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As bash is so broadly available, it provides a good compatibility layer for users that come from other Posix systems to use macOS. Why the move to zsh as the default shell, and why the extensive deprecation warning, as bash itself was deprecated?

Tony Williams
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Gerardo Lima
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    A similar question has come up before, the link is now in the blue box on top of your question. Please be aware that questions about why Apple does or doesn't do things are off-topic. – nohillside Jun 20 '20 at 09:06
  • One theory to answer your question may be found in this related Q&A. As a practical matter, there's nothing you can do about Apple's practices and decisions - you learn to deal with them, and when you can't you have another decision to make. In my case MacPorts has provided some relief from their MO. – Seamus Jun 20 '20 at 19:48
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    This is a different question with a different answer. The reason Apple is switching has nothing to do with technical differences between the two shells. Apple switched because of the difference in licensing. When bash switched to the latest Gnu license Apple could no longer keep bash up to date. zsh uses the more open MIT license and Apple can ship the latest version. The deprecation of bash is because the version Apple ships is increasingly out of date and in fact security updates are no longer maintained for the last version Apple can ship. – Tony Williams Jun 21 '20 at 06:38
  • @TonyWilliams Is there any trustworthy source for this? The question has come up again and again, and we all „assume“ that it is related to GPL issues, but is there any clear statement from Apple which would turn this assumption into a fact? – nohillside Jun 21 '20 at 08:40
  • @nohillside Well, I had an Apple engineer tell me that was the reason during a discussion around OS security. – Tony Williams Jun 21 '20 at 10:59

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