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.