
It's also the first MacOS that optimized to take full advantage of the M1 chip that's integrated directly into Apple's latest MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini. But macOS Big Sur supported those Intel Macs going back quite a long way – all the way back until 2013 in some cases.The iPhone 12 Mini Is As Terrific As It Is Tiny macOS Big Sur supported both Apple Silicon Macs and legacy Intel Macs (which Apple still sold at the time). And get even more transparency around your privacy.” Mac App Store – Apple Discover new features for Maps and Messages. Experience Mac to the fullest with a refined new design. “macOS Big Sur elevates the world’s most advanced desktop operating system to a new level of power and beauty. It also introduced Control Center to the Mac, completely revamped the macOS Messages app, and sported a revamp of the macOS Maps app. “macOS Big Sur also gets Notification Center improvements including a redesigned look, grouped notifications, customizable widgets, and interactive notifications.”īut the UI refresh isn’t the only reason macOS Big Sur was a significant update. There’s an updated, more translucent menu bar, new iOS-inspired icons for apps, a floating dock for those app icons to sit in, and translucent window designs all around. The changes are almost too numerous to mention, but we’ll give it a go. “The biggest change to macOS Big Sur is that it’s getting a revamped user interface. That’s because macOS Big Sur got a major UI overhaul. MacOS Big Sur was one of the more notable macOS releases of recent years. But with the launch of macOS Big Sur, Apple unveiled a new numbering scheme. Before macOS Big Sur came macOS Catalina, which still used the OS X number scheme. Second, macOS Big Sur was the first macOS to ditch the 10.x number scheme.

First, macOS Big Sur was the first macOS that was built to run on both Intel-based Macs and Apple Silicon Macs. But stepping back in time to the Mac OS X era, which the macOS era is a continuation of, macOS Big Sur counts as the 16th major iteration of OS X.īut macOS Big Sur is notable for a few more reasons. In the macOS era of the Mac operating system, macOS Big Sur was the fifth major version of macOS. It is the operating system released in 2020 that powered all modern Macs at the time. Wondering what is macOS Big Sur? We’ll explain everything in this post as well as why Big Sur is still popular with Mac users years after its release.

MacOS Big Sur is no longer the latest version of macOS, but plenty of Mac users still use it.
