Apple - WTF with Big Sur Versions?????

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Apple, what the flim-flam is happening????

I got used to weekly beta version updates. All was good.

Then, this week, you bring out Big Sur 11.3, Build 20E232 (no letter at the end says this is a Final Build), and no Beta in the name.
This was not unexpected, at some time you had to bring out a Final Build.

Now, you bring out Big Sur 11.4 Beta 1, Build 20F5046a (note letter at the end and Beta in the name).
11.3 Final doesn't even make it to Production. That still only has 11.2.3

Bringing out so many new versions, so quickly, implies a problem with Project Management in the Big Sur team(s).

Perhaps it was a mistake having the same versions of Big Sur for both the Intel and M1 architecture.

Anyway, now downloading BS 11.4 Beta 1. Will see how it goes.

 

[k-hawinkler]

Please let us know. Thanks.

 

[chrfr]

Apple, what the flim-flam is happening????

I got used to weekly beta version updates. All was good.

Then, this week, you bring out Big Sur 11.3, Build 20E232 (no letter at the end says this is a Final Build), and no Beta in the name.
This was not unexpected, at some time you had to bring out a Final Build.

Now, you bring out Big Sur 11.4 Beta 1, Build 20F5046a (note letter at the end and Beta in the name).
11.3 Final doesn't even make it to Production. That still only has 11.2.3

Bringing out so many new versions, so quickly, implies a problem with Project Management in the Big Sur team(s).

Perhaps it was a mistake having the same versions of Big Sur for both the Intel and M1 architecture.

Anyway, now downloading BS 11.4 Beta 1. Will see how it goes.

This isn’t a new pattern. 11.3 is releasing next week, and in the past we’ve seen Apple release new betas after the release candidate was released, but before the release was generally available. (The same thing has happened with iOS 14.5 and iOS 14.6.)

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Ok, I the update from 11.3 to 11.4.1 failed. I don't know why, after doing the update it just came back as 11.3 and still wanting to do the update.
So, I downloaded the complete installer file, re-formatted my drive (it's a play drive for testing) and did a full, clean install of 11.4.1. It worked. No smoke or steam coming out of the computer. And everything looked the same as before. None of the bugs I had reported to Apple via Feedback Assistant had yet been fixed.

 

[CMMChris]

Release naming indeed is a mess right now. It's strange Apple sometimes labeling Release Candidates as RC (the did with 11.2) and sometimes not (like now with 11.3).
The early release of the 11.4 Beta 1 probably was due to the high demand for RDNA2 drivers.

 

[rpmurray]

The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

 

[fisherking]

apple has done this before, jumped right back into the beta cycle after a 'final' point release. but what's the problem? you don't have to update, or update the second there's a new beta... (i do, but that's my problem 😂).

it's a software update, and not life & death (but, fwiw, the 11.4 beta is, so far, fine on both my macs)..

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

In Australia we have a beast called the Brushtail Possum (no relation, other than both being marsupials, to the American Opossum). Its brain doesn't have a Corpus Callosum. This is the large band of nerves connecting the right side of the brain to the left side. Its left hand truly doesn't know what its right hand is doing.

Perhaps Apple's project management is run by Brushtail possums...

BTW, watch out for those claws. I still have the scars.