When do you think Mac OS Big Sur will be released?

[iStorm]

I'm hoping for a GM or public release soon too, but I suppose I can wait another week or two after waiting this long already.

Does anyone know if the Intel Macs and Apple Silicon Macs (or the DTK) use the same installer? Or is there one compiled specifically for Intel (x86-64), and another one compiled specifically for Apple Silicon (ARM)? If it's the latter, I'm not entirely sold on the idea that they need to hold back the GM or public release (for Intel) so they don't give away any secrets about the Apple Silicon Macs. They would likely be compiled from slightly different code sets for each architecture. For example, Rosetta 2 isn't in the Intel version; Boot Camp isn't in the Apple Silicon version. Assuming the installers are separate/different, they could keep the information about the Macs separate as well due to the architecture difference. (Why would macOS on Intel/x86-64 care about the details about Apple Silicon/ARM Macs, and vice versa.) Is there anything in our current Big Sur betas that give away information about the DTK? Or if Apple had not told us about Apple Silicon, would we have been able to figure it out with the betas?

 

[honestone33]

Excellent question, iStorm. In fact, I did not even think of that.

 

[lxmeta]

I'm hoping for a GM or public release soon too, but I suppose I can wait another week or two after waiting this long already.

Does anyone know if the Intel Macs and Apple Silicon Macs (or the DTK) use the same installer? <snip>

I am quite sure they will be separate images with separate installers. Non of the Big Sur betas for Intel had any ARM binary code in there as much as I could see. Why would the blow up the downloads with a "dual binary" image, considering they don't ship CDs any more, but are doing all online.
Wondering if the createinstallmedia command will work from an Intel mac for an ARM one and vice versa ...
Will we be able to download the image for the other architecture?

 

[bige12]

a maybe the final installer could have both instead of having too differentiations installers,

 

[eyvind]

Does not seem that simpler, at least to me. With that scheme, there could be a 110 fixes within Big Sur! That of course assumes that in the 11.x.y scheme, x is between 0 and 9, as is y.

It's an industry standard. https://semver.org/

 

[chrfr]

Does not seem that simpler, at least to me. With that scheme, there could be a 110 fixes within Big Sur! That of course assumes that in the 11.x.y scheme, x is between 0 and 9, as is y.

Software versioning has no requirement to be limited to 0-9. This is why we had macOS 10.15 or 10.4.11, for instance.

 

[ghboard2010]

That would seem to make sense. Hopefully, given that Apple released a beta version designated as V11.0.1, it will not cause confusion.

And, EVERY initial release began at the .0 iteration eg. 10.0.0, 10.1.0, 10.2.0, 10.3.0, etc. So yeah, 11.0.0 certainly.

 

[honestone33]

Software versioning has no requirement to be limited to 0-9. This is why we had macOS 10.15 or 10.4.11, for instance.

Oops! Forgot about them. Note, though, that the second digit ALWAYS remained the same. Hopefully, when Apple releases the mac OS (and subsequent versions), they are mostly rock solid, and thus would not need many "patches", ie, the last digit ("Z") in the OS X.Y.Z scheme

 

[honestone33]

And, EVERY initial release began at the .0 iteration eg. 10.0.0, 10.1.0, 10.2.0, 10.3.0, etc. So yeah, 11.0.0 certainly.

Yes, that is what I would expect.

 

[SmOgER]

Honestly with the latest release being so stable (at least from what I'm experiencing) I don't see much of a hurry other than potentially speeding up the process of making others to update apps which not fully support it yet.

 

[honestone33]

Honestly with the latest release being so stable (at least from what I'm experiencing) I don't see much of a hurry other than potentially speeding up the process of making others to update apps which not fully support it yet.

I totally agree, although the developers of third party applications needing to update them can take some time, as the first couple of versions of Big Sur will surely contain bugs.

I want the third party applications I use to be stable and just about bug free when they are released for Big Sur compatibility. Hence, those developers need to take their time.

One thing I wonder about is that such software could need 2 versions: one for the current Intel processor Macs, and one for the upcoming Apple processor Macs. That will also be a challenge.

 

[iOS Geek]

I can't update at the moment since I'm on my lunch and it won't be done in time, but I just got a Catalina 10.15.7 Supplemental Update. With that coming in on a Thursday and the event scheduled for Tuesday, I wonder what this means for Big Sur. I was originally leaning towards Big Sur coming next week as a GM with the public the week after. Thinking I might push my guess for public back another week.

EDIT: Ok, maybe not! I just saw a MacRumors post about the Big Sur 11.0.1 R.C. being released to developers.

