Delay updating to Big Sur

macOS Big Sur will be released to the public tomorrow. As I did with iOS 14 this year, I’ll be waiting for at least two releases before I update.

Josh Centers for TidBITS:

We recommend delaying upgrades for your production Macs. We’ve heard similar stories from many beta testers and TidBITS readers: Big Sur is not finished cooking. We’ve heard about crashes, Wi-Fi problems, Bluetooth issues, display glitches, user interface quirks, and other oddities. Apple shouldn’t be criticized for any of that—these were betas, after all—but just because Apple has decided that Big Sur is solid enough for prime time doesn’t mean that it’s fully polished.

Here are a few things to keep your eye on when considering updating a Mac that you use every day for work:

  • Have there been any reported known issues that would affect your use of your Mac?
  • Have the apps you use most been updated to work on the release yet?
  • Have the apps you only sometimes use, but are very important to you, been so much as tested on the new release? (An example of this, for me, is my film scanning software or my own scripts that I use to manage my photo library.)
  • Is there any compelling or vital need to update to the release yet?

For me, Big Sur isn’t giving me anything that I need. Yes, I want the new design (I think?) but that won’t change how I use my Mac. What I do not want to sacrifice is my productivity! So the longer I wait the less of a chance that I’ll take a big productivity hit.

With iOS 14 this year I’ve hit zero snags by waiting until 14.2 came out to update. And it only took about a month. With Big Sur the release cycle is generally a bit longer. So I don’t expect to update until mid-Winter. But we’ll see.