Apple macOS 15 Sequoia is officially UNIX. If anyone cares...
Explainer Apple's latest OS release is the newest member of the Open Group list of officially verified UNIX variants – by quite some margin.
Apple macOS 15 Sequoia appeared in mid-September and is an official, compliant version of UNIX™, but that may not mean exactly what you think. For instance, macOS does not use any AT&T source code – "Unix" stopped meaning that way back in 1993 when Novell bought UNIX from Bell Labs, as we discussed early last year when we announced that Unix is dead.
Shortly after the release of Sequoia, news surfaced regarding some security software breakages followed by the first update, version 15.0.1, earlier this month. The arrival of 15.0.1 was followed by a couple of other events. One is not very significant at all. A day or so later, The Reg FOSS desk's MacBook Air started offering the update.
The other is of a little more significance to the wider world – if only slightly. Sequoia showed up as the newest entry on the Open Group's Register of UNIX® Certified Products. In fact, it has both the number one and two spots because there are separate entries for the Apple Silicon version and the x86-64 version. There's no particular significance to the order, but if Apple continues to pay for the certification, at some point the x86-64 version will fall off the list when Apple stops supporting its Intel-powered kit.
