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With macOS Big Sur and the new Mac computers with Apple M1 chip becoming available, we will continue to do more extensive evaluations, both in our lab and with your help via the Parallels Technical Preview Program.
Following a long and somewhat tumultuous five-month beta testing period, Apple today announced the general public release of macOS Big Sur, the latest operating system for Mac computers. Also known as macOS 11, Big Sur is the first to support Macs built with either Intel or Apple M1 processors, and it features an improved version of the Mac’s desktop interface Finder, apps and games brought over from Apple’s mobile devices, and a substantially enhanced version of the Safari web browser.
- Parallels M1 Mac support in development as Big Sur update lands November 20, 2020 Corel has confirmed that the company is working Parallels M1 Mac support as it announces an update with full support for Big Sur on Intel Macs There was a hint in the form of a one-sentence note in a press release about the update to 16.1.1 (our emphasis).
- Parallels notes on its website that the latest version of its virtual machine is optimized for the latest updates to Windows 10, macOS Catalina, and macOS Big Sur (11.0). However, Windows 10 ARM x86 applications still cannot run on Apple computers with M1. Achieving that compatibility is up to Microsoft itself.
From a user-facing standpoint, Big Sur’s most obvious changes may be cosmetic, as the user interface has been refreshed to incorporate transparent panes and bolder icons with depth shadowing, visual cues that weren’t as prominent in recent macOS releases. Notification Center, Control Center, and the traditional icon dock now have more in common than not with iPads. But there’s another bonus for users of Macs with Apple’s new M1 chips: They’ll also be able to run iPad and iPhone apps and games, which will now be downloadable from the Mac App Store, complete with resizable windows and support for trackpad/mouse controls.
In addition to letting users customize a start page to their liking, Apple’s Safari has been upgraded with a translation feature to convert webpages between certain languages, support for extensions developed for other browsers, and markedly greater efficiency — in both browsing speed and energy consumption. A new signature feature called Privacy Report quickly alerts users to tracking systems websites are using and instantly blocks them. It parallels Apple’s efforts to discontinue iOS support for the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), which quietly profiles users as they’re browsing.
Previously, the Mac version of Messages was based so heavily on an older app — iChat — that some of the latest iPad and iPhone texting features weren’t included in the code. Big Sur’s version effectively parallels the latest iPad release, including support for Memoji stickers, message effects, GIF image searches, and pinned conversations, as well as group-focused features such as inline replies and ping-triggering mentions. Similarly, the Mac now shares features with the latest iPad Maps app, including support for Look Around street photography, indoor maps, EV charger location and routing, and third-party guides.
Parallels Big Sur M18
The last time Apple transitioned from one processor family to another was in 2006, when the PowerPC release of macOS 10.4 Tiger was updated midway through its life cycle to add support for then-new Intel Macs. Since then, Apple has moved to an annual release cycle for Mac operating systems, putting the onus on a major release to deliver major new functionality on day one. That’s likely why Apple waited to release Big Sur until today, coinciding with the official announcement of the first Macs with M1 chips.
Big Sur runs on many Macs that previously ran last year’s macOS Catalina, including Mac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro models released in 2013 or later; iMacs and Mac minis of 2014 or later vintage; 12-inch MacBooks from 2015 or later; and all iMac Pro models. Apple says macOS Big Sur will be released on Thursday, November 12 for Intel Macs and will ship with new M1-based MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini models the following week.
Updated on November 12 at 9:55 a.m. Pacific: macOS Big Sur is available now from the Mac App Store at this link.
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Big Sur Map
Apple’s “one more thing” event on November 10, 2020, revealed the first Mac computers powered by the Apple M1 chip.
Parallels is excited to see the performance, power efficiency, and virtualization features that are brought to the Mac with the Apple M1 chip. The transition to Mac with the M1 chip should be smooth for most Mac applications, thanks to Rosetta technology. Fortunately, Parallels Access™, Parallels® Toolbox, and Parallels® Client software worked smoothly as universal binaries even before Parallels rebuilt them. However, virtual machines are an exception and Parallels engineers proactively implemented native virtualization support for Mac computers with the M1 chip. This enables our users to enjoy the best Windows-on-Mac experience ever.
Learn more about the new version in this blog post.
When Apple Silicon Mac was first announced during the keynote at WWDC on June 22 of this year, Apple demoed a Parallels Desktop for Mac prototype running a Linux virtual machine flawlessly on Apple Silicon. Since WWDC, the new version of Parallels Desktop, which runs on Mac with the Apple M1 chip, has made tremendous progress. We switched Parallels Desktop to universal binary and optimized its virtualization code; Apple M1 Mac computers and macOS Big Sur became available, and Microsoft announced and then introduced support for x86_64 applications in Windows on ARM Insider Preview.
As our customers know, Parallels cares deeply about the quality of our software products and the experience they provide. With macOS Big Sur and the new Mac with Apple M1 chip available, we continue to conduct more extensive evaluations, both in our lab and with your help via the Parallels Technical Preview Program. More than 100,000 M1 Mac users tested the Technical Preview of Parallels Desktop 16 for M1 Mac and ran Microsoft’s Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview, as well as tens of thousands of different Intel-based Windows applications—including Microsoft Office for Windows, Microsoft Visual Studio, SQL Server, Microsoft PowerBI, and MetaTrader.
We received enthusiastic feedback about the remarkable performance of both the Technical Preview of Parallels Desktop 16 for M1 Mac and Windows 10 on ARM Insider Preview as well as x86 applications and the games inside it, including Rocket League, Among Us, Roblox, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Sam & Max Save the World, and many others. Testers loved Parallels Desktop’s easy to use features, and seamless integration of Windows and its applications with macOS Big Sur, which increased their productivity.
Parallels Big Sur M1 For Sale
On April 14th 2021, the new update for Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac was released and now features support for both Mac computers with Intel processor as well as Mac computers with Apple M1 chip.