Feeling good right now. Just fired up the Big Sur 11.6.5 update and my 2020 i5 Macbook Air is purring smoothly like a kitten. There are bugs with Monterey (even through the 12.3 beta 5 release) that have prevented me from being able to use a specific non-English keyboard input with special characters that is essential to me. Thus, Monterey hasn't been an option (same issue on other computers too).
On the other hand while it worked, Big Sur had been buggy as hell. Running 11.6.4, I had kernel panics almost every time I closed my lid to put my laptop into sleep mode due to the graphics driver. Also, I had numerous issues in Safari with sites like Netflix not playing and Amazon being wacky etc (that were fine in Chrome). I am happy to say all these issues in the latest 11.6.5 release seem to be fixed. This is still running Safari 15.3 by the way.
In short, if you have had issues with Monterey and Big Sur in the past like me, hopefully it seems like at least some of our prayers have been answered in good old 11.6.5. Personally, I'm fine with waiting on Monterey's latest features. I just need a machine with a smooth functional operating system. Will update if I have any issues arise.
On the other hand while it worked, Big Sur had been buggy as hell. Running 11.6.4, I had kernel panics almost every time I closed my lid to put my laptop into sleep mode due to the graphics driver. Also, I had numerous issues in Safari with sites like Netflix not playing and Amazon being wacky etc (that were fine in Chrome). I am happy to say all these issues in the latest 11.6.5 release seem to be fixed. This is still running Safari 15.3 by the way.
In short, if you have had issues with Monterey and Big Sur in the past like me, hopefully it seems like at least some of our prayers have been answered in good old 11.6.5. Personally, I'm fine with waiting on Monterey's latest features. I just need a machine with a smooth functional operating system. Will update if I have any issues arise.
