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macOS Big Sur Update Bricking Some Older MacBook Pro Models

There are two competing issues here. One, as applications you use get updated, they often require a newer operating system, and constantly using an older version of that application may make data files increasing difficult to update. Remember, eventually you're going to need to buy a new machine. They don't last forever, and I have found that security updates make machines become sluggish, and eventually Apple no longer supports older operating systems with security updates.

Now, on the other hand, these annual updates, from what I can see, put a *real* burden on application developers to update and test their applications in time. And often they don't make the deadline, telling users to *not* update their operating system. If updates were every two years, I think this would give developers more breathing room.

That's just my 2¢
 
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Stewart Gooderman said:
Well, why on earth did Apple switch from 10.xx to 11?? Mac OS X was a completely different operating system from Mac OS 9. Mac OS 11 isn't really different from Mac OS X.
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The macOS 10.x versioning system was hopelessly broken. When Apple's releasing 10.15.7 supplemental update 2, the versioning needs fixing. Changing to the pattern that iOS uses makes much more sense.
 
Here's hoping for a more stable release this year. Big Sur seems like a mess, but kinda understandable due to added support for Apple Silicon. Still, something simple like that out of storage bug is quite ridiculous for a company like Apple that keeps bragging how they excel in their hardware software integration. Apple should just admit it that their release cycle is not sustainable.

Or do it like Microsoft, set out the "last" version of macOS ever, and just do a continuous smaller silent updates. Eg. For the lay consumer, they only know Windows 10. They don't know about the biannual releases, and those releases can sometimes take a while to be pushed to consumers, thus mitigating potential showstopper bugs reaching a lot of people.
 
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ian87w said:
Here's hoping for a more stable release this year. Big Sur seems like a mess, but kinda understandable due to added support for Apple Silicon. Still, something simple like that out of storage bug is quite ridiculous for a company like Apple that keeps bragging how they excel in their hardware software integration. Apple should just admit it that their release cycle is not sustainable.

Or do it like Microsoft, set out the "last" version of macOS ever, and just do a continuous smaller silent updates. Eg. For the lay consumer, they only know Windows 10. They don't know about the biannual releases, and those releases can sometimes take a while to be pushed to consumers, thus mitigating potential showstopper bugs reaching a lot of people.
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You can just use an older release too. It’s interesting that the approach of using older hardware like the 2015 MacBooks and Mojave are a great combination. At some point, Apple will get it all together and I’ll upgrade.
 
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pshufd said:
You can just use an older release too. It’s interesting that the approach of using older hardware like the 2015 MacBooks and Mojave are a great combination. At some point, Apple will get it all together and I’ll upgrade.
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If you have an older yet still supported hardware, seems like the wise thing to do is to use a -1 version of macOS. However, if you have a new MacBook (eg. The M1 models), you are kinda stuck with Big Sur.
 
ian87w said:
If you have an older yet still supported hardware, seems like the wise thing to do is to use a -1 version of macOS. However, if you have a new MacBook (eg. The M1 models), you are kinda stuck with Big Sur.
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Yeah.

I have used an M1 MacBook Air for about 45 minutes and I like it and Big Sur was fine on it but I didn't run my normal workload. I found that Big Sur doesn't run well on older hardware. I think that it needs a fairly strong GPU to have a responsive UI. I try Big Sur every couple of months to see if things have been fixed but the trend of macOS to use more hardware resources seems to be continuing.

The new hardware, except for the 21.5 inch iMac, seems to be able to handle the demands of Big Sur.

Apple might get Big Sur to be really stable just in time for the next Operating System too. We always waited almost a year at work to upgrade Macs - that is where the company gave the all clear to upgrade. We typically bought older models (Corporate Purchases) to run -1 or -2. It typically took about six months to update our Corp Software to run with new operating systems.

I am very happy on Mojave - I will be getting new equipment one of these days, perhaps this year, so I will wind up on Big Sur. I'm sure that the hardware will be up to it and I hope I don't run into any big problems. I have one in the household so I can validate the programs that I need to run. I just don't like to borrow machines.
 
ian87w said:
If you have an older yet still supported hardware, seems like the wise thing to do is to use a -1 version of macOS. However, if you have a new MacBook (eg. The M1 models), you are kinda stuck with Big Sur.
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That is not fully true.. I believe the 1st M1 Macs shipped Catalina. Really, I think Mac OS X should be the real designation of the OS, and not macOS Xi.
 
pshufd said:
Yeah.

I have used an M1 MacBook Air for about 45 minutes and I like it and Big Sur was fine on it but I didn't run my normal workload. I found that Big Sur doesn't run well on older hardware. I think that it needs a fairly strong GPU to have a responsive UI. I try Big Sur every couple of months to see if things have been fixed but the trend of macOS to use more hardware resources seems to be continuing.

The new hardware, except for the 21.5 inch iMac, seems to be able to handle the demands of Big Sur.

Apple might get Big Sur to be really stable just in time for the next Operating System too. We always waited almost a year at work to upgrade Macs - that is where the company gave the all clear to upgrade. We typically bought older models (Corporate Purchases) to run -1 or -2. It typically took about six months to update our Corp Software to run with new operating systems.

I am very happy on Mojave - I will be getting new equipment one of these days, perhaps this year, so I will wind up on Big Sur. I'm sure that the hardware will be up to it and I hope I don't run into any big problems. I have one in the household so I can validate the programs that I need to run. I just don't like to borrow machines.
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I run BigSur on my 2014 MBP. It is awesome. It is that old enough for you? Or are you talking older?
 
pshufd said:
Big Sur ran poorly on my 2014 MacBook Pro. It also runs poorly on VirtualBox while Mojave runs fine. Monterey runs fine on VirtualBox as well.
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have you considered a clean install? maybe you got some gremlins floating around
 
MauiPa said:
have you considered a clean install? maybe you got some gremlins floating around
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I actually did a clean install of Monterey and I love it. But it was on an external SSD. I plan to install Monterey Beta 1 in a few days and just run that until Beta 2. Monterey cleaned up some of the GUI performance issues that I had on Big Sur. I tried a clean install of Big Sur and the GUI issues are still there. Not quite as bad as earlier this year but still there. I have Mojave and Big Sur Virtual Machines on my Windows desktop in case I want to play around.
 
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