The great Mac OS X Software Update chart

Recently, my friend Rob posed a question to twitter:

Is Mac OS X 10.5.7 the single biggest patch Apple has ever released, or just one of the biggest?

I thought that was an easy question to anwser.

I was wrong.

I looked all over the web for this information, and no one seemed to have it in one place.

So, I present to you: the comprehensive Mac OS X software update chart, current as of May 28, 2009. When the downloads are still available, I’ve linked to them on Apple’s site.

	Delta	Combo	Server	Server Combo
10.5.1	110 MB	—	110 MB	—
10.5.2	337 MB	343 MB	376 MB	382 MB
10.5.3	420 MB	536 MB	489 MB	632 MB
10.5.4	88 MB	561 MB	133 MB	677 MB
10.5.5	316 MB	601 MB	341 MB	729 MB
10.5.6	372 MB	668 MB	469 MB	883 MB
10.5.7	442 MB	729 MB	452 MB	951 MB

Here are all of the Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) updates Apple has released. Leopard updates are all universal (four-way fat: ppc, ppc64, i386 and x86_64).

Answering Rob’s question

There are four different Mac OS X 10.5.7 updates: delta, combo, server and server combo. Each of the updates is the largest in its category.

The 10.5.7 delta update narrowly edges out the 10.5.3 update (by 22 MB). However, the 10.5.7 server update is actually 17 MB smaller than the 10.5.6 server update.

The combo update is 61 MB bigger than its nearest competitor; the server combo is 68 MB larger than its closest rival.

Update	PPC Delta	Combo	Intel Delta	Combo	PPC Server	PPC Server Combo	Universal Server	Universal Server Combo
10.4.1	37 MB	—	—	—	39 MB	—	—	—
10.4.2	44 MB	58 MB	—	—	44 MB	57 MB	—	—
10.4.3	97 MB	109 MB	—	—	118 MB	130 MB	—	—
10.4.4	55 MB	120 MB	—	—	83 MB	166 MB	—	—
10.4.5	16 MB	125 MB	98 MB	—	15 MB	—	—	—
10.4.6	65 MB	140 MB	163 MB	191 MB	92 MB	182 MB	—	—
10.4.7	64 MB	145 MB	133 MB	215 MB	95 MB	192 MB	—	—
10.4.8	31 MB	149 MB	206 MB	294 MB	62 MB	196 MB	202 MB	—
10.4.9	72 MB	163 MB	160 MB	310 MB	127 MB	216 MB	249 MB	—
10.4.10	25 MB	165 MB	72 MB	297 MB	58 MB	218 MB	—	391 MB
10.4.11	67 MB	181 MB	128 MB	322 MB	109 MB	242 MB	137 MB	425 MB

Next, the updates for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). The first four Tiger updates are PowerPC-only; after that, Apple released both PowerPC and Intel updates. Some of the later server updates were universal.

Update	Delta	Combo	Server	Server Combo
10.3.1	1.5 MB	—	1.5 MB	—
10.3.2	36 MB	—	54 MB	—
10.3.3	57 MB	70 MB	69 MB	89 MB
10.3.4	40 MB	79 MB	45 MB	102 MB
10.3.5	43 MB	88 MB	41 MB	107 MB
10.3.6	34 MB	92 MB	42 MB	118 MB
10.3.7	26 MB	97 MB	28 MB	119 MB
10.3.8	27 MB	99 MB	28 MB	125 MB
10.3.9	51 MB	117 MB	63 MB	143 MB

Back in Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), the chart returns to simplicity. All of these updates are PowerPC-only.

Update	Delta	Combo	Server	Server Combo
10.2.1	17 MB	—	1.5 MB	—
10.2.2	23 MB	29 MB	40 MB	45 MB
10.2.3	50 MB	60 MB	59 MB	79 MB
10.2.4	41 MB	74 MB	46 MB	97 MB
10.2.5	38 MB	82 MB	42 MB	103 MB
10.2.6	6 MB	86 MB	6 MB	103 MB
10.2.7	—	—	—	—
10.2.8	40 MB	97 MB	36 MB	158 MB

Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) has one notable exception. Mac OS X 10.2.7 only shipped with some Power Mac G5s and was never available as as standalone software update.

Update	Delta	Combo	Server	Server Combo
10.1.1	14 MB	—		—
10.1.2	29 MB	34 MB
10.1.3	16 MB	38 MB	4 MB
10.1.4	2 MB		2 MB
10.1.5	21 MB	45 MB

Update	Delta	Combo	Server	Server Combo
10.0.1	4 MB	—
10.0.2	15 MB
10.0.3	15 MB
10.0.4	12 MB	19 MB	17 MB

At this point, things get difficult. The charts have some holes in them. I’m not sure if the updates never shipped, or have simply vanished. Searching Apple’s support site and Google failed to turn up any useful links. If you can help fill in the blanks, leave a comment.

Some good resources for Mac OS X update information:

• Apple: Mac OS X build information
• Apple: CPU-specific builds (Intel)
• Apple: CPU-specific builds (PPC)
• The X Lab’s updates page