Have you been anxiously awaiting my approval to upgrade to macOS Big Sur? Get some insight to ensure you and your Mac are ready for a whole new world.

Okay, maybe not entirely new, but there are some revolutionary changes in this version of macOS. Be prepared so your eyes and hands aren’t visually and muscularly confused.

A Little History

Apple announced macOS Big Sur at WWDC in June and, in more ways than one, it was set to be a big release. Among other things, the software arrived shortly before the launch of the first publicly available Macs with CPUs of Apple’s own design.

What once was Mac OS X beginning with 10.0 (Cheetah) in 2001, and later became OS X with 10.8 Mountain Lion in 2012, eventually dropped the X and became macOS with 10.12 Sierra in 2016.

I was long a wishful proponent of Mac OS X taking on a version numbering scheme starting with 1.0, but Apple was a stickler for the long game, treating it simply as the next in the series that began with System 1.0 in 1984.

Apparently, gone are the days of the number after the first dot representing the major new version. Big Sur sets the stage to join most other software in the world—the first number being the main version—with macOS 11.0 arriving this past fall. I expect to see the release of 11.2 this week, which is why I’m writing about it today.

Big Surprises

macOS Big Sur brings a number of changes to the look and feel of the Mac. Items in the menu bar have more padding, which results in fewer items fitting comfortably there. If you run a lot of apps that live as status menus, you’ll want to consider using Bartender for twice the real estate. If you already use Bartender, you’ll need to upgrade to version 4.

Dialog boxes are bigger overall, featuring larger buttons and no title bar. Messages supports pinning conversations. Control Center comes to the Mac. And Mail includes some functional changes including the location of filter controls, the return of proper column headers when using that view, and the addition of mailbox favorites to the sidebar.

Speaking of the sidebar, it’s a full-height experience in all applications that have one. For better, there’s perhaps less visual confusion between the toolbar and the sidebar. For worse, it means there’s less room for your favorite actions on the toolbar.

And that’s just a taste… Lots of stock apps have been updated, there’s more feature parity between macOS and iOS, and so much more.

Eyes on the Prize?

So, should you upgrade? If you’re running macOS Catalina and your Mac supports Big Sur, I’ll say this: Catalina is a fine OS and I’ve been quite satisfied with it over the past year. I generally love software updates that make marked improvements and fix bugs compared to older versions, but there’s no need to rush. Either way you go is fine by me.

If you’d like to upgrade, I recommend scheduling a session with me to review the third-party applications you rely on and ensure they are compatible. Some are, some aren’t, and some developers have delivered paid upgrades to compatible versions. I can help you decide.

As always, before upgrading it’s also important to run a backup to a locally connected storage drive. You can use Time Machine, SuperDuper!, Carbon Copy Cloner, or your other preferred utility.

Note, too, that SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner do not yet support making bootable clones in Big Sur. If you rely on using these apps to backup your Mac, their developers will suggest you switch to Time Machine for the time being.

I suspect Big Sur is set to be a great operating system—on my Macs. I probably won’t upgrade for another week or two, though, while I’m busy with some other big projects. I look forward to giving it the attention it deserves.

In the meantime, I’ll continue my due diligence to be sure my applications are ready to make the leap. Will you?