big sur
In Big Sur the window title bar looks too chunky in icon only mode. It looks like the bar was designed for "Icon + Text" but doesn't shrink when you remove the text.
Example:
Icon and Text:
Icon only:
Text only:
Is there a way to shrink the size of the title bar so that it doesn't look so chunky. So it looks more like this:
In terminal, write:
defaults write com.apple.menuextra.clock IsAnalog -bool true
Not what you want but close enough as it makes it a single clock icon
Disable the Automatically keep my Mac up to date check box.
Use the second “more info ...” blue link to get security updates until you are ready to take the invitation to upgrade. It’s listed below the Other Updates text in the middle of the window. If you like the command line you can pick and choose from any or all available update(s) and also suppress them by name.
sudo /usr/sbin/softwareupdate --ignore "macOS Big Sur"
Please read this entire article before trying sudo for the first time, you could delete all your documents and photos with a syntax error or bad copy/paste of a good command. If you use Time Machine, one sudo alone won’t delete your backups.
The article above explains the down side of trying to block Big Sur before it's advertised and the error message you will see in that case. A more invasive solution would be to use an MDM product to block the actual installer. Or compile an app like the following open-source tool which anyone can compile with a free AppleID and free version of Xcode.
Best Answer
good news, the chunky bars problem is being worked on: here's MEMiniMe.
it needs macForge, and it isn't working on mac m1 yet as far as i know, but hopefully ..soon.. we'll have a solution for these horrible fat bars.