I was previously hit by the Thunderbolt Update that made the iMac not bootable, so as a precaution in the future, I may check and see the release dates of all the Software Updates, and if the update is more than 2 to 3 days old, then I will install it — if less than 2 to 3 days old, then I will not install it.
This is because if a software update has any issue, by the 2nd or 3rd day, it will be known and any correction will be made, or the update may be pulled from the update list.
But is there a way to see the release dates on the list? Right now only the version is displayed, such as 3.0.6, but the release date will be more useful.
We can click on the link to see the details on a webpage, but it is time consuming if there are many updates, and sometimes the webpage doesn't show a release date.
Best Answer
If you are running a software update service on OS X Server, you can see when Apple released each update (and also when the server actually downloaded the file). This is also nice as then you can then only mark an update as viable to your machines once you have had a chance to review things.
Also, for a more lightweight solution, you can look at the downloads web site to determine when a particular package was released.