This week finally brought the release of macOS Big Sur 11.2. Lots of interesting information, as usual gathered together by Mr. Macintosh and Howard Oakley.
In other news, I am nearly done with the new book “macOS Terminal and Shell.” The publication date has been set to February 12, 2021. (next Friday) You can pre-order now and get the benefit of the introductory pricing: US$/€17.99 (10% off). The introductory price is valid until Feb 15, after which it will rise to US$/€19.99.
- NEW: macOS Terminal and Shell on Apple Books
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News and Opinion
macOS 11 Big Sur and Apple silicon Macs
- That’s Big SIR to You! (SuperDuper and Big Sure) – Dave Nania
- Managing Network Settings on macOS Big Sur and MAC Address Randomization in iOS 14 – Kandji Blog
macOS and iOS Updates
- What’s new in the updates for macOS Big Sur 11.2
- What’s new for enterprise in macOS Big Sur
- macOS Big Sur 11.2 Developer Release Notes
- About the security content of macOS Big Sur 11.2, Security Update 2021-001 Catalina, Security Update 2021-001 Mojave
- macOS 11.2 – Source (very fast turnaround to open source)
- Apple has released Big Sur update to version 11.2 and Security Updates for 10.14 and 10.15 – Howard Oakley
- What’s changed in Big Sur 11.2? – Howard Oakley
- macOS Big Sur 11.2 Update (20D64) is Live! What’s New? – Mr. Macintosh
- Apple Silicon M1 Full macOS Restore IPSW Firmware Files Database (updated for 11.2)
- iOS 14.5 Beta 1 Allows Your Apple Watch to Unlock Your iPhone if You’re Wearing a Mask – John Gruber
MacAdmins on Twitter
- That Tim Guy: “Just stumbled on this one: CMD+Shift+\ Exposé within a multi-tab finder window.” (works in most apps that use tabs)
- Mike Lynn: “So on this particular issue: Resolves an issue where Mac computers managed by MDM were sometimes unable to retrieve software updates using System Preferences. It’s hard to do managed OS updates when the update mechanism itself is the one having the issue.” (Thread)
- Nick Zolotko: “FYI
launchctl kickstart -k system/com.applesoftwareupdatedworks as well for a nice one liner!” - Jason Broccardo: “10.14.6 + Sec Update 2021-001: 18G8012, 10.5.7 + Sec Update 2021-001: 19H512, 11.2: 20D64”
- Apple removes obstacle to security in Big Sur – Matthias Wollnik, Jamf Blog
Bugs and Security
- Recent root-giving Sudo bug also impacts macOS – Catalin Cimpanu, ZDNet
- Rich Trouton: “#macadmins, if you haven’t already, now is the time to ask your Apple SE about CVE-2021-3156: If you’re not sure how to start the conversation, please feel free to use this as a starter: (Image)”
Support and HowTos
- Quickly Create Groups of a Certain Number of Devices in Jamf Pro– Guillaume Gète
- PostScript Type 1 fonts end of support – Adobe Support (via Patrick Fergus)
- Photoshop to end of support for PostScript Type 1 fonts in the year 2021 – Adobe Support (via Patrick Fergus)
- Unloading Santa’s system extension when uninstalling using Munki – Alan Siu
- Why your laptop Mac may not be recharging – Howard Oakley
Scripting and Automation
- 11.0.1_11.1_Update_Script.sh · kandji-inc
- LAMBDA: The ultimate Excel worksheet function – Andy Gordon, Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research
Updates and Releases
- GitHub: “See your contribution graph right on your iOS homescreen. With the latest version of GitHub for mobile, we’ve added a widget that will show your contribution history, updated in real-time.” (Note sure I like GitHub contribution “bragging” but it sure makes a pretty widget.)
To Listen
- NoMAD 2 – Mac Admins Podcast
- Geeks On The Half Shell — Command-Control-Power
- Chatting with Chat Bots – MacDevOpsYVR
- How COVID-19 has forced us to rethink technology in education – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac
Support
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