One of the best tools for Apple technicians and Mac nerds is the Combo Update — a package that Apple makes available for download that can update a system to the latest version of its OS with a single installation. For example, updating from 10.6.1 to 10.6.4 without stopping and saying hello to 10.6.2 or 10.6.3.
These updates can also solve many issues. Since they include all previous updates, they can often jumpstart a Mac that hangs at boot or suffers from frequent application crashes. They are a great step before jumping to the rarely-needed Archive and Install.
I was downloading the 10.6.4 Combo Update to store on my thumb drive, and I realized something. These things have ballooned in size since I was first a Mac Genius, back in the 10.4 days. Please note these file sizes are those of the actual .pkg files, not the .dmgs they come wrapped in.
While it’s not a surprise that 10.5 is much larger than 10.4, since Leopard bundled PPC and Intel code in the same universal package, the fact that 10.6.4 is so big is a little disappointing.