So long, macOS 10. Hello, macOS 11 Big Sur

macOS 11 Big Sur About Box (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

Apple today announced macOS 11 Big Sur.
The announcement comes as Apple confirmed a transition away from Intel chips.
It also sees the death of macOS 10 after 19 years of service.

Apple's announcement of macOS Big Sur is notable for plenty of reasons, not least the fact that it heralds the beginning of a switch from Intel Macs to those running on Apple's own silicon. Just as symbolic is the move to a new number - macOS 11 replaces last year's macCOS 10.15 and sees the end of macOS 10.x.

Apple first transitioned to macOS 10, or Mac OSX 10 as it was known, with Cheetah way back in 2001. It's served the Mac well, but the move away from Intel was enough to push Apple's macOS updates to 11. As I'm sure Apple SVP Crag Federighi would have loved to get into his announcement script!

You can watch the announcement event, along with everything Federighi did have to say, below.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.