Howard Oakley Lists Apple System Updates

Originally published at: Howard Oakley Lists Apple System Updates - TidBITS

Trying to remember when macOS 13.2 came out? Turn to Howard Oakley’s new System Updates page, which lists all macOS updates by version, sorted chronologically and with links to his coverage.

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I’ll probably just stay with Mactracker. It’s always provided what I need and goes a lot further back than four years.

13.2 – 23 Jan 2023, Build 22D49 says Mactracker.

Is that correct?

Mactracker is a fine program which I’ve been using for years. However, it doesn’t even attempt to be as comprehensive as Howard Oakley’s (essentially live) database is in terms of explanations of various system changes, detailed descriptions of what those changes are from version to version, long technical discussions of the ramifications of certain changes, etc. etc.

Hardware configurations and dates of release? -->Mactracker
System software changes and detailed descriptions? -->Oakley’s System Update page.

EveryMac.com or Mactracker are good for hardware specs, dates and supported OS.

Oakley’s new database is probably the first place I would check regarding specific versions and changes for macOS 10.12+. He is a phenomenal resource on the software/OS side who understands a lot about what is happening under the hood and is very good at explaining and illustrating technobabble.

Some of what he is doing with this updates list is to note files that were changed in each update. This may not be useful for everyone, but if you write an app that is dependent on particular modules within macOS, for example, you might need to track changes that could break your work. This can also be useful to the wider user base if features start behaving differently immediately following an update.

It is also handy to have a nice list of dates for each iteration linked to the content of those updates. Something Apple is not always very forthcoming about.

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Too bad it is limited to only recent OS versions.