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Big Sur First Impressions
As a long-time Apple fangirl, I was excited to finally get my hands on macOS Big Sur, especially given how much later it came out than this year’s iOS/iPadOS updates and, perhaps even more excitingly, represents their first software-side step towards an ARM future for the Mac.
I don’t have an ARM Mac, but rather an Intel 16” MacBook Pro — by far my favorite piece of electronics. After getting everything set up on it just how I wanted it, shaking up so much was a little anxiety-inducing. But totally worth it.
The upgrade, at least for me, was far less painless than Catalina, which introduced all sorts of compatibility issues. After about forty minutes, I was back up and running, and everything continued to work as expected. Much as Big Sur represents the beginning of the big wave of change towards ARMs, removing 32-bit support caused far more headaches than adding ARM support. For now, at least, nothing new is broken, which, for many folks, will surely be the most important factor when deciding to upgrade.
Over the past several years, it’s become blatantly obvious that Apple seeks to make the Mac experience more smartphone-like whenever it streamlines the experience. In many ways, Big Sur feels like the culmination of this undertaking — and not just because it is the first version to support ARM. Some of it is aesthetic: new iOS-esque standard for…
