Big Sur

[callump]

Just wondering if any MacOS folk  have updated to Big Sur from Calalina?

And if so, what experience of astro application compatibility. 

Hopefully it will all go swimmingly, but I may wait a few weeks to see if there is any fall-out.

Callum

[wornish]

Been running final release candidate of Big Sur for a couple weeks now on my iMac and finally the full release.

Obviously not done in depth testing but so far this is what I have found.

PS CC 2021 works OK. 

APP works as far as I have tested but it did have a few issues on the earlier betas.  The developer says its not officially supported on Big Sur yet so be careful.

Pixinsight seems OK as far as I have tested.

If you have been using any 32bit windows apps like Registax6 or Autostakkert3 wrapped in a WINE wrapper then they will not work.  WINE does not work on BigSur yet.

 

Edited November 13, 2020 by wornish

[Deadlake]

So far this is one to avoid until several patch versions come out. I suspect all the effort was getting it running on ARM silicon and x86 translator etc. Its a huge change this year, so best avoided while they fix teething issues. 

[Davey-T]

Seems to be some conflict with WD backups as the was with Catalina.

Dave

[JamesF]

Is it upgrade time already?!  Seems to come around so fast these days.  I wonder if it will even run on my 2013 MBP.  I seemed to be quite near the bottom of the list of supported hardware when Catalina came out.

I'll have to look for some instructions for downloading for manual installation.  It takes so long for  Apple's stuff to download over my <3Mb/s ADSL connection that I want control of when it is happening.  Downloading the 7GB Xcode 11 image was a nightmare.  Took me about a week.  And I see Xcode 12 is up to 10GB.  I've not dared try that one yet.

James

[Davey-T]

17 hours ago, JamesF said:

Is it upgrade time already?!  Seems to come around so fast these days.  I wonder if it will even run on my 2013 MBP.  I seemed to be quite near the bottom of the list of supported hardware when Catalina came out.

I'll have to look for some instructions for downloading for manual installation.  It takes so long for  Apple's stuff to download over my <3Mb/s ADSL connection that I want control of when it is happening.  Downloading the 7GB Xcode 11 image was a nightmare.  Took me about a week.  And I see Xcode 12 is up to 10GB.  I've not dared try that one yet.

James

Don't do it James, a lot of older MBP like ours have been bricked by the update leaving folk with a black screen and Apple has no interest in helping, they think you ought to bin it and buy a new one 😂

Dave

[carastro]

Speak to Dave S if you want the whole heart breaking story.

Carole 

[JamesF]

32 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Don't do it James, a lot of older MBP like ours have been bricked by the update leaving folk with a black screen and Apple has no interest in helping, they think you ought to bin it and buy a new one 😂

So I have just read.  I shall be keeping well away from that for the time being then.  I guess for the moment oacapture etc. development will just have to avoid Big Sur :(

James

[JamesF]

6 minutes ago, carastro said:

Speak to Dave S if you want the whole heart breaking story.

Oh dear :(  I take it he has had an upgrade fail in this way?

James

[Davey-T]

2 minutes ago, JamesF said:

I guess for the moment oacapture etc. development will just have to avoid Big Sur

It works fine for me ATM and I've no intention of buying a new Mac Book 😂

Dave

[carastro]

Don't understand all the in and outs, but I know he can't access a whole load of files, and had numerous conversations with Apple who have been no help.

Carole  

[Davey-T]

3 minutes ago, carastro said:

Don't understand all the in and outs, but I know he can't access a whole load of files, and had numerous conversations with Apple who have been no help.

Carole  

I thought that was Ron ?

Dave

[Owmuchonomy]

I 'upgraded' at the weekend.  So far I can't see much difference.  Everything I use regularly seems to work just fine.  OA Capture fires up just fine too.  I may do some lunar work this w/e as the forecast is good so I will give it a thorough testing then.  I do have an ancient PC that runs Firecapture but the frame rates I can achieve with @JamesF OAcapture are spectacular so I prefer to use it if possible.

[callump]

Thanks for all the comments and thoughts folk.

I've upgraded my iMac and not found any problems so far...

My son upgraded his MacBook Air ok - but seems slow. I think i'll wait a little while before i upgrade my MacBook Air (which is what I use in the observatory).

Callum

[carastro]

Quote

I thought that was Ron ?

Oh, was it Ron?  

Carole 

[Davey-T]

8 hours ago, Owmuchonomy said:

I 'upgraded' at the weekend.  So far I can't see much difference.  Everything I use regularly seems to work just fine.  OA Capture fires up just fine too.  I may do some lunar work this w/e as the forecast is good so I will give it a thorough testing then.  I do have an ancient PC that runs Firecapture but the frame rates I can achieve with @JamesF OAcapture are spectacular so I prefer to use it if possible.

 

3 hours ago, callump said:

Thanks for all the comments and thoughts folk.

I've upgraded my iMac and not found any problems so far...

My son upgraded his MacBook Air ok - but seems slow. I think i'll wait a little while before i upgrade my MacBook Air (which is what I use in the observatory).

Callum

Only seems to be a problem with older equipment and WD backups.

Apple just changed from Intel to ARM processors so causing a few problems.

Dave

[johnrt]

Big Sur running on my new M1 Mac mini, really fast and the mini is barely breaking out the fans for anything I throw at it. Not running any astro apps though

[JamesF]

Finally screwed my courage to the sticking place and downloaded Big Sur (11.1) to install on my late 2013 13" MacBook Pro.  The 12GB download took around twelve hours and had to be restarted because it failed in the middle.  Fortunately it restarts from where it got to rather than the beginning.

The upgrade went smoothly and my machine is not bricked :)

Now I just need to download Xcode, which is another 11GB and more awkward to restart as far as I recall.  I thought it was bad enough that the previous version was 7.5GB :(

James

[kirkster501]

My iMac late 2013 is not on the BigSur compatibility list so will stay where it is on Catalina.

Interested in getting a M1 Mac Mini and removing some desk clutter in my office.  Anyone comment on Parallels/Fusion performance on a M1 Mac Mini please?

I would fully commit every day computing to OSX if Astro Apps and Microsoft 365 ran better on it so I need to keep my i7-8700/32G for now.  O365 is better on PC IMO.