This week, Apple announced during their “One more thing” event that the latest update to its macOS, Big Sur, is to be released to the public on November 12, 2020. While we know people are eager to update to the latest OS to take advantage of the new enhancements for key apps; including Safari, Messages, and Maps, as well as new privacy features, we recommend that users wait until the next “dot” OS update before upgrading University-owned Macs.
As always with a major new release, there are bound to be issues. You might experience kernel panics when using earlier versions of Parallels Desktop or if using Xcode (versions prior to 11.5), you might have the app unexpectedly quit when launched. If you are a heavy user of Adobe Creative Cloud applications, Adobe is also recommending that you wait to update to Big Sur.
UPDATE 11/16/2020: Some users of older 13-inch MacBook Pros are reporting issues with the Big Sur OS installer. Users are finding they are stuck with a black screen when trying to update their late 2013 or mid-2014 13-inch MacBook Pro models and even resetting the NVRAM and SMC does not alleviate the issue. Currently, Apple does not have a solution, so it recommended that users hold off on updating any older 13-inch MacBook Pro.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the IT Help Desk at 214.768.HELP (4357) or help@smu.edu.
