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Apple today seeded out the release candidate version of an upcoming macOS Sequoia 15.3 update, and provided there are no underlying bugs discovered, the RC is the version of macOS that will be released to the public in the near future.

macos-sequoia-iphone-mirroring.jpg

With the RC, Apple provided the release notes for macOS Sequoia 15.3, so if you want to know exactly what's coming, here are the details.
This update introduces Genmoji, powered by Apple Intelligence, and also includes other enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates for your Mac.
- Genmoji creation in Messages and other apps
- Calculator repeats the last mathematical operation when you click the equals sign again
- Easily manage settings for notification summaries from the Lock Screen (Mac with Apple silicon)
- Updated style for summarized notifications better distinguishes them from other notifications by using italicized text as well as the glyph (Mac with Apple silicon)
- Notification summaries for News & Entertainment apps are temporarily unavailable, and users who opt-in will see them again when the feature becomes available (Mac with Apple silicon)
Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices.
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit: https://support.apple.com/100100
With the exception of Genmoji, a feature that was already available in iOS and iPadOS, these release notes also pertain to iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3.

We're expecting macOS Sequoia 15.3, iOS 18.3, and iPadOS 18.3 to see a public launch next week.

Article Link: macOS Sequoia 15.3 Launching Soon: Here Are the Release Notes
 
Part of the allure of macOS is that it was built as a UNIX-compliant operating system, which keeps it broadly compatible with a wealth of third-party software.

I fear that Apple has lost sight of that, and is making macOS more proprietary by the year, to a point where it may no longer be UNIX-compliant.

Lets hope that never happens.
 
I will literally pay 499/year, maybe even more, for a "macOS Pro" that removes all the shareholder-pushed consumer BS (No AI, no genmoji, garageband, bloatware Tips, News, and TV apps etc.) and is just rock solid snow leopard 10.6.8 syle constant performance, compatibility, stability updates and nothing else. like basically windows 10 LTSC
 
I guess we who live in the EU will not get the Apple Intelligence with this update as well, because "The Commission" decides we cannot deal with it.
 
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I will literally pay 499/year, maybe even more, for a "macOS Pro" that removes all the shareholder-pushed consumer BS (No AI, no genmoji, garageband, bloatware Tips, News, and TV apps etc.) and is just rock solid snow leopard 10.6.8 syle constant performance, compatibility, stability updates and nothing else. like basically windows 10 LTSC
oh, Snow Leopard... THAT was a great OS.
 
Long story short. Nothing interesting or important. The next iOS and macOS release will look and work the same but there will be more Apple “Intelligence” features that won’t work and the main abillity of it will be to make you sound stupid in your automated e-mails.
 
I read that macOS 15.2 broke backup applications like SuperDuper!—any idea if this fixes it?
If you mean "bootable" backups, yes it did break it, and this will not fix it. I'm a CCC user, and their website says this is disallowed now for security reasons--at least on Apple Silicon. The SSV of the system must be reinstalled from Apple's servers before you migrate from your backup.
 
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Part of the allure of macOS is that it was built as a UNIX-compliant operating system, which keeps it broadly compatible with a wealth of third-party software.

I fear that Apple has lost sight of that, and is making macOS more proprietary by the year, to a point where it may no longer be UNIX-compliant.

Lets hope that never happens.

I agree with your perspective, but am not too worried about the Unix aspect. They've already gotten away from shipping a lot of Unix utilities with it, but only so that people will use the up to date version (it's all free, after all.)

I worry more that it's become clear iOS is what they develop for, and then they port that to everything else. Even worse, the interface is designed for Vision Pro.

So I agree with your sentiment, and more specifically I think the problem is that they have stopped developing features that make sense for each platform as a top priority. The Mac specifically doesn't seem to get a specific focus, it's just another platform for the iOS features and the Vision Pro bubbles.
 
If you mean "bootable" backups, yes it did break it, and this will not fix it. I'm a CCC user, and their website says this is dissallowed now for security reasons--at least on Apple Silicon. The SSV of the system must be reinstalled from Apple's servers before you migrate from your backup.

As a long time Windows admin, I love bootable backups very much.

However, as someone who uses them yourself, I have a question. It seems like the concept of a bootable backup doesn't really apply to macOS anymore, since the system partition is by definition identical across all Macs on that version. So isn't it just the Data partition that needs backing up anymore, anyway?

Windows doesn't work this way so you need a bootable backup, because it's painful to reinstall the OS and get everything back the way it was. It's difficult to impossible to get it exactly as it was. But not so on the Mac, it seems. It seems that an image of just the data partition would do it, and in fact is the only thing that can.

So my question is, do you find that the lack of bootable backups has been an actual problem? Serious question, I honestly don't know.
 
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I guess we who live in the EU will not get the Apple Intelligence with this update as well, because "The Commission" decides we cannot deal with it.
Apple Intelligence is available on macOS 18.2 in Europe. You might have missed the initial question at install/update whether you want to enable it or not. I’m surprised myself, I don’t know why I can’t have it on the phone but it’s fine on the Mac, anyway, go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri and have fun for about 30 minutes before you start sobbing “why? Apple, why?” (especially when you try Image Playground)

What I actually would like to get, the reason why I updated to Sequoia and regretted it since, is Phone Mirroring which we won’t get until April.
 
Am I one of the few with zero interest in Genmoji?

It already looks outdated, and it’s not even out yet... I’ve been trying different image generation combinations with Grok, and I hate to admit it, but the results are stunning—plus, no silly censorship (except for porn, of course).
 
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Am I one of the few with zero interest in Genmoji?
Apple is showing its target audience when those changes are on the TOP of the "news" list for new OS release.
Its not strictly a bad thing, but my opinion is that its less and less Pro oriented OS and more and more consumer oriented one.

For example, almost every day, I need to disable and enable "Local Network" permissions for some apps so they would be apple to browse something on network. But, who needs to fix that, we need more Genmojis.
 
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