
At one time, Apple gave names to its operating systems in honor of animals, representatives of the feline family. But apparently, cougars, panthers, tigers and jaguars ran out, or the names were simply taken over by third-party products, and, starting with version 10.9, OS X releases began to be named after famous places in California.

Perhaps the example was set by Intel, whose product names correspond to the localities close to the factories. The 11.0 version of macOS introduced in June 2020 was named Big Sur (review). Of course, we became interested in what kind of place it is, and why it is remarkable.
What is Big Sur?
Big Sur is a sparsely populated coastal area in central California. On one side is the Pacific Ocean, and on the other is the Santa Lucia mountain range. This makes the area very picturesque, attracting tourists. Big Sur has no clear boundaries, usually as many as 145-160 kilometers of coastline are attributed to the area. This section extends 30 kilometers inland. San Francisco is 190 kilometers north of Big Sur and Los Angeles is 395 kilometers south.

Getting to know Big Sur usually takes place by traveling along the highway. It is a serpentine road with numerous stops for inspection. The weather is constantly changing here, which makes the short trip even more interesting. The windows offer beautiful views of the mountains and the ocean. The beauty of virgin nature is best observed from a convertible. The trip turns out to be unhurried, as tourists are constantly discovering new coves, cliffs and forests. For a long time, this territory was generally inaccessible to humans - the track with a beautiful number 1, linking Northern and Southern California, appeared only in the 1930s.

Probably, it is worth looking for some symbolism in the fact that the new, not only in number, but also in ideology, the Apple operating system received the name of such a significant place for California. Let's hope that working with macOS Big Sur will be accompanied by the same sense of calmness, comfort and peace, as traveling through the area of the same name.
See also:
- How to schedule your Mac to sleep and turn it on automatically.
- 5 beautiful free animated screensavers (screensavers) for Mac.
- Mac for Dummies: 30 Useful macOS Tips for Newbies.