What makes this release more than cosmetic is where the Mac platform was headed: within months Apple would ship M1-optimized updates like Big Sur 11.3, meaning the iOS-flavored interface landed just as the Mac's hardware converged with iPhone and iPad silicon.
First-order effects
Mac users gain an iOS-style quick-settings layer and widgets directly in the OS, collapsing the distinction between controlling a Mac and controlling an iPhone or iPad.
Developers shipping Mac apps now face a de facto new design standard — matching Big Sur's visual language becomes table stakes for looking current on the platform.
Second-order effects
As iPhone and iPad apps run on M1 Macs (with 11.3 later adding window-resizing controls), a shared interface vocabulary lowers the cost of treating macOS as another target for iOS apps rather than a separate craft.
Third-party utilities that filled gaps Apple ignored — menu-bar controls, notification managers, widget-style dashboards — compete head-on with built-in features for the first time.
A single control-and-notification layer across devices strengthens Apple's position as the integrator: whoever designs that layer decides what users see first, from settings to notifications to widgets.
The trend: Apple is steadily merging macOS into a unified, iOS-descended interface system shared across all its device platforms, with Big Sur as the pivotal first step.
macOS Big Sur is out, and it's a major turning point for the Mac. Here's our in-depth review, featuring visual comparisons, third-party apps, and lots more. macOS Big Sur: The MacStories Review https://www.macstories.net/... https://twitter.com/...
Just upgraded my main machine to Catalina last week, thinking about scheduling my Big Sur upgrade for approximately 12-15 months from now. You guys are clearly more risk tolerant than I am 😂
One more tidbit on Big Sur's design. I know it's not to everyone's tastes, but I think it's fantastic and exactly what the Mac needs for the road ahead. macOS Big Sur: The MacStories Review https://www.macstories.net/... https://twitter.com/...
You gotta hand it to Apple's third-party dev community to have so many apps Apple-Silicon-native right out of the gate, including beta versions of Microsoft Office. There was always this idea of the ‘app gap’ for Microsoft & its modern efforts, but maybe it's just a developer gap
Speaking of shipping at scale, Apple has now shipped the Apple Silicon versions of its iWork suite, Garageband, Final Cut Pro, Logic, Motion, and Xcode. Compare and contrast with how other platforms have handled their ARM transitions... 🦗🎶 https://twitter.com/...
Big Sur is a really big deal; a turning point in the Mac's history that doesn't come along very often. I spent the last several months testing it and here's my review on @Macstoriesnet: Big Sur: The MacStories Review. I hope you enjoy it. https://www.macstories.net/... https://tw…
One of my biggest frustrations with Big Sur is that Safari STILL does not allow you to set a websites as a single site browser / web app / separate window. Chrome and Edge let you do this right in the browser, with Safari you have to resort to third party tools.
Once upon a time the default advice was don't upgrade on day 1 because your apps may not work. For the past few years that wasn't really a probem. This year ... I would wait. I've had at least a couple of my bipbobs not work or work oddly on Big Sur. It's okay to wait! https://tw…
macOS 11 Big Sur now available!! 🔥🔥 2015 and later MacBook 2013 and later MacBook Air 2013 and later MacBook Pro 2014 and later Mac mini 2014 and later iMac 2017 and later iMac Pro 2013 and later Mac Pro https://apps.apple.com/...