Weekly News Summary for Admins — 2022-01-28

Emails and web pages don’t really have weight, but the news summaries in the weeks with macOS and iOS updates always feel heavier. Lots of links for the macOS Montery 12.2, iOS 15.3 and related updates.

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In addition to the release updates, Apple also published the first beta for macOS 12.3 and iOS 15.4 It looks like these will be the “Spring” updates from Apple, which means they will have more changes and new features than a “normal” update. Aside from some things we have been waiting for since WWDC (Universal Control! New Emojis!), macOS 12.3 will remove Python 2.7.

We’ve been warned about this since the macOS Catalina beta release two-and-a-half years ago. I have written about this before. More than once. Quite a lot, actually. I warned about this at MacSysAdmin in 2018. I am not looking for credit for prescience here. This was not a hard prediction to make.

It is also not a hard prediction, that several installers and tools will still not be prepared and break on macOS 12.3. Start testing now.

Way back then, I wrote a script that will expand pkgs and check the shebangs of the installation scripts. You can use that to search for installers that might break with macOS 12.3. Or, now that we have the beta you can just start testing your deployment workflows there and see what breaks.

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News and Opinion

macOS Monterey 12 and iOS 15

macOS 12.2 and iOS 15.3

macOS Monterey 12.2

iOS 15.3 and iPadOS 15.3

watchOS 8.4

tvOS 15.3

Apps

Support

MacAdmins

MacAdmins on Twitter

  • Paul Haddad: “I just downloaded the print application for my label maker. It’s a DMG with an App inside that prompts for an EULA and ends up displaying a button to download the app from the App Store…. Feels like a few steps could be skipped.”
  • Dana Sibera: “Some of the iconic Apple names didn’t last all that long. Apple used ‘Quadra’ from October 91 to October 95 – suiting the name, a span of 4 years. Just 4 years. ‘Performa’ lasted from September 92 to Jan 1997, 4 years 9 months.” (Fun Thread)

Security and Privacy

Support and HowTos

Scripting and Automation

Updates and Releases

To Listen

Just for Fun

Support

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Published by

ab

Mac Admin, Consultant, and Author