Updating to masOS Big Sur

[timkins]

Is it really necessary to update to the new Big Sur operating system? I never have any luck updating and it seems always run into a problem that needs to be addressed by the local Mac dealer. I have held off upgrading til now hoping that if I need to update it will be problemLESS.

 

[IWT]

Hi and welcome. The one thing you don't mention in the info under your Avatar is what your current Operating System (OS) is.

That makes a big difference to the advice we give. For example, if it was macOS Mojave, I'd probably say no rush to upgrade. I'd also point out that 32 bit apps will no longer work with macOS 11 Big Sur (BS). I'd also warn you that because your Mac's Hard Drive is a spinner at only 5400rpm rather than a SSD, Big Sur will be slower as it is optimised to run on a SSD - and your Mac's HD will have been formatted APFS.

Related to that: if you are running macOS High Sierra or earlier, your HD will be formatted Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) because it's a 5400rpm spinner.

On the other hand, if your OS is macOS Catalina, then you've lost the 32 bit apps anyway and your HD would be APFS despite being a spinner.

All that - just say what OS do you currently run, how old is the Mac?

Ian

 

[timkins]

Hi and welcome. The one thing you don't mention in the info under your Avatar is what your current Operating System (OS) is.

That makes a big difference to the advice we give. For example, if it was macOS Mojave, I'd probably say no rush to upgrade. I'd also point out that 32 bit apps will no longer work with macOS 11 Big Sur (BS). I'd also warn you that because your Mac's Hard Drive is a spinner at only 5400rpm rather than a SSD, Big Sur will be slower as it is optimised to run on a SSD - and your Mac's HD will have been formatted APFS.

Related to that: if you are running macOS High Sierra or earlier, your HD will be formatted Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) because it's a 5400rpm spinner.

On the other hand, if your OS is macOS Catalina, then you've lost the 32 bit apps anyway and your HD would be APFS despite being a spinner.

All that - just say what OS do you currently run, how old is the Mac?

Ian

Sorry, just not thinking. I have a 2015 mac with 3.1 GHZ w/8gb ram and I am running macOS Catalina 10.15.7.

 

[IWT]

Right. That makes life much easier! Thank you

Running macOS Catalina, means your Mac's HD is formatted APFS, 32 bits apps are gone and the 5400rpm spinner means it is already running slower than if you had a SSD. In that sense, an upgrade to macOS 11 Big Sur (BS) would be no slower; some have said BS is "snappier", but that's subjective.

The direct answer to your specific question is: if you are happy with macOS Catalina, and there are no problems - and you find upgrades, "challenging" shall we say, there is absolutely no need to upgrade yet.

Apple will support Catalina for at least another 2 years with critical updates and security fixes.

HTH

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

I have held off upgrading til now hoping that if I need to update it will be problemLESS.

Will never happen. Any update/upgrade will have some problem, although in a lot of cases the problems are trivial and easily fixed or adjusted. But problemLESS implies that the new software is perfect, which is a pipe dream. If you wait for a problemLESS update, you'll never get there.

 

[harryb2448]

And a spinner will hae problems with any operating system designed for use with solid state drives (SSD). Consider also your hard drive is a slow 5400rpm laptop which will always be slow on Catalina and Big Sur.

Using APFS On HDDs ... And Why You Might Not Want To

After 16 months of using and testing APFS—Apple's new file system—I’ve come to the conclusion that you probably don’t want to use it on HDDs (disks with rotating platters).

eshop.macsales.com