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Apple really ought to “take a breather” with macOS releases. It seems like they are struggling more and more to maintain the ~12 month release cycle and each new release seems more and more rushed.

Maybe not do a major release in 2021, and instead focus on stability, performance, and bug fixes. Hold the next major version for early 2022 instead?
 
Last but not least... HUGE privacy concerns are popping up!
Apparently trustd and other Apple services and apps will now BYPASS firewall tools like little snitch and even VPNs. This is outrageous and I can confirm it. I had updated to little snitch 5 and it no longer can block any OS services from calling home. However, these Apple servers are constantly connected as indicated by my network firewall. I've now blocked them outside the machine.

outrageous! This sound just like Microsoft's Windows 10 activity to me and should be boycotted by all of us users accordingly!!!

Yeah, one of the main reasons I use Apple products is for privacy. If I no longer have that on Apple, then it’s the same as every other company. This is honestly shockingly stupid.

WTF Apple?! They have clearly lost the plot here.
 
I always laugh when I read this. How many 10 updates are fatal? Answer: a lot. Just read the register on patch tuesday. Solid as sand.
How many millions of combinations of THIRD PARTY hardware does Windows have to work with? To have some issues when major updates are released is to be expected (common sense?). But Apple? They only have their own hardware to deal with and they still can't get it right.
 
Not sure what is the problem here, I am running mojave in a 2014 MBP. I can run 32 bit stuff, and I have the dashboard floating over the desktop as a transparent layer;

DO NOT UPDATE IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHATEVER NEW VERSION, THAT'S WHAT I DID. APPLE SUCKS MORE AND MORE AND MORE EACH YEAR. THINKING SWITCHING BACK TO LINUX.
 
Hi everyone,

i want to share my story on that. I have a MBP Retina 13 Late 2013 and had every beta on it. When I updated my Macbook to the latest beta 2 weeks ago my Macbook screen stayed black (background lighting was on). I tried the usual stuff as stated in the article and nothing worked.
I opened the Macbook Pro to check if everything was ok and while it had a water accident a year ago it worked fine until the update so I was suspicous. As a last guess i had the random idea to unplug the IO-board (the one with Wifi/HDMI/USB/SDCard Reader) on and there you go the Macbook worked again. (Well without Wifi and Clock reseted to 2013 macos went crazy). I bought a new IO-Board on Ebay and after installing it everything works fine.

So for me it seems that something during the update may brick the IO-board. So my tip to for everyone who had this problem. Unplug the connector cable to the IO-board and check if your Macbook starting up macos again.
 
Apple really ought to “take a breather” with macOS releases. It seems like they are struggling more and more to maintain the ~12 month release cycle and each new release seems more and more rushed.

Maybe not do a major release in 2021, and instead focus on stability, performance, and bug fixes. Hold the next major version for early 2022 instead?
For those of you with Apple long enough to recall, that's sort of how they did things with Leopard. Best MAC OS X update ever !
 
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Apple seem to be getting worse at this, but let's not spread misinformation: Windows is NOT getting solid at all, quite the opposite... a LOT of Windows 10 update issues have occured after every release (one such link:
This really isn't pertinent at all. MS is releasing software supporting 1000's of configurations mixed matched and different OEM's. Apple only has to support under 20 configurations and cant get it right so the only misinformation is you saying windows isnt solid at all because it is. I run it, 100's of people on this forum run it, Major Companies run it, governments run it and it is stable. Any update will possibly go wrong, thats just the way it is.
 
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I always hold off on installing major OS X updates, aside from being wary many of the developers of software I use have sent out messages that their products are not yet ready for Big Sur.

Also, kinda waiting to see what happens with the 16” MBP with regard to the new chips.

And FWIW, I ran in the Big Sur Marathon a few years back and the experience, while the scenery was gorgeous the course itself absolutely sucked...
Usually I just naively update to the new OS. But I was warned off installing Big Sur by my Carbon Copy Cloner app as a bootable backup would not be possible. Mike Bombich advised to wait for a few updates before installing. (A bootable backup appears to be possible now with CCC's new beta, and Bombich also suggests workarounds for restoring data without having a backup that's bootable or one can install Big Sur onto the backup drive.) From the CCC site:
If Apple ships macOS Big Sur without fixing the underlying utilities that facilitate creating a bootable backup, you can choose to defer the upgrade. There is no urgency, no impetus to upgrade to macOS Big Sur. If we defer the upgrade choice, that sends a clear message that we're willing to wait for Apple to deliver quality software, rather than hitting an artificial deadline with an OS that's not ready.

In the meantime, if you're an early adopter by choice or by profession, you can still make your CCC backups bootable. CCC will automatically handle the logistics of making a complete backup of all of your data, applications and system settings. Once you have that, simply install Big Sur onto your backup to make it bootable. Again, we're planning to automate that part of the procedure in the future, but we've tested this scenario extensively and we're prepared to support it. https://bombich.com/blog/2020/11/03/yes-you-can-have-bootable-backups-on-macos-big-sur
Bombich's advice in his blog (interesting reading):
But we can also send a clear message to Apple with our choices. If Apple ships macOS Big Sur without fixing the underlying utilities that facilitate creating a bootable backup, you can choose to defer the upgrade. There is no urgency, no impetus to upgrade to macOS Big Sur. If we defer the upgrade choice, that sends a clear message that we're willing to wait for Apple to deliver quality software, rather than hitting an artificial deadline with an OS that's not ready.

