Is it a bad idea to update to Big Sur yet??

I would advise you to wait. I've been using Macs since 1984 and the changes in the operating system have always taken a few months to sort out. Not a hit on Apple in any way, just the nature of the beast.

And the post above regarding backups, specifically clones, the three major backup/clone software developers for the Mac OS advise waiting as the ability to create a bootable clone in Big Sur does not now exist and is not just a few days away. Could be weeks, if not months. Has to do with Apple's security system and currently even Apple's software in unable to produce a bootable clone.

Want to install Big Sur on a spare SSD, just to see what it's all about, go for it! But I'd hold off installing on any device that you depend on for real work.

Excellent advice from MargeHomer - I've had Big Sur installed for testing for months. There are no problems with it, but I am ambivalent about it. And, I will not use it on my main machine until the issue of not being able to create a bootable clone has been addressed. I have a slow internet connection and refuse to have to wait 2 hours to download the 12 GB installer through recovery.

So, it is always prudent to not only have a good backup first, but also check out your apps to see if they are compatible. And, wait a bit until the kinks are ironed out.

The idea is that the OP needs to be able to make a bootable clone of Catalina, not Big Sur, before trying out Big Sur.

You probably will not have any huge issues upgrading now. most of the kinks would have been found in the beta versions.

But best practice if you want to have less chance of issues is to hold on a bit with a new major update.

That way you are less likely to be the among the first to have a rare issue affect you.

That the 32 bit applications would stop working with Catalina was announced well in advance and is expected behavior.

Apple started warning about this change already with High Sierra.

32-bit app compatibility with macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later - Apple Support

for now YES it is a bad idea but in 11.0.2 Go for it!

Big Sur has been one of the best performing betas I can remember. It has a couple of new behaviours that are annoying from a developer point of view. But as far as using the system goes, it has been rock-solid.

You should be maintaining at least one full backup of your system on an external drive, a clone or a TimeMachine, so trying out a new upgrade of macOS should be a minimal risk.

I installed Big Sur last week, it's horrible. Everything has slowed down, takes a long time to boot, so many visual thing have changed its slowing me down too, it's like working on a PC again. I'm going back to Catalina.

FYI:

But once again, the OP would need a bootable clone backup of his current system, presumably Catalina, not of Big Sur.

Apple made it abundantly clear well before Catalina launched that 32 bit apps would not be supported.

Perhaps you should try doing some basic research before you blindly pull the trigger on major updates...

There are plenty of in depth reviews of Big Sur out there. Ars Technica is very good at going over the changes in detail.

Yes.

I installed Big Sur 11.0.1 on my iMac Pro (2017). Now I get preferences errors on everything in my System Preferences.

The process to make a clone is not reliable as of yet.

And, I always make a bootable clone of any major new OS install ("factory fresh" so to speak).

Thanks, I know. I am not about to download another 12 GB - that is what my clones are for.

However, I interpret his message as: Yes, you can make a backup of Big Sur, you just need to make a backup of it and then install the BS installer - see here:

https://bombich.com/blog/2020/11/03/yes-you-can-have-bootable-backups-on-macos-big-sur

I’m sorry to hear of your difficulties, DCO.

Fortunately, most of us have had few if any issues with Big Sur.

Perhaps you’ll make more progress by posting your own question, pertaining to your System Preferences troubles.

One, the latest version of Carbon Copy Cloner does make bootable clones of Big Sur, but that's not the point. Two, the backup should be of the prior macOS version, i.e., Catalina.