How to disable Big Sur update

The "crap" software I was referring is any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps.

You can try going back to Catalina or whatever your earlier system was by following this Apple document: Revert your Mac to a previous macOS version - Apple Support 

As Luis has already pointed out CS6 is old, released in 2012. 8 years is a very long time in software years.

If upgrading to current Adobe software is out of the budget give the Affinity apps a try. There are apps for most of Adobe's apps, image editing, design, etc. They are not subscription and reasonable prices, ~$50 each, and can read the Adobe formats.

CS6 is NOT a subscription product: paid once, use forever. There's lots of other programs in a similar vein.

Alas that's not going to cut the ice in the onslaught of avarice; get on that treadmill for pointless updates.

One solution to this is to use some form of virtualisation software. Install whichever MacOS that works with that application software and re-install it on that (virtual) machine. Then you're future proofed... except for the avarice of the VM providers (VMWare, Parallels) who like to charge for 'updates' that in essence are only to run on the new MacOS.

BTW it seems that VMWare have released VMWare Fusion Player for free for Big Sur.

I'm still not going to update to Big Sur for some time yet as the "update" to Catalina was such a dreadful experience; was only build 10.15.6 that saw the endless crashes and graphics driver problems resolved. Big Sur seems to have few compelling reasons for an update (new emoticons...!).

The problem is not about CS6 or how Big Sur can run whatever software everybody runs, the initial question was about the inaptitude of Big Sur to run specific audio interfaces, and we all know a whole panel of the best professional audio plugins won't work either on Big Sur before years. It's a shame that Apple can force people to upgrade, even if they can downgrade later. I bought lately an Apple product with Catalina for the very reason I don't want Big Sur. And before I spend 10 years on OS Lion without any issue. Apple does not have to tell me how I should run my business when it depends on which OS I'm working. They have to provide specific solutions for people who bought their products. Oh wait, there is no problem in the first place, just don't force the update !! Geniuses.....

When the update window pops up I’m literally one click away from ruining my workstation. How is that hard to understand for Apple ? I can’t make it stop to appear, it pops every three days now even if I keep auto-updates off. That’s a very serious user issue, that’s not what I paid for and I don’t want Apple to think for me what I need

Apple should incude an option to run 32 bits apps. Some of REALLY NEED THEM. old or not. Crap Adobes subscription model is very much an absurd ripoff, which does not add anything but a huge bill to my needs.

Yup,. But a vm of osx on osx is a very slow unworkable option, shaky on my laptop. And still, it should be an implementation in any osx when required. Apple has become pushy and lazy. Windows sucks, but apple is trying very hard to overtake them.

The OS has been 64 bit since what... Snow Leopard?

32 bit software belongs in the past.

Supporting all the libraries and frameworks in both 32 and 64 bits is a daunting effort.

Any developer worth its salt should have updated their applications to 64 bit years ago.

There is no reason Apple ought to keep supporting obsolete software.

Anyone wanting to still use old 32 bit software should keep an old mac running an old OS, or use emulation.

It's not about developers. It's not about being laggards. It's about customers who are fed up with non-updates that remove functionality.

It's about being forced to update *all* software just for a minor OS update. This can be exceedingly expensive especially for avaricious companies where the only "upgrade" option is paying an expensive subscription, or loosing an essential utility that simply doesn't exist any longer, or being forced to "upgrade" where that application software is sub-standard.

Again: you are not force to update, just keep using whatever you were using.

You are misrepresenting things:

1) Big Sur is NOT a minor update, it is a new OS

2) Nobody has to replace ALL software because of it (unless one was running a very old OS, in which case Big Sur is even more significant upgrade).

Its not about all software. Its about the total ripoff Adobe is subscribing users, while my older and paid for set of adobe stuff is doing all i need. 900 dollars a year is giving zero extra functionality for my use, so is a waste of money. But like more of these 'developers', (autodesk is another one) they are only interested in shareholder value, not in customers. While shares are a ponsy-scheme, financed with my hard-earned cash. I very much decline to participate.

Besided, virtualising high sierra on catalina (parallels) is a very slow and shaky, almost dysfunctional setup. It runs, just about but usable? No, not really. IMHO apple has let down a group of users by cutting out 32 bit alltogether. Because really: what has the high-sierra upto big sur really offered as improvement? I have not found anything for my use in them all except a growing set of bloatware.

I should have mentioned it's a temporary fix.

Your machine should of course be capable of running Big Sur. No idea what went wrong.

Have you run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", VPN or anti-virus apps on your Mac?

Same thing happened to me. I'm going back to Catalina, tired of watching the color pinwheel every time I try to open MS Office applications, pdf, etc.