In the meantime, if you're an early adopter by choice or by profession, you can still make your CCC backups bootable. CCC will automatically handle the logistics of making a complete backup of all of your data, applications and system settings. Once you have that, simply install Big Sur onto your backup to make it bootable. Again, we're planning to automate that part of the procedure in the future, but we've tested this scenario extensively and we're prepared to support it. https://bombich.com/blog/2020/11/03/yes-you-can-have-bootable-backups-on-macos-big-sur
 
I guess Steve Bombitch is right:
Please note that this does not change our advice on waiting for the upgrade, we think it's best practice to wait for some OS updates to come along before applying a major OS upgrade to a production Mac.

and

But we can also send a clear message to Apple with our choices. If Apple ships macOS Big Sur without fixing the underlying utilities that facilitate creating a bootable backup, you can choose to defer the upgrade. There is no urgency, no impetus to upgrade to macOS Big Sur. If we defer the upgrade choice, that sends a clear message that we're willing to wait for Apple to deliver quality software, rather than hitting an artificial deadline with an OS that's not ready.
 
How so when GPU alone is $650?
yes, it is 650$ GPU = 20 teraflops

still 849$ for the rest of the hardware

Apple M1 GPU offers 2.6 reraflops, 17.4 teraflops difference

to do not speak about 380$ Gen i7 you could get as soon as they release

Intel Gen11 i7 8 cores when they release between January-March

but you can go for cheaper options like

6800 non GT, i5 Gen11,... that would still be more powerful than M1 and also cheaper (if that is what you are worried about)

a PC like that should last you 7 years providing best you can get during those years, hardly you would need more

if you buy one of those M1 macbook pro it is already obsolete ("Pro" line speaking)

** after that wrote, anyone telling M1 is more powerful or has same power force as stated configuration doesn't know anything about hardware (without aim to offend anyone)

you cannot use new ARM Macs as "Pro" machines

if you want to use it as mid-end computer then I guess is fine

but at the end you would be paying muuuch more (quality/price) than if you build a custom desktop PC with this money
 
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Interesting how Apple put out the Public Beta months ago and this is discovered just now? You mean nobody with a 2013/2014 MBP ever had a bricking issue all the time during the public beta? Hmmm. Sometimes I get the feeling that these issues are made up in order to crap on Apple when they release new products. Furthermore while I'm not saying bricking should happen I think it's a stretch trying to install the latest OS on near 7 and 8 year old computers and expect to have no issues.
chrw0815 wrote on https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252034110?answerId=253883714022#253883714022
"Hi everyone,
i want to share my story on that. I have a MBP Retina 13 Late 2013 and had every Big Sur beta on it. When I updated my Macbook to the latest beta 2 weeks ago my Macbook screen stayed black (background lighting was on). I tried the usual stuff like NVRAM/PRAM/SMC reset and nothing worked.

I opened the Macbook Pro to check if everything was ok and while it had a water accident a year ago it worked fine until the update so I was suspicous. As a last guess i had the random idea to unplug the IO-board (the one with Wifi/HDMI/USB/SDCard Reader) on and there you go the Macbook worked again. (Well without Wifi and the clock was set back to 2013 and macos went crazy). With that knowledge i bought a spare IO-board in the usual places and after installing it everything works fine.

So for me it seems that something during the update may brick the IO-board.
My tip to for everyone who had this problem. Unplug the connector cable to the IO-board and check if your Macbook starting up macos again. Of course only do that if you are experienced in repairing stuff, otherwise go to your genius bar."
 
I don't see many reports here yet, so I wonder how wide spread it is.

just for your information:
I did update an MacBook Air 2015 model without problems.
I am one hit by the issue and I counted a significant number of people >30 this morning.
I guess the number is much higher looking at the I have the same issue counts on the 5 threads on the Apple community
the highest counter is currently a 67 and rising.
 
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Will someone confirm that the laptops are truly bricked? Meaning the firmeare is corrupted and halting the CPU. Can you still put the laptop into Target Disk Mode?
 
if you buy one of those M1 macbook pro it is already obsolete ("Pro" line speaking)

** after that wrote, anyone telling M1 is more powerful or has same power force as stated configuration doesn't know anything about hardware (without aim to offend anyone)

you cannot use new ARM Macs as "Pro" machines

if you want to use it as mid-end computer then I guess is fine

but at the end you would be paying muuuch more (quality/price) than if you build a custom desktop PC with this money

There are plenty of Pro workflows that don't need a strong GPU. For me as a developer the M1 would be absolutely fine, but I need more RAM with it.
 
In the thread about the release date, I got downvoted for suggesting I might wait for a point release before upgrading. I feel vindicated.
 
