The X in OSX is a Triple pun. . . for some a quadruple pun. The original operating system for the Macintosh computers was Apple MacOS and had reached version 9. It was at the end of its rope. Apple was completely dumping MacOS and moving over to an entirely new architecture built on a version of the OS they got by buying Steve Jobs' NeXT computer company. The new designation should have been MacOS version 10, but there would never be a MacOS 10.
Although there was absolutely no relationship between the old operating system and the new. . . Apple had to create a sense of continuity by maintaining the Mac name and a similar enough user interface. How? They incremented the number. . . Once. . . to 10, but made it a Roman Numeral. "X"
To prevent confusion with incompatible software, Apple dropped the MacOS and went with OS X version 1.
It is pronounced OS TEN, not OS EX, as some people think, and I heard some Best Buy sales guy arguing the other day.
The underlying operating system is UNIX, which ends in "X." The 3rd letter in NeXT is "X." And "X" is the unknown in an equation. . . and "X" marks the spot! (Those last two mean absolutely nothing!)
So, the "X" refers to 10, but also refers to the X in UNIX, the X in NeXT, and it implies the power of UNIX so it is doubtful that Apple will move to another number. Apple has already announced OS X.10 Yosemite.
I was kinda disappointed they gave up on the big cats. I was rooting for OSX.9 Smilodon and OSX.10 Sabertooth.
Apple dropped the "Power" line along with the PowerPC processors. . . again to avoid confusion in their customer base.
That's wise because I used to big time until it hit me (I'm a little slow) that it gets me nothing and in the end it's usually always about nothing, aaaannnnddd, it's like an acid in your system that eats away at you inside. So I stopped that B.S. and life is that much better.
We need to meet and have a Freep lunch one of these days.
That would be cool after my crunch time of the next few weeks is over and I see what I've got myself into although somewhere in Sacramento is probably best and we've probably met as the IT world is a small place in a small town. I used to know a guy who did dental offices in '91 so I might know your friend.
The X in OSX is a Triple pun. . . for some a quadruple pun. The original operating system for the Macintosh computers was Apple MacOS and had reached version 9. It was at the end of its rope. Apple was completely dumping MacOS and moving over to an entirely new architecture built on a version of the OS they got by buying Steve Jobs' NeXT computer company. The new designation should have been MacOS version 10, but there would never be a MacOS 10.
So, the one I had was on 9. It was alright and worked well but it didn't blow me away like O/S X or the 95 interface did. I knew it came from NeXT, people try to deride Jobs as a marketing guy and he was one and a brilliant one at that but he knew what he wanted, he may not have ground out the code but it was his vision sparked by Xerox that drove development of the (Lisa) Mac GUI and everything else. I like the story of how he was so mad that the display scratched on an Iphone, that attention to detail is what we used to expect from everyone. Him and Gates, I wonder what would the world be like if one or the other hadn't existed; they drove each other.
I always wanted to get my hands on a NeXT box, didn't they eventually sell the O/S by itself? Although it would probably be sitting next to my Solaris, Xenix and tons of Netware disks, I saw three 6.22 DOS disks the other day, I seem to see them every couple of months and they seem to move on their own.
I wish he had done his macrobiotic diet while also following the Doctor's advice. I've known of a couple people who had the fast version of pancreatic cancer and they are still alive after five years for the longest and she had the slow one.
What do you think will the impact be for Apple, has it been felt already? MS could use Gates, Ballmer just didn't seem to get it. I don't know how much Gates is still involved though. I was working on 7 and 8 side by side for a good friend a week or two ago and the big changes aren't what amuse me, it's the small stuff they changed that makes no sense. Like Office going to the 'Ribbon' interface; I can see change for improvement sake but hiding things or moving them is dumb. I didn't know they'd bought Nokia, and here they were in the Star Trek reboot although it was an alternate universe.
It is pronounced OS TEN, not OS EX, as some people think, and I heard some Best Buy sales guy arguing the other day.
Funny, I thought it was the other way around, I stand corrected although is there anything a Best Buy salesman doesn't know, how could he be wrong?
I like the cat names. Yosemite sounds like an MS pre-release name, before they spend millions on a study and come up with Vista. I'm dealing with an extremely verticle software company and they're tech support is busy guiding people off of XP. Funny, they should just give them the reg hack that makes it think it's server 2003 or the embedded one and still get updates. XP is a perfect example of a name not meaning much when talking about quality although it's supposed to stand for experience or something like it.