With the next scheduled update to macOS Sequoia likely to be released in September or October, macOS 15.6 officially marks the end of its year-long cycle of full support. This article looks at its updates and how it has changed.

Updates

It took Sequoia a total of 11 updates to reach version 15.6 at the end of July, including five unscheduled patch updates, which is close to average. Prominent through those updates has been the number of security vulnerabilities addressed, peaking at 81 in 15.6.

In terms of cumulative size of updates, Sequoia was close to average at a total of 27.5 GB for Apple silicon Macs and 19.3 GB for Intel models. Although not as bad as Big Sur which took over 50 GB for Apple silicon Macs, it wasn’t as good as Sonoma at just over 21 GB. Update size was relatively small up to 15.3, but added over 9 GB in the three updates it took to reach 15.4. Apple doesn’t appear to have made progress in reducing the size of updates for Apple silicon Macs, and that may not be achieved until macOS 27 next year, when Intel support is finally dropped.

Bundled apps

The total number of bundled apps has increased slightly, from 60 in Sonoma to 62 in 15.0, and 64 in 15.6. That’s set to rise again in Tahoe, with the addition of Journal and Phone.

/System/Library

The total number of bundles in /System/Library has risen further to reach 9,304, almost double the number in 10.14.5 six years ago, and up from 8,392 a year ago in 14.6. Unusually, this has risen by nearly 300 through Sequoia’s cycle. Previously it has been more common for only small rises to occur during a cycle, and in macOS 13 the total fell slightly.

Over that period, the main growth has been in the number of Private Frameworks, which have risen from about 1,760 in 10.14 to over 4,400 in 15.6. Public Frameworks have risen less, from less than 520 to 806. Despite Apple’s campaign for third-parties to move away from kernel extensions, those in macOS also continue to grow, rising from a minimum of 515 in 10.15.0 to 939 in 15.6. Sequoia has added 39 of those in going from 15.0 to 15.6.

This is a more detailed breakdown by category of bundles in /System/Library, comparing 10.15.6 with 15.6:

• Accessibility, a small increase from 125 to 161
• Automator, a small reduction from 266 to 252
• Templates, a marked reduction from 383 to 252
• CoreServices, a small reduction from 390 to 363
• AssetsV2, a substantial growth from 188 to 806
• Public Frameworks, a modest increase from 600 to 806
• Kernel extensions, a substantial increase from 534 to 939
• Private Frameworks, a huge increase from 2,055 to 4,407.

Five years ago in 10.15.6, public Frameworks were almost a quarter of all Frameworks. In 15.6, they are less than 18%. macOS continues to become an increasingly private operating system supporting Apple’s apps, not those of third party developers.

我好久都没睡好了，值得记录一下。

从半年前手术开始，接连着出差、二次手术、年前的忙、过年的烦、年后的忙，一直到前几天的连续熬夜和通宵工作，我真的很长一段时间里都没有这么深的睡眠了。

前几天为了最后出方案，熬了两个通宵，公司内部的野心和追求都令我感到很失望，复杂的情绪交融在一起，非常难过。但最后还是用我的方式，引导大家选择了我想要的那个。尽管看上去我在力推另一个方案，但是人呐，对于自己没有概念的事情，靠嘴说是没有用的，对于他们来说，打出高中低来，选中间的，是他们能理解的方式。更好的那个，谈不上多超前，仅仅只是不值得而已。算了，以后总会有机会。

昨晚九点半，终于把所有设计文件、模型和工艺文件、USDZ 文件分别发送到了各个下一环节手中。接下来，不用我熬夜，轮到我监督他们干活交东西了。算是阶段性的胜利吧。

心情一好，我就看了半部《无间道3》。

前段时间跟筱烨一起看《无限超越班》，心里的戏瘾就痒痒，但是现在没有机会上舞台了，就上 Netflix 找了无间道三部曲开始看。之前分两周陆续看完了前两部，昨晚难得松懈一下，一口气看了半部三。

为了帮我补熬夜的气血，筱烨给我买了两次西洋参。第一盒前几天喝完了，前天又到了一盒，昨晚睡前温热地喝了一杯。

大概是工作的疲惫 + 阶段胜利的松懈 + 看电影的愉悦 + 西洋参补的气，一起让我睡了一顿好觉吧？