Sophos Endpoint – Not for macOS Big Sur or Apple Silicon

In June, Apple presented macOS 11 (Big Sur) to the public for the first time. Since then, it has been possible for developers to prepare for the new version. Unfortunately, this time was not quite enough for Sophos.

Today on 12.11.2020 the new OS is available for free for all users. However, if you are using the Sophos Central Endpoint Client, you should not install the update yet, because Sophos endpoint protection will not work afterwards. 🤯

Sophos will soon release a version in the Early Access Program (EAP) that supports the new macOS. The final version should then also be released in December 2020 / January 2021.

Central Device Encryption version 1.5.3 already supports macOS 11, but since it is often installed with Endpoint Protection, you still have to wait.

Sophos and Apple Silicon

Also in June 2020, Apple talked about Apple Silicon for the first time. These are self-developed processors with ARM architecture, which are already used in the iPhone or iPad, for example. These processors are now also to come in all Macs in the next 2 years. It was already known that the first hardware with the new chips would be available at the end of 2020.

Transition kits were distributed in advance so that the developers could already test their software. On 10.11.2020, Apple already presented three new devices that will arrive at the first customers from the end of November.

As Apple fanboys, we naturally also ordered a device.

Apple does not support ARM for Windows at this time. However, this is being worked on. I suspect the ARM Macs will also be supported sooner or later, but nothing is known about it at the moment.

Rosetta 2 (Emulator)

Of course, depending on the software, 5 months is not enough to rewrite the code for a new processor architecture. However, Apple has introduced Rosetta 2 for this.

It is an emulator that is integrated into macOS Big Sur and allows ARM Macs to run Intel applications. Rosetta 2 essentially translates instructions written for Intel processors into instructions that Apple’s Silicon chips understand. Developers don’t have to make any changes to their old applications; they just work.

We will certainly test for you whether this also applies to Sophos products and whether the Central Endpoint Client can be emulated with Rosetta 2 without any problems. 😇