 

[honestone33]

I can't update at the moment since I'm on my lunch and it won't be done in time, but I just got a Catalina 10.15.7 Supplemental Update. With that coming in on a Thursday and the event scheduled for Tuesday, I wonder what this means for Big Sur. I was originally leaning towards Big Sur coming next week as a GM with the public the week after. Thinking I might push my guess for public back another week.

EDIT: Ok, maybe not! I just saw a MacRumors post about the Big Sur 11.0.1 R.C. being released to developers.

Not seeing that supplemental update (just did a google search).

 

[honestone33]

A number =/= the majority of Mac users. More like a minority, I reckon. I tried finding some statistics of how many users there are, but gave up after a few minutes, but if you have some stats, feel free to share. Out of over 100 million Mac users, I would be surprised if there were more than 10% that used those 2 apps.

Well, the poll I started a few days ago definitely shows you are wrong. With 46 ballots already cast, it's definitely close to 50% for Time Machine, and 50% for SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner combined:

orums.macrumors.com/threads/which-backup-software-do-you-use.2265352/page-2?post=29168028#post-29168028

 

[iOS Geek]

Not seeing that supplemental update (just did a google search).

Weird!

 

[honestone33]

Weird!

View attachment 1125807

OK, now I see it! But rather download the update myself, and then install it.

 

[lxmeta]

I can't update at the moment since I'm on my lunch and it won't be done in time, but I just got a Catalina 10.15.7 Supplemental Update. With that coming in on a Thursday and the event scheduled for Tuesday, I wonder what this means for Big Sur. I was originally leaning towards Big Sur coming next week as a GM with the public the week after. Thinking I might push my guess for public back another week.

EDIT: Ok, maybe not! I just saw a MacRumors post about the Big Sur 11.0.1 R.C. being released to developers.

Looks like 11.0.1 is the release branch now. Guess predictions that 11 will be released and 11.0.x is another beta tree might have been wrong.
My guess is that the 0.1 branch was stable enough to be fast tracked for the release, and may have fixed something 11 did not have...

 

[Ansath]

Well, the poll I started a few days ago definitely shows you are wrong. With 46 ballots already cast, it's definitely close to 50% for Time Machine, and 50% for SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner combined:

orums.macrumors.com/threads/which-backup-software-do-you-use.2265352/page-2?post=29168028#post-29168028

Because the Macrumors forum is so representative of the entire Mac user base! 😆☺️ That poll is meaningless.

The users of this forum represents as small part of the Mac user base. Most are not as even remotely tech minded, so would be clueless about backing a Mac up.

 

[Ansath]

Looks like 11.0.1 is the release branch now. Guess predictions that 11 will be released and 11.0.x is another beta tree might have been wrong.
My guess is that the 0.1 branch was stable enough to be fast tracked for the release, and may have fixed something 11 did not have...

That’s very interesting! Wonder what’s going on there, that they bailed on 11.0.0?!

Unless they decide to release 11.0 publicly this week with the 11.0.1 next week? Honestly, Apple have been very different with their iOS and MacOS releases, compared to any previous releases.

I’m pleasantly pleased that we got 11.0.1 sooner than expected either way.

 

[blindpcguy]

honestly, i wouldn't be surprised if a gm comes out by Friday and a public release is a next week or the day the apple silicon macs launch. Iv thought for a while that big sur and apple silicon would drop the same day. Apple did say in the WWDC keynote that big sur marked the transition so they seem to go hand in hand.

 

[mcapanelli]

honestly, i wouldn't be surprised if a gm comes out by Friday and a public release is a next week or the day the apple silicon macs launch. Iv thought for a while that big sur and apple silicon would drop the same day. Apple did say in the WWDC keynote that big sur marked the transition so they seem to go hand in hand.

Apple doesn't use "GM" anymore, it's RC (release candidate), so the current RC build is a GM.

 

[Ansath]

honestly, i wouldn't be surprised if a gm comes out by Friday and a public release is a next week or the day the apple silicon macs launch. Iv thought for a while that big sur and apple silicon would drop the same day. Apple did say in the WWDC keynote that big sur marked the transition so they seem to go hand in hand.

We have an RC for 11.0.1, which is what Apple is using instead of GM.

I’m doubting we will get an 11.0 GM, may not even get a public release 11.0. I think if we are getting an 11.0, it’s straight up public release next week.

 

[blindpcguy]

well its definatly going to b interesting im going to upgrade my 2017 Imac to the RC tonight and give it a spin

 

[lxmeta]

We have an RC for 11.0.1, which is what Apple is using instead of GM.

I’m doubting we will get an 11.0 GM, may not even get a public release 11.0. I think if we are getting an 11.0, it’s straight up public release next week.

Yes, looks pretty final to me. My previous performance issues are gone.

 

[Ansath]

Am toying with updating my 2014 Mac mini to Big Sur.... 😯