A Pretty Great Mac Admin Geek Moment

I recently had one of those moments that may seem small to some people but means a lot when you have spent years working in the Mac admin community.

I have participated in the Six Colors Apple in the Enterprise Report Card for several years, but this was the first time one of my comments was selected for the published report.

Seeing my name and experience included alongside so many people I respect was a pretty great geek moment.

My comment appeared in the section about upgrade enforcement:

Upgrade enforcement issues

“OS upgrades still need improvements — there is still no way to force updates when users are able to cancel updates, even if they are past their due dates. Users are still able to go around these updates by simply leaving software open.”

Gabriel Marcelino

This quote describes a struggle many Mac admins know well: keeping an environment compliant when installing an update depends on the user eventually allowing their Mac to restart.

Sometimes we want computers to update overnight, but the process is blocked because someone left Zoom or another application open. I have even encountered cases where my own policies were running caffeinate. I eventually added timers to those scripts, but that is not really the larger point.

The point is that “deadline” should mean deadline.

By that stage, the user may have received six, seven, or eight notifications. They may also have seen a full-screen warning explaining that the update is required and that they need to save their work.

Once the deadline arrives, the Mac is already beyond the organization’s compliance requirements. Administrators need a dependable way to say: the deadline has passed, the update will now run, and the computer will restart.

Users should always receive clear warnings and enough time to save their work. However, after those warnings and the final deadline, Apple should provide administrators with an enforcement mechanism that cannot be delayed indefinitely by an open application.

I have wanted to start a blog for some time, but I kept hesitating. I was not sure what I wanted to write about or where I should begin. Seeing my quote in the Six Colors report gave me the answer.

This felt like the right first post.

I do not consider myself a writer or an industry commentator. Most of my time is spent doing the work: managing Apple devices, solving Jamf problems, building automation, and supporting users. This blog will give me a place to share those experiences, highlight interesting work from the Mac admin community, and write about the tools and ideas that catch my attention.

Being included in the Six Colors report reminded me that practical experience from those of us working directly with these systems is valuable and worth sharing.

Thanks to Jason Snell for including my perspective, and to Dan Moren and the rest of Six Colors for their work. It was a great Mac admin geek moment and the push I needed to finally start writing.

Read the 2026 Apple in the Enterprise Report Card on Six Colors.