Apple issues third macOS Big Sur 11.2 RC to developers and public beta testers
Apple on Thursday released a third release candidate version of its upcoming macOS Big Sur 11.2 update to developers and member of the public beta program.
The latest RC arrives just three days after a second version was issued on Monday and six days following an initial RC build last week.
Developers can download the most recent Big Sur release from Apple's Developer Center or as an over-the-air update. A public beta versions is available for download from the Apple Beta Software Program website.
The macOS Big Sur update appears aimed mainly at introducing under-the-hood improvements and bug fixes. A significant change is the striking of a controversial "exclusion list" that allowed Apple apps and processes to bypass firewalls.
According to the release notes, the update includes fixes for the following issues:
As usual, both AppleInsider and Apple suggest users avoid installing betas on to "mission-critical" or primary devices, due to the potential for data loss or other issues. Instead, the recommendation is to install betas onto secondary or non-essential devices and ensure sufficient backups of important data before making any major changes.
The latest RC arrives just three days after a second version was issued on Monday and six days following an initial RC build last week.
Developers can download the most recent Big Sur release from Apple's Developer Center or as an over-the-air update. A public beta versions is available for download from the Apple Beta Software Program website.
The macOS Big Sur update appears aimed mainly at introducing under-the-hood improvements and bug fixes. A significant change is the striking of a controversial "exclusion list" that allowed Apple apps and processes to bypass firewalls.
According to the release notes, the update includes fixes for the following issues:
- External displays may show a black screen when connected to a Mac mini (M1, 2020) using an HDMI to DVI converter
- Edits to Apple ProRAW photos in the Photos app may not save
- iCloud Drive could turn off after disabling the iCloud Drive Desktop & Documents Folders option
- System Preferences may not unlock when entering your administrator password
- Globe key may not display the Emoji & Symbols pane when pressed
As usual, both AppleInsider and Apple suggest users avoid installing betas on to "mission-critical" or primary devices, due to the potential for data loss or other issues. Instead, the recommendation is to install betas onto secondary or non-essential devices and ensure sufficient backups of important data before making any major changes.
Comments
Wouldn't you be more nervous if Apple released the first candidate only to find out later from the masses that a few bugs still needed to be ironed out? Then you would all be complaining about how the bugs were still present. Did you know that the RC of 11.1 was not the final release version? The released version of 11.1 had a later build number than the RC version. 'So many bugs'. How do you know? Typically the RC is pretty much done except for a few minor things that need final testing to determine if a few more changes are necessary.
Bluetooth works great for me, always has. Are you talking about the M1 Macs? If so, that is a very small percentage of hardware, and isolated to those specific models. So Bluetooth is not 'majorly screwed' in Big Sur. I never had any Bluetooth issues with the first public beta through 11.1. Other release notes, not mentioned here, include improvements to Bluetooth, so hopefully that resolves issues with the M1 Macs.
There are more bugs, you will find them. They are minor. The macOS setup ignores the preference when you decline iCloud Drive, requiring you to turn it off manually in System Preferences. If you change the default desktop background to an Album in your Photos Library, it will oddly revert back to the Big Sur desktop if you boot to an older version of macOS and then later boot back to 11.1. When you choose the option to Save as PDF in the print dialog box, the save box that appears cannot be resized from the lower right corner (and it defaults to the smallest size allowed, requiring you to make it larger to better view the columns for choosing a folder). In all open dialog boxes, folders appear greyed out as if you cannot select them, but you can.
With a major OS release, always better to do a clean install and restore your files from a backup (not from Time Machine). Especially since the Safari 14 update jacked up Catalina and Mojave.
Software organizations have a lot of latitude in naming conventions, e.g., some use RC1, RC2, ... RCn, but I tend to think that routinely having more than one RC tells you that the quality processes, at least in most cases, is generally working and is more transparent than not.
There is no reward in pulling the trigger on the official release, whatever you want to call it, without having a high confidence level that it is ready. It would be far worse if a software development organization was concerned about the "optics" of having multiple RCs. That's vanity, and vanity can kill you. Fortunately, as software development processes have matured over the years, there is a lot more focus on applying quantitative measures and metrics than gut feel and only doing happy path testing. The cost of failure at the customer's site is too high to play games around release naming or trying to hide your errors, mistakes, and imperfections.