Book update: macOS Installation v5

There is a new update to my book “macOS Installation!”

It contains lots of updates regarding Catalina, and the usual list of typos and other fixes.

As usual, the update is free when you already own the book.

If you have already purchased the book, you can go to Apple Books application on your Mac and choose ‘Check for available Downloads…’ from the ‘Store’ menu. I have seen the Mac Books app be really slow (or even completely blind) in picking up updates, you can accelerate the process by removing the local download and re-downloading the book. In iOS tap on your iCloud account icon next to ‘Reading Now’ and then choose ‘Updates.’

If you have not yet purchased the book, I have good news for you: I have lowered the price!

• Get “macOS Installation” on Apple Books!

Why did I lower the price? Let me explain…

This is the fourth update for “macOS Installation.” It might be its last.

When I first published the book in June 2018, I promised updates until the Mojave release. There have now been two updates beyond that: one for the Mojave “Spring” update, and another one for Catalina.

The format of the book had the original intention to help MacAdmins learn about and deal with the strange, new post-imaging world that came with the High Sierra and T2 Security chip. I like to believe it did that quite well. But since then, the releases of Mojave and Catalina have added more layers of complexity and information on top of that.

The post-imaging world isn’t new anymore. It is still strange, complicated, and sometimes hard to navigate. However, I feel that the book’s format would have to change to keep being a useful guide. Obviously, such a re-structuring is a massive effort and would pretty much result in a new book. Maintaining and updating a book is a lot of effort, re-writing it even more so.

Thus the decision that this might be last update for “macOS Installation.” Depending on how disruptive the changes in the Catalina “spring” update will be, I might update for those, but I am not planning to update the book for 10.16 next year.

I might work on some new book on macOS deployment and management in the future. However, I have a few other topics I want to publish before I do that, so that might be a while.

Charles Edge’s and Rich Trouton’s new book should be a great successor to “macOS Installation”:

• Rich Trouton’s and Charles Edge’s “Apple Device Management: A Unified Theory of Managing Macs, iPads, iPhones, and AppleTVs”: pre-order on Amazon US, UK, DE (Affiliate Links)

“macOS Installation” should remain useful for the life time of Catalina, which, depending on your deployment practices should be another one to four years, more if 10.16 and 10.17 do not drastically change everything again.

Readers who bought the book 16 months ago got several updates for free. I believe free updates are one of the great value propositions of self-published digital books. Most computer related information changes quickly these days and being able to update digital books is a great way to extend their lifetime, usefulness, and value.

My plan to not further update for “macOS Installation” thus lowers its value a bit, and to reflect that I am lowering its price in the store.

That said, I am convinced the book is still very helpful and full of useful information as it is, so if you have not bought the book yet, this is your chance!

• Get “macOS Installation” on Apple Books!

Changes in this version (you can also find this in the book in the ‘Version History’ section):

• added “Moving to zsh” to More Books and updated links to new Apple Books format
• extended the explanation on FileVault and the Secure Token
• added Catalina System Volume Layout description
• added instructions to block the macOS Catalina download
• added an explanation for the expiring installer certificates from October 2019
• updated download links for Older macOS Versions
• added notes to NetBoot-based Installation regarding its further demise and the removal of System Image Utility from Catalina
• added information on new softwareupdate features in Catalina to macOS Installer Application
• added a section on new Catalina features
• added a description of new stub Installer application behavior with startosinstall
• added link to new SecureToken documentation
• updated text and tables to reflect the 2019 iMacs
• clarified reboot behavior of Mojave and High Sierra with Custom Packages
• added a list of MDM commands that require DEP
• now using the term ‘conventional’ Macs to refer to non-Secure Boot or pre-T2 Macs
• many typos, minor changes and clarifications