Thankful I decided to skip Big Mess. I don’t know why so many claimed it was so good during development. I loathe the UI and no matter how I adjusted the brightness and contrast it was washed out and difficult to navigate. The iOS/iPadOS design elements don’t work for a desktop system. After 20+ years using OS X, Catalina and Big Sur are the first OS releases I’ve skipped.

There are so many acknowledged yet open bugs Apple engineers haven’t addressed. The launch just confirmed what most of us knew: macOS 11 is a hot mess. Not well timed with the transition to Apple Silicon. Then OS X head engineer Bertrand Serlet released solid OS’s during the Intel transition - 10.4-10.6. Apple juggled a lot back then but took their time and did it right. Now it’s fragmented again with too many products and versions of products without the direction and quality Steve Jobs and Jony Ive brought to the company.

I miss the days when OS X releases were 2-3 years apart with proper debugging. I’d rather spend $129 for a proper release than a free annual update that is a shadow of former releases.
 
Not to minimize this but people that "rely on these machines for their livelihoods more than ever" generally don't update a major OS update the second it's released. Or, they sure shouldn't – would you not agree?

As a musician using a laptop rig to do gigs (late-2013 MBP), I very much rely on my machine to earn an income (although that's not happening right now of course). I usually stick with an OS that gives me the most stable-running rig for my gigs, usually for a long time. I went from 10.9 to 10.11 to 10.14 and will stay here a while as I have 32-bit code hanging around in some of my music apps. When I update, I do a fresh install on a separate partition or external disk, load up the software I need to make my meager living, and run it for a while like that to make sure everything is hunky-dory. If everything checks out, then I update my internal SSD.

There is also the idea of cloning your startup partition to an external before you do an update. It's unclear if the bricking described in this article makes it impossible to option-start the affected machine from a clone though.
I do agree, as I tried to make clear in my previous posts, that people who rely on their Macs for their livelihood, as a general rule, shouldn't upgrade their OS on day one.
(FYI I'm also still on 10.14 on my MBP because I need/want continued access to 32 bit apps.)

My points were that:
1. While (most) power users understand the "don't upgrade a machine you depend on with a day one major OS upgrade unless you can afford to deal with some problems" a lot of less tech savvy people, who are more likely to be influenced by Apple's marketing and or macOS's system level nagging, don't, and will just upgrade without fully understanding the risks.
2. These kinds of users are precisely the people who are most likely to be new to working from home and not used to managing their own machine without an IT department looking over their shoulder / restricting their ability to inflict self harm.
3. Bugs may be "normal," on day one but bricking Macs such that even power users may struggle to / cannot repair them without bringing them in to an Apple store is unacceptable and outside the range of "launch day bugs."
4. The above is particularly egregious coming in the middle of a worsening pandemic where we really don't need a bunch of panicked users crowding into an Apple Store to have their machine fixed.

In the end, I also can't help but feel that the whole "blame the victim" mentality at work here and elsewhere whenever a new OS (or software version) has a problem or breaks something speaks to a real failure to hold Apple (and MS, etc) accountable. Yes, mistakes happen and beta testers/QA can't catch everything but blaming end users for upgrading on day one when they're specifically, repeatedly, told and encouraged to "upgrade to the latest macOS" (its one of the first things AppleCare will ask if you call them with a problem) seems wrong. The blame lies with Apple and while we should encourage less tech savvy users to observe best practices, anyone whose ever worked in IT knows how hard that is.
 
Big Sur is sure looking like a huge headache more and more by the day. First the Apple servers crashed on launch day, and now this debacle... I usually am the first the jump ship to the latest OS, but gonna wait a bit for this one
When will people finally learn not to install a .0 from *anyone*, let alone from Apple?
 
Interesting how Apple put out the Public Beta months ago and this is discovered just now? You mean nobody with a 2013/2014 MBP ever had a bricking issue all the time during the public beta? Hmmm. Sometimes I get the feeling that these issues are made up in order to crap on Apple when they release new products. Furthermore while I'm not saying bricking should happen I think it's a stretch trying to install the latest OS on near 7 and 8 year old computers and expect to have no issues.
Some of it is undoubtedly your average Entitled moron who shouldn't be installing beta software anyway, has no intention of reporting any issues, and only does it to be able to boast that he has a higher version number than the Entitled next to him.
 
There are plenty of Pro workflows that don't need a strong GPU. For me as a developer the M1 would be absolutely fine, but I need more RAM with it.
you just answered yourself

"but I need more RAM with it"

also as a developer "as you stated", maybe someday you are tempted to try something new like 2D/3D Vectors, then you would feel frustrated

and you do not need CPU virtualization extensions ? it is weird...

or bootcamp?

then I understand you have 1 machine to develop under MacOS and another machine under Windows

before M1 was possible to do bootcamp and/or virtualization (sure you know about it)

I have Visual Studio on my mac mini 2014 bootcamp partition you know... replaced hard disk for an SSD years ago, all was working fine until now


I see myself in the future virtualizing MacOS under Windows 10 trough VMWare if I need XCode (never virtualized MacOS under Windows 10 yet)
 
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