Apple's website hints 'OS X' to be rebranded as 'MacOS'

AppleInsider ^ | Thursday, April 14, 2016, 04:38 pm PT (07:38 pm ET) | By Roger Fingas

[Swordmaker]

Adding to the evidence that Apple is intending to change the name of OS X, the company on Thursday posted an updated webpage referring to the software as "MacOS" instead.

The term can be found on an FAQ page within Apple's Environment subsite, specifically in a section about greenhouse gases and product lifecycles. The text is the only direct reference to either Macs or OS X in the FAQ — notably, the rest of Apple's website still appears to insist on using "OS X."

In late March it was discovered that one framework in OS X 10.11.4 refers to "macOS." Employing the term in a public-facing webpage more strongly suggests this wasn't a fluke. The change was spotted by 9to5Mac earlier today.

Switching to MacOS/macOS would align the platform's branding with Apple's other operating systems: iOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Intentionally or not, it would also be a throwback to the earlier days of the Mac between 1984 and 2001.

Apple is mostly likely to announce any name change at its Worldwide Developer Conference in early June, and launch a new Mac operating system later in the year.

[Swordmaker]

Apple's website has several instances that seem to hint Apple will be changing the name of the Mac's operating system from OS X to MacOS sometime soon, most likely at the World Wide Developers' Conference. — PING!

Apple OS X to become
Apple MacOS Again?
Ping!

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[Fai Mao]

I guess that is better than calling it OS-XP

[Swordmaker]

guess that is better than calling it OS-XP

Now that is funny.

[Flick Lives]

I guess that is better than calling it OS-XP

... and way better than calling it OS-Bob

[Fresh Wind]

I wonder what Malcolm X would have to say?

[hoosierham]

MacOS is actually more descriptive. And MacOS 10 is in keeping with long years of MacOS 6 to MacOS 9.

FYI:I was a charter subscriber to MacAddict magazine ,which I found the most useful Mac publication in its time. Also first got on the internet with a Mac IIci running Netscape in 1997!If not for the constant push of forced upgrades I’d still be using it.

[dayglored]

Well, good. This will allow Apple to move away from OS releases 10.n and get to releases 11.n if they choose.

Maintaining the "OS X" name forced them to stay with release 10.n way too long. Letter "X" stopped being cool many years ago (OS X, XP, XBox, Xwhatever).

Dayglored predicts "MacOS 11.0" within a year.

And BTW, whatever happened to the idea that the Mac and the iDevices would be running the same OS? Granted they're from a similar codebase under the hood, but did the merging into "One OS To Rule Them All" concept sort of go away?

[The KG9 Kid]

I’d like to see a throwback Susan Kare-influenced Aqua UI.

[itsahoot]

Also first got on the internet with a Mac IIci running Netscape in 1997!

Some of us older Apple users first got on line with Genie using an Apple II or II GS. I can remember when Other World Computing was an 1/2 inch add in A+ magazine. }:-)

[itsahoot]

I’d like to see a throwback Susan Kare-influenced Aqua UI.

Me too.

I have a Mac Mini G4 running OS X with Classic installed/ Have HyperCard and Appleworks 5 for a real nostalgia.

How many remember the Beagle Brothers that made so many add ons for AppleWorks that they actually made it useful.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Dayglored predicts "MacOS 11.0" within a year.

That certainly would be consistent with the article:

Apple is mostly likely to announce any name change at its Worldwide Developer Conference in early June, and launch a new Mac operating system later in the year.

. . . but after fifteen years of 10.x it will certainly be interesting to learn what Apple would consider enough of a paradigm shift to justify switching from 10.x to 11.0.

If they are going to make that switch for what is for them a nominal refresh like going from, say, OS 10.5 to OS 10.6, you might wonder about their retroactively renaming past 10.x releases to MacOS 11, 12, and so on. And naming the next release MacOS 20.0, perhaps.

Hey, Microsoft skipped Win 9.0 . . .

[roadcat]

Some of us older Apple users first got on line with Genie using an Apple II or II GS.

The good old days. I was using a 300 Baud modem with my Apple II accessing CompuServe forums. Going 1200 Baud was a big improvement, watching text letters paint across the screen at light speed! I was a beta user of Prodigy. Dialup was fun!

[SunkenCiv]

Must be time for Eleven.

[TheBattman]

All things old become new again?

[ReignOfError]

And BTW, whatever happened to the idea that the Mac and the iDevices would be running the same OS? Granted they're from a similar codebase under the hood, but did the merging into "One OS To Rule Them All" concept sort of go away?

I think the idea was to move the devices toward each other, but not all the way to the convergence point. Windows 8 is a prime example of what happens when you try to force a touch interface onto a keyboard-and-pointer operating system. It was nigh-unusable until 8.1 made it merely awful.

If they do converge to a single OS, I'd expect it to work a lot like -- and bear with me on this -- Windows 10. I have it on my desktop at work and on a Boot Camp partition on my Macbook Pro, and it's by far the most Maclike Windows to date. When you're using it as a desktop OS, the touch stuff stays nicely out of the way. You can run tablet apps on a desktop or vise versa if you must, but they don't force it.

There are some iOS apps I'd like to run in a window on my Mac, kind of like Dashboard widgets (which I thought were a nifty idea when they were first introduced, but I haven't used in years. I just pick up my phone.)

[ReignOfError]

I have the ad written already.

"This one goes to eleven."