Apple has made a change in the distribution of macOS that will not change the lives of end users, but will have an impact on the work of technicians, hobbyists and experts with the system. From now on MacOS updates can no longer be downloaded in batches autonomous.
In other words, macOS Big Sur can only be updated from the corresponding panel in System Preferences, and more via an installer downloadable from the official website independently. It looks like macOS Catalina was the last macOS with which these updates could be made.
A new intermediate step for Mac administrators on a network
The general user, again, is not affected. You can continue to update macOS as Apple wishes: via automatic updates in System Preferences. But download the update as an installer it was something that made the work of technicians and administrators easier, because with just one download you can update all Macs on a local network.
This can continue to be done but with an extra step, depending on what they say about MacRumors. Administrators will be able to download the update for macOS Big Sur and later versions through System Preferences, activate the ‘Caching’ option from the “Share” panel so that the installation can be mirrored to all Macs on the same local network.
Apple may have made this change to have more control over macOS update downloads, which it can’t do as well by releasing a simple installer package from the official site.
