macOS Ventura Day One

macOS Ventura is here!

Ready or not! The day we have been preparing for is finally here!

For the last five months we have been testing, preparing, and testing again. Now, eleven Betas and two Release Candidates later, we have arrived.

For many though, Ventura is coming whether they want it or not.

For years we have been accustomed to getting an “Install OS Name.app” being downloaded to /Applications and then starting the update from that location.

With macOS Monterey to Ventura that is no longer the case. Starting with macOS Monterey 12.3 and higher, Ventura shows up as essentially a “minor update.” It installs via the normal Software Update process, not launching the usual osupdate process.

This has made it difficult for Mac Admins in Enterprise to reliably block. The usual methods in our toolkit- Software Deferrals and Process Restrictions or Blocks- no longer work reliably.

Apple has been able to make a change on their Software Update servers that will at least buy some time for certain types of devices. But for the rest, this will be a quick upgrade cycle.

Today will be an exciting day in many organizations. For the ones that are supporting it on day one, there will be the usual surprises. It doesn’t matter how much you test; eventually, when it gets out into the wild you can be sure there is going to be that one critical app that no one could ever imagine would be incompatible. But it is.

So, Fail Fast and Fail Forward. See this opportunity to learn and adapt, not block and rollback.

And most of all, if you are an Engineer, take a moment to celebrate another macOS Release!

–G.G

• macOS
• Ventura