Sierra and M1
I have a MacBook Pro, 2011, with Sierra OS, and cannot go any higher. I want to get the new M1 when it comes out, but will it be compatible with the old for transferring over?
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.12
The new Macs with M1 chips will have the newest OS Big Sur preinstalled.
Big Sur does not run 32bit apps, your older mac probably is running 32bit
apps so you will need to find out if those apps have updates available for
Big Sur versions, use this app, https://www.stclairsoft.com/Go64/
on your old mac it will identify which apps you have that are 32bit,
you can then contact the developer and see if they are offering 64bit updates
that will run on Big Sur.
Big Sur is very new so many developers may not have updated their software yet.
You will also need to check whether any printers, scanners etc you use with your
mac have updated drivers and software that will keep them running on Big Sur.
Any personal data, documents, images, movies etc should all be ok on Big Sur.
But do your research first.