Unlike macOS Catalina, which supported every standard configuration Mac that Mojave supported, Big Sur drops support for various Macs released in 20. To maintain backwards compatibility, macOS Big Sur identified itself as 10.16 to software and in the browser user agent.

macOS Big Sur started reporting the system version as '11.0' on all Macs as of the third beta release. An exception to this was the Developer Transition Kit, which always reported the system version as '11.0'.

Providing some indication as to how the pre-release operating system may have been viewed internally at Apple during its development cycle, documentation accompanying the initial beta release of macOS Big Sur referred to its version as '10.16', and when upgrading from prior versions of macOS using the Software Update mechanism to early beta releases, the version referred to was '10.16'. The operating system is named after the coastal region of Big Sur in the Central Coast of California, continuing the naming trend of California locations that began with OS X Mavericks. To mark the transition, the operating system's major version number was incremented, for the first time since 2001, from 10 to 11. It is also the first macOS version to support Macs with ARM-based processors. Most notably, macOS Big Sur features a user interface redesign that features new blurs to establish a visual hierarchy and also includes a revamp of the Time Machine backup mechanism, among other changes. īig Sur is the successor to macOS Catalina, and was succeeded by macOS Monterey, which was released on October 25, 2021. It was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 22, 2020, and was released to the public on November 12, 2020. Remember, you'll need to pay $100 (about £69, AU$140) to enroll.MacOS Big Sur (version 11) is the seventeenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s operating system for Macintosh computers.

Click the 'Start Your Enrollment' to begin and then follow the instructions. You'll need an Apple ID, and provide your basic personal information. If you’re not currently enrolled, then go to the Apple Developer Program enrollment webpage (opens in new tab), which will show you everything you need to sign up. To do that, you need to be enrolled in the Apple Developer Program. Once you've downloaded macOS 11 Big Sur, you might want to play with the more cutting edge developments in the OS that aren't available to the public yet. How to enroll in the Apple Developer Program For information on how to do this, head over to our ultimate guide to backing up your Mac. Whenever you upgrade your operating system we highly recommend backing up the files on your Mac, so if anything goes wrong you can quickly restore your machine to its previous working order.īefore you download and install macOS 11 Big Sur, make sure your Mac is backed up. (Image credit: Apple) Back up your Mac before upgrading to macOS 11 Big Sur

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