It makes a big difference whether an app, file or folder is in the System or Data volume, or maybe somewhere else. Here’s how to tell accurately, rather than according to one of the Finder’s illusions.
SSV
In a quest to reduce the number of processes running in macOS Tahoe, consider the example of Time Machine backups, which can easily be replaced by 3rd party alternatives.
Analyses of numbers of bundles in the /System folder and significant folders within that, for macOS 10.14.5 Mojave to 26.2 Tahoe. These show how private macOS has become.
Some who updated to 26.2 reported their downloads were over 10 GB in size, rather than the expected 3.78 GB for Apple silicon Macs. Why was that, and why didn’t Apple release an earlier BSI?
How to check secure boot, SIP, Gatekeeper/XProtect, its SSV, FileVault, macOS and its firmware, and XProtect Remediator scans.
A mystery volume mounts from nowhere, and its name starts with Creedence. This is a cryptex, also favoured in Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. Is it a ghost of the past, or harbinger of the future?
There are substantial differences in the structure of the internal disks in macOS, iPadOS and iOS, as shown here. And there are at least 24 cryptexes now used to support AI.
Working with external bootable disks: how to create and add them, ownership and LocalPolicy, how that can be changed, and what happens with errors and failure.
How the number of bundles in /System/Library has risen from Mojave to Sequoia, and why the last 5 years have been so different from the previous 20.
How the immutable system of the SSV, the firmlinked Data volume, and cryptexes ‘grafted’ into the directory tree combine to form the boot volume group of Intel and Apple silicon Macs running macOS 15.
The Eclectic Light Company 