Anther week, another beta release. Apple has released the sixth beta for macOS 11.3 (20E5224a), iOS 14.5, and siblings.
Apple has also announced the dates for WWDC 2021. It will take place June 7–11 “to a screen near you.” I have updated the conference overview on Scripting OS X. So, we have two months left before we enter the next major beta cycle. But, did we ever leave the Big Sur beta cycle?
To support the weekly news summary, please consider:
macOS Terminal and Shell:
You have always wanted to ‘learn Terminal,‘ right? This book teaches how (and why) to use the command line on macOS. Get it on Apple Books!
📰News and Opinion
🐦MacAdmins on Twitter
- Nathaniel Strauss: “We’re 4 months into Big Sur. If your product still doesn’t have support you’ve missed 1/3 of the OS cycle. You’re not behind, you’re slipping into irrelevant.”
- Edward Marczak: “Big thanks to everyone in the #macadmin community releasing open source solutions. So much thought and care goes into this work that’s not only needed to fill gaps, but also every bit as good as commercial products. Thank you also for sharing documentation and good example code.”
- James Turner: “Running a mixed fleet I am confident saying that the value in the community and open source solutions available for #macadmin is immeasurable.”
- Nathaniel Strauss: “First time a DMG has advertised at me. @ReflectorApp Hey, consider not doing this. There are admins out there using your Sparkle feed for automation. Pretty sure that’s not a valid version string.” (Image)
🔐Security and Privacy
- Ubiquiti Breach “Catastrophic” – Krebs on Security
- Zero click vulnerability in Apple’s macOS Mail – Mikko Kenttälä
🔨Support and HowTos
- Adobe installers, Munki and Error 82 – Darren Wallace
- Handling major upgrades and minor updates for macOS with Jamf – Babo D
- Making sharding work with Munki catalogs in mind – Alan Siu
🤖Scripting and Automation
- 0xmachos/c0design: Wrapper for codesign, spctl, stapler & pkgutil
🍏Apple Support
♻️Updates and Releases
- NetNewsWire 6.0 for Mac (and 6.0.1)
- MDS 4 Preview: Auto Advance in Big Sur – Twocanoes Software
- Munki 5.3 Official Release
- Osquery 4.7.0 Inventory Improvements – Kolide Changelog
- TripMode is now on the Mac App Store. Get it today – David Dudok de Wit, TripMode (I don’t use TripMode myself, though it does look useful. I think this is interesting because converting from a Kernle Extension to a Network Extension now allows them to be in the Mac App Store.)
- Apple Developer 9.0.1
📺To Watch
- Second presentation at the Texas Apple Admins Virtual Meetup – Graham R Pugh
- Nudge Swift – Texas macadmins presentation – Erik Gomez
🎧To Listen
- The Secret Life of Chuck Goolsbee – Mac Admins Podcast
- Interview With Armin Briegel Author of “macOS Terminal and Shell” — Command-Control-Power
- Tracking the Trackers – MacDevOpsYVR
- Zero-Touch deployment and why it’s a key part of IT security – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac
- Why you need to trust your VPN: Lock and Code S02E05 – Malwarebytes Labs
🎈Just for Fun
📚 Support
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