easily-accessible system controls available at a glance. Safari gains a number of design changes, as well as being faster and more secure than previous versions, while the Messages app will be a Mac Catalyst app.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    CheeseFreezeCheeseFreeze Posts: 1,250member
    Big Sur got ‘stable’ very recently, probably to be ready for this launch, so I’m going to hold off until it had a few point release updates.

    Grayeagle
  • Reply 2 of 9
    GrayeagleGrayeagle Posts: 59member
    Have to agree with CheeseFreeze.  
    With the need to work with both Intel and Apple chips, it will take several iterations to really get it right.
     Also, some the app may not be ready for the transition.
    edited November 2020
  • Reply 3 of 9
    svanstromsvanstrom Posts: 702member
    While the “experts” before me proclaim wisdom in not trusting Apple saying the software is ready, I’m sitting here happily using the very stable and fully functioning beta.  B) 

    ymmv
    jdb8167
  • Reply 4 of 9
    commentzillacommentzilla Posts: 725member
    Unifying the GUI is a great idea but I would like to see a bigger focus on bug fixes, security and performance issues, rather than new features.
    ramik
  • Reply 5 of 9
    bala1234bala1234 Posts: 145member
    Sigh! I just updated to Catalina on my office mac book pro couple of weeks ago. I am already receiving advisory not to upgrade to Big Sur until notified...
  • Reply 6 of 9
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    bala1234 said:
    Sigh! I just updated to Catalina on my office mac book pro couple of weeks ago. I am already receiving advisory not to upgrade to Big Sur until notified...
    I don't know why you received this advisory, but after reading this report about how Big Sur handles the deepest aspects of privacy, I will stay away for now too.

  • Reply 7 of 9
    bala1234bala1234 Posts: 145member
    pb said:
    bala1234 said:
    Sigh! I just updated to Catalina on my office mac book pro couple of weeks ago. I am already receiving advisory not to upgrade to Big Sur until notified...
    I don't know why you received this advisory, but after reading this report about how Big Sur handles the deepest aspects of privacy, I will stay away for now too.

    The warning itself is pretty standard nothing specific to Big Sur. Its just that the company wants test their apps and applications work fine on it before recommending upgrade. Catalina took an unusually long time to get approval and even after they approved I took even longer to upgrade as I was fearful of my work getting disrupted in a WFH scenario.... Although  the fears turned out to be unfounded.  But yeah recent episode during Big Sur update is unsettling. I hope Apple issues a clarification.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    ramikramik Posts: 1member
    I'm confused why Apple have changed mentality and became like Microsoft? MS Windows make everything crowd and now Apple do the same with Big Sur. I needed to change my glasses to work with Mail since they changed its icons and make them colourful, less contrast and less elegant grey and black. Safari became crowd and meaning less tracking security attempts. Why I need to adapt again to use Mail since they change the places of buttons with no reason. I switched back to Mojave OS, otherwise will sell my iMac and back to Windows which I hate.
  • Reply 9 of 9
    svanstromsvanstrom Posts: 702member
    ramik said:
    I'm confused why Apple have changed mentality and became like Microsoft? MS Windows make everything crowd and now Apple do the same with Big Sur. I needed to change my glasses to work with Mail since they changed its icons and make them colourful, less contrast and less elegant grey and black. Safari became crowd and meaning less tracking security attempts. Why I need to adapt again to use Mail since they change the places of buttons with no reason. I switched back to Mojave OS, otherwise will sell my iMac and back to Windows which I hate.
    System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Display.

    While there you probably want to "Reduce motion", "Increase contrast", and "Reduce transparency"; and maybe slide "Display contrast" a bit.
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