Finally! Apple’s macOS Big Sur is “Version 11.0,” not Version 10.16 as many likely expected as each major release of macOS since Mac OS X “Cheetah” (10.0) through macOS “Catalina” (10.15) has been Version 10.x. That’s right, sixteen versions, 0-15, were all it took for this one to go to eleven.
In the System Preferences menu in the first developer beta of macOS Big Sur, the software update is listed as version 11.0.
Assuming nothing changes between now and the public release of macOS Big Sur in the fall, this would mark the end of an era for Apple’s desktop platform.
MacDailyNews Take: In the inimitable words of Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel: “It’s very, very special because, if you can see, the numbers all go to eleven. Right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven… It’s not ten… What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Eleven! …These go to eleven.”
It’s worth noting, as Rossignol does, that the beta file for macOS Big Sur lists the software update as 10.16, but it is referred to as 11.0 everywhere else.
OMG – but this one goes to eleven! They should have called it Spinal Tap or Stonehenge….
Sorry MDN – you beat me too it. I didn’t RTFA before I posted.
They should have gone with a different naming theme.
I may have missed this, but does it run on Intels?
Yes, otherwise there wouldn’t be a point in having a dev beta since the dev units would already have it
Big Fer Sure
I hope it becomes 10.16 rather than 11.0 then I’ll have a better chance it will run on my older Macs. I will likely upgrade after a few days to check to see if there are any major problems. Years ago, I used to wait months before upgrading, but I never usually have any major problems with an early upgrade in MacOS. Mojave and Catalina were painless for me and I immediately enjoyed the benefits. Yeah, there are always a few programs that break, but nothing that critical to my daily use.
It appears to me that the decision to version it as 11.0 was a relatively recent one. There are still references to 10.16 all over the place, including in the installer and the Startup Disk preference pane.
I always expected macOS v11 would be a rebuild with an entirely new core, like the transition to Mac OS X was. But hey, they think their overhaul in this version was particular ambitious.
10.16 is the intel only version.. 11.0 is the arm version.
Not so. 11.0 is the version on the About This Mac on the Intel build.
About time… 😉 It should have been version 11 a long time ago, like maybe with Leopard when there was a significant change in appearance and underlying OS. Leopard was when the Intel transition fully materialized (although it started during 2nd half of Tiger’s run). Now, the actual version 11 signifies (again) a change in appearance and underlying OS, to start the “Apple silicon” transition.
But going further back… 😁 Mac OS 8 and 8.5 should have been System 7.7 and 7.8, and Mac OS 9 should have been System 7.9. But I understand the licensing reasons to cut off the (legal) Mac clone makers back then, and the marketing reasons for advancing the version numbers quickly to 10. Steve Jobs thought it through and played it perfectly during precarious times for Apple.
Any word on which Macs are comparable with Big Sur?
Just ask Siri “what Macs are compatible with Big Sur” 😃 (for a list of articles). My “classic-style” MacBook Air (with old-school USB ports) still supported 😅
No Mac is comparable to Big Sur, the latter is software. However, in the presentation they said that most Macs since 2013 (and maybe a few earlier ones) will be compatible with it.
Since Mac OS X was actually version 10, Big Sur can be thought of as version 26 of the Mac Operating System.
And I’ve used very one of them 🙂