Fifteen years ago today I published the first post on this website. Turned out a bit lucky that the first post still holds up fairly well today, even though there was a somewhat recent update. The second post did not age so well.
I started out the weblog because I was reading a lot of other Mac admins’ web blogs and thought: “I can do that, too.” And it turns out that I could, even though it took quite a few years of infrequent and mostly ignored posts to find my voice, rhythm, and audience.
Turns out, a few things led to a peak in traffic in 2020, mostly some really successful posts and projects, most of which aren’t really relevant any more. (The exceptions are quite exceptional, though.) The first year or two of the pandemic proved as quite the catalyst for blog posts. Google’s ever changing algorithm probably caused some of the decline. (I never really cared about optimizing the site, still don’t.) I also split out the weekly newsletter to a new domain and service. Even though the weekly news summary has more than doubled subscriptions since 2020, that traffic is now missing from Scripting OS X.
In the last two years, I also suspect that traffic is also leaking towards LLMs. Rather than reading a post on a weblog, people prefer to get the pre-digested summary or solution from their favored LLM. This results in far less traffic to all websites.
Nevertheless, I do not consider the website as a failure. I still get plenty of feedback on relevant posts and content. It fills me with immense joy and pride when people come up to me at conferences and meetings to tell me they found something useful for their work and that is all the motivation I need to continue.
In the last few years, my “real” job, which I enjoy very much, has also required its fair share of time and attention and the remaining energy mostly goes towards MacAdmins.news. I plan to continue to write about things that interest me, when I find the time and energy to do so. There are some long term plans and I am very curious to see how they are going to turn out.
Thank you all so much for reading! On to the next fifteen years!
PS: Five years ago, I was hinting that the name of this weblog might change. I have owned (and been paying for) scripting.blog for quite a while now. Never actually pulled the lever, obviously. I feel that domain name is very close to Dave Winer’s scripting.com and I don’t want to even pretend that my small site is in any way comparable. I also have scriptingmacs.com and scriptingmacos.com but I am reluctant to use those, because I have both hope that Apple will allow more powerful automations on their other platforms and some fear that the Mac platform will lose relevance. (Probably not any time soon.)
Even though Apple has changed the name, I am going to stick with “Scripting OS X.” (For now.)
(In another five years, I might need to explain where the name comes from…)
I usually post this collection of links as part of the weekly MacAdmins.news summary, but that is currently on a slower bi-weekly “Summer Camp” schedule. So I am posting this here for a change and will link in the issue next week.
The dot-six updates, as is common are mostly bug fixes and security patches. The enterprise notes have a bit of relevant information, especially for macOS 15.6. (More so than the general “What’s new in” articles.
And with this, we say good-bye to macOS Ventura 13. Barring some terrible security vulnerability, this will be the last update for the macOS release with the poppy. (One of my favorite default desktop pictures.)
“A man is not dead while his name is still spoken.”
Terry Pratchett — Going Postal
As you have probably heard, Charles Edge, prolific writer of books and blog posts, regular conference presenter, and host of the MacAdmins Podcast died unexpectedly last week-end.
This came as a shock, to me and the entire community. My thoughts are with his family, friends, and all the people he worked with in the many endeavors he was a part of.
We crossed paths frequently at conferences and local user group meetings in Los Angeles, on the MacEnterprise mailing list and IRC, and later on Mac Admins Slack. Somehow, Charles was everywhere and did everything. He also continuously motivated and encouraged others to do their “thing” and cheered them along all the way.
He was generous with knowledge, help, and advice, but most of all, with attention. At conferences and meetings, he would often be in a group, not only talking, but also listening and sharing. He loved geeking out, a fact that was demonstrated weekly on the Mac Admins Podcast.
I got invited to the podcast a few times, and even though I always suspected he know far more about… well… anything, he let me talk about my perspective and experience, neither taking the spotlight, nor hiding his enthusiasm, but sharing. It was infectious.
His enthusiasm went so much further than Mac Admin related topics. In my last conversation with him, just a few weeks ago, we talked about managed Apple IDs, Swift, Dungeons and Dragons and 3D printing. A “normal” chat with Charles… It saddens me deeply it was the last.
Reading and hearing all the memories of him, that everybody is sharing online, it is quite stunning how many lives and careers he influenced for the better.
He left a dent. Charles’ name will be spoken for a long time.
The updates for macOS 12.4, iOS 15.5 and all the siblings dropped yesterday. Usually I would gather a list of links for these updates in the news summary on Friday, but since I will be on a vacation break and they will seem stale in two weeks, you will get them now. Enjoy!
Update 2022-05-19: added Apple Business and School Manager User Guides.
Mac OS X 10.0 was released March 24, 2001. Twenty years ago today.
The PowerBook, iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch are obviously big steps along the way from Apple as a ‘beleagured,’ minor computer maker with an uncertain future to the $2 trillion tera-corp they are today. It is easy to focus on the hardware. But Mac OS X was at least as important.
Back then, it was essential that Apple move forward from ‘classic’ Mac OS. Protected memory, multi-user setups, and support for multiple applications running safely side-by-side were the main advantages of Mac OS X over Mac OS 9. But Mac OS X also brought with it the Unix core (and shell), a new display technology, and the Cocoa frameworks.
The transition was rough for the existing Mac users. The early versions were not as complete and stable as one would have hoped. The processing requirements of early Mac OS X pushed existing Mac hardware to their limits. Many application vendors dragged their feet adopting Mac OS X and the new technologies and features available.
But Mac OS X made the Mac interesting for a whole new group of people. It was the only platform at then time that they had Microsoft and Adobe productivity app as well as the Unix shell and tools available. This was a huge bonus for web designers and developers, but also for scientists.
Apple built some of the best laptops of the time. It might seem strange now, but having a portable, battery-powered Unix workstation, which also ran Word, Excel, Photoshop, and could edit videos, was un-imaginable just a few years before.
Then, Apple stripped down Mac OS X, so it could run on on a phone. Up until then, portable devices had very basic and minimal operating systems. They were also locked down and installing additional software was complicated and often expensive.
The early versions of iPhone OS were also basic and minimal compared to Mac OS X, but they held the promise of extension and growth. The iPhone had potential and Apple delivered on that promise with every system update. They treated the iPhone as a computer, rather than a gadget. It took a few years, but with the iPhone, people went from having one computer, to two computers: one in your pocket and one on your desk or in your bag.
Today, Apple has a range of operating systems from the watch on your wrist to the large screen in your living room, all going back to Mac OS X 10.0 twenty years ago. macOS is just one element in this ecology of devices. We don’t just have one computer, we have many. A spectrum of computers, most of them wireless and battery-powered, each with different strengths. These computers might all be from Apple, or from a variety of vendors.
Sometimes it seems that Apple has lost sight of what makes Macs an important tool. With Apple silicon for Macs, it seems that Apple is re-focusing on the Mac and seeing how they can improve macOS, while also improving the eco-system as a whole.
“macOS 11” holds a promise for continued and even re-newed growth. Like the first “Mac OS X” twenty years ago, and the first iPhone OS, there is potential.
