What do I give up to update to Big Sur?

None of us know what you are running currently so it is difficult for us to tell you which of your installed apps will no longer work with Bit Sur. Inventory your third party apps then go to their respective website to see if they remain compatible or if an update is required. Then make the upgrade decision based on the results of your research.

mreed wrote:

Currently using Catalina. What programs will I have to give up to convert to Big Sur? I remember reading about it when it came out but can't seem to find the info now. Were there any other capabilities that are lost?

Knowing that Monterey is coming soon I'd rather not be two updates behind but I'm not sure whether I'm willing to give up current functionality just to keep up.

There is no practical way to answer this question for you. However Catalina you are most prepared for BigSur, with Catalina running only 64 bit applications...

I fully agree with you, it never pays to get too far behind in the software or hardware.

It is always advised to have current and robust backup plan in place.

Only in this way can your revert to your previous macOS if something goes sideways or you find cripples some mission critical work flow or application.

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.

Revert to previous macOS

https://support.apple.com/en-za/guide/mac-help/mh15216/10.15/mac/10.15

How To Downgrade macOS Big Sur To Catalina Or Older ...

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/downgrade-macos-3581872/

Two things:

1. I suggest try using Carbon Copy Cloner, instead of SuperDuper. Albeit, they are still working on full bootable cloning for macOS Big Sur.
2. FWIW, I use the following user-supported website to help determine app compatibility with the various versions of macOS: Application compatibility table - RoaringApps

If you kept a bootable backup (a clone) of your current system (something you should be doing on a regular basis) you would be able to see how a macOS upgrade would work for you while preserving the capability of reverting back to your prior macOS version.

mreed wrote:

Thanks all for the reply. I started reviewing my apps as Bob suggested and got to my backup software (SuperDuper) and stopped. If that's not compatible with Big Sur then I would be taking a risk in going forward. They are working on an update but I learned a long time ago not to use Beta programs on my main system. Don't ask...

So, for now, I'll stand pat and wait.

It is good to check the details about how to make bootable clones with SuperDuper and with Carbon Copy Cloner on their web sites. I believe they each have different approaches which should work. But it's not as straightforward as it used to be before Big Sur. Best to be informed.

As others have pointed out, since you are on Catalina already, most of your software is PROBABLY already compatible with Big Sur but best to check.

One trap some people have fallen into is that they have external drives with the manufacturers' custom firmware, software, or utilities/tools installed. Typically this involves installing software on the Mac and firmware on the external drive. Both must be up to date and compatible with Big Sur or the external drive might become inaccessible after the Big Sur update. This is especially problematic with NTFS formatted external drives, but can occur with APFS or HFS+ formatted drives as well. A worst case scenario is that the external drive is password locked with the manufacturer's drive utility that is not updated for Big Sur. When the computer is upgraded to Big Sur, unlocking the drive with the password no longer works because the firmware does not work with Big Sur. So one safer approach is to uninstall and remove all such non-Apple external drive firmwares and utilities before upgrading to Big Sur. If you have an external drive with "one touch" function buttons, it is almost certain that custom firmware is involved.

The limitations you are seeing are not CCC fault but Apple's because of

how Big Sur handles the "protected" system volume and additional

security measures. It is not going to get any better in the future either

as Apple, in the sake of security, is locking down the OS more and more.

Super Duper is dealing with the exact same issues because of Big Sur,

and won't (can't) provide any more abilities that CCC because of Big Sur.

BTW, CCC will do incremental backups of the Data volume, and after all,

that is the most important as oner can always reinstall the OS and then

migrate the data.

mreed wrote:

Thanks woodmeister. After reviewing CCC info and FAQs, it doesn't seem to be a good fit for me. They compromise alot of functionality due to the limitations that Big Sur imposes. Does it work? Yes. It doesn't do incremental backups and it seems that their solutions frequently involve erasing destination volume and starting over or forget about using bootable functionality and just use it to backup data.

No backup programs can get around the new security restriction of the MacOS. CCC (like SuperDuper) does do incremental backups of non-system files, and you can update the system files in the backup by booting from the backup drive and updating its system using Apple's tools. SuperDuper has similar but different capabilities. However both programs will faithfully backup all your files and make those backed up files available through a normal Finder interface, and you can always restore the system to your primary boot drive using Apple's Recovery Mode and then migrate from your backup.

I do both Time Machine and "clone" type backups of all our computers. Restoring of specific or individual files/folders is straightforward with either type of backup, and both types can also provide a rescue in the event of a total disaster (e.g. complete hardware failure).

In terms of "trying out" Big Sur, as someone already suggested, using CCC to make a bootable clone (even if a few extra steps are involved compared to the way it used to be) is a good way to make sure your setup works acceptably under Big Sur before proceeding to update your primary working system.

The latest Carbon Copy Cloner version 6 does a very good job cloning Intel Macs.

They also clone the new M1 Macs but with some limitations because of how

the new M1 Macs work. It is not beta.