Like a lot of other people, I had issues downloading and installing Big Sur at first. Definitely not the kind of glitch you want to have happen when you release a new operating system, but Apple seemed to get it fixed quickly enough.
Once I got it downloaded, I created a bootable external USB SSD (didn’t have any thumb drives big enough, so I used this Samsung SSD drive.) I prefer clean installs so I went through all my usual steps. I inventoried the apps currently installed, decided which ones to keep, made sure everything in my iCloud folder was synced up, etc. I won’t go into the details, because there are a ton of tutorials out there. This one is the one that worked for me. The extra step for the T2 security chip was new to me, but following the instructions worked perfectly.
I use my MacBook Air as a test machine before I install new OSes on either of the MacBook Pros, so I installed Adobe CC, Lightroom Classic, and Photoshop. I’m happy to report that I haven’t run into any issues at all with the Adobe software. Or any other software, for that matter.
I like Big Sur so far. The icon and menu spacing bugs me, and makes me think they’re working towards a touch interface, but everything else is pretty cool. The new notification center and widgets are pretty slick, Launchpad might become useful if I ever remember it’s there, and the over all look and feel (minus the previously mentioned spacing,) is pretty solid. I never use default wallpapers, but the new dynamic wallpapers hooked me.
I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts as time goes on. Apple doesn’t have the best track record with OS releases, but I’m cautiously optimistic this time around.
Those of you who’ve installed Big Sur—what are your thoughts so far? Have you run into any issues yet? Let me know in the comments.
Daniel Hedrick 
Hi Daniel Hedrick,
Thank you for your excellent review of MacOS Big Sur, Photoshop and Lightroom Classic